Lennie's Tarragon Orange Salad

Description
This lovely salad has a distinctive flavour due to the tarragon, which also adds a touch of sweetness along with the sugar and the oranges. It looks terrific in the bowl and tastes even better. This salad is based on one served at the Magic Pan restaurants here in Toronto back in the 1970s; the recipe was published in the local paper ages ago and I modified it a bit to more suit my tastes. The Magic Pan is now gone but its memory lives on with this delicious salad!

Ingredients

 * 4 tablespoons sugar
 * 2 teaspoons sugar
 * 1 dash Tabasco sauce
 * 1/2 teaspoon dijon-style mustard
 * 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
 * 2 egg yolks
 * 1 dash black pepper
 * 2/3 cup tarragon vinegar
 * 3/4 cup canola oil
 * 3/4 cup olive oil
 * 1 head romaine lettuce, washed and dried
 * 2 green onions, sliced
 * 1/4 cup almonds, slivered or flaked, toasted
 * 1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges in juice, drained

Directions

 * 1) First, make salad dressing; you can do this in advance.
 * 2) Combine sugar, tarragon, tabasco, pepper, egg yolks and mustard in food processor.
 * 3) With machine running, gradually add vinegar.
 * 4) Then, with machine still running, add oils in a thin stream.
 * 5) Process until well blended and creamy; taste and add salt if desired.
 * 6) Keep refrigerated.
 * 7) Should be enough dressing to make two or three salads; remember this when looking at nutritional analysis of this recipe.
 * 8) To make salad, tear cleaned romaine into bite sized pieces; place in large salad bowl along with sliced green onions.
 * 9) Toast almonds (I prefer flaked) and set aside until cool.
 * 10) Drain oranges well and place half in with lettuce and onions.
 * 11) Toss well with dressing (about 1/3 of the Salad Dressing recipe, or to your taste).
 * 12) Sprinkle top of salad with remaining oranges and the toasted almonds; serve.
 * 13) Leftover dressing keeps well in the fridge for about a week.