It is NOT hard to make excellent Caesar Salad! The big secrets to making it “pop” are anchovies, good fresh crisp romaine, and properly emulsified dressing. The other ingredients are important too… but those three are where most people take shortcuts that make the result fall short.
A great accompaniment to a special meal. Or it can be a meal in itself!
For those who like meat on a Caesar (I don't), feel free to use wild meat - provided it is tender. Braised gamebird thigh for instance.
For those who like meat on a Caesar (I don't), feel free to use wild meat - provided it is tender. Braised gamebird thigh for instance.
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side salads, or half that many as main dish.
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Ingredients
Salad
- 1 large head FRESH romaine lettuce — substitute 2 hearts if full heads unavailable.
- 1 tsp paprika — this is more for color than taste, but smoked paprika might be interesting
- 3 cups seasoned croutons — Homemade will get you extra points, especially if you use sourdough bread. But honestly, storebought croutons are pretty good.
- To Taste Tabasco — Go easy if you prefer, but don't completely skip it. Substitutions OK if they are vinegary type.
- To Taste fresh ground black pepper
- To taste salt
- Optional block Parmesan — Shave on top after plating. Makes a nice presentation, but ok to skip.
- 1 lb optional meat — 1 lb tender sliced wild meat. Nothing too chewy.
Dressing
- 2 egg yolks — Raw eggs are vaguely risky - pasteurized eggs are safe. Hard to find but make your own: Sous vide au-naturel (no bag) 135F for 115 minutes then ice/water bath for 20 minutes.
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 8 filets anchovy packed in oil — Those funny looking little cans near the canned tuna. Drained. It will NOT make your salad taste fishy - trust me. This is a key ingredient, DO NOT skip it.
- 2 cloves garlic — half that for the faint of heart, double for those who really appreciate garlic. I double it.
- 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice. — Remove seeds. 1 lemon should do it. Reserve extra juice for "to taste" adjustment at end.
- 1 zest from whole lemon — What? You don't have a zester? Suck it up and buy one. Throwing away un-zested citrus is a sin.
- 1/2 cup grated dried parmesan — Reserve half for the tossing step.
- 1/8 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
Ingredients
Salad
Dressing
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Instructions
Dressing
- Combine yolks, mustard, anchovies, garlic (chopped a bit first), Worcestershire, lemon juice and zest, and half the parmesan in a container that just fits the head of an immersion blender, or in the bottom of the mini-chopper attachment of a food processor.
- With blender running, slowly drizzle in first olive oil then vegetable oil to form a smooth emulsion. Most food processors have a little hole in the lid specifically designed to slowly drizzle oil into the mix for perfect emulsification.
- Transfer mixture to a small bowl and hand whisk in the olive oil.
- Season to taste with salt & fresh ground black pepper.
- Move to fridge. A few hours or even a day ahead is fine.
Salad
- Discard bruised or damaged external leaves then separate and rinse leaves. Soaking in chilled water a few minutes can help them be super crisp, but you can't resurrect wilted romaine. Blot dry, roll up in paper towels and stage in the fridge about an hour.
The remaining steps go quickly and should be performed just before serving. Caesar Salad does not "rest" well once the dressing is added. - Extra points for using a large wooden bowl, wiping the interior with cut garlic cloves first.
- Tear the romaine into the bowl by hand. Or slice/chop by knife if in a big hurry. Whichever, first remove most of the base/rib which can be quite tough.
- Pour dressing over the romaine and toss.
- Add paprika and remaining parmesan. Toss well.
- To taste, add coarse grind black pepper, a few dashes of tabasco, salt and lemon juice. Quick Toss.
- Add croutons, Quick toss,
- Add optional meat. Some prefer it warm, some chilled. Either toss into the salad, arrange on top of plated salad, or serve on the side if any of your guests prefer no meat.
- Optional: Shave some solid parmesan on top. You don't really need more parmesan flavor but it looks fancy as hell.
- If you have anchovy filets left over, offer them on the side for those who like that sort of thing. None for me, thanks.
- Serve immediately. Have a pepper grinder and a bottle of white wine close at hand. A nice chilled German spätlese riesling hits the spot.
Recipe Notes
View online at KillerNoms.com/caesar
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