Recipe: Caesar Salad

I’m going to have Caesar salad with the leftover grilled salmon from the night before:

First are the croûtons that are easy to make and I keep them simple. Take some French bread, stale-ish or not (I’ve done it with fresh), and cut it into cubes, not so huge. The best bread I’ve probably ever found was Semolina. What a bread! Fragrant and fresh from Cangianos ovens–my local Italian shop–and positively succulent! It’s richer then regular Italian and slightly denser. It is the palest yellow, moist on the inside and thickly crunchy on the outside. I like it with sesame seeds. AND it made good croûtons! I just cube some; toss it with some good olive oil, a couple of teaspoons worth for a half a loaf, then onto a cookie sheet. I bake at around 325 or so, and watch them, till they are nice and golden brown. Done! Finally I had found the PERFECT Caesar salad dressing recipe and had been making it for the last month or so. It was just right. I’d found it in the free newspaper, AM New York, that I got everyday outside of Penn station. It was from the “21” Club, and I changed it around a little:

1 tsp garlic, minced
2 egg yolks
3 tbsp Dijon
¼ cup of fresh lemon juice
1 ½ tbsp Worcestershire
1 cup virgin olive oil
2 anchovy fillets, chopped
1 tsp Tabasco
Kosher salt to taste (I always taste before adding salt as the anchovies are salty. And the cheese too)
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1 cup parmesan cheese
2 heads Romaine into 1 inch pieces (I always tear mine and only use one head of lettuce saving the leftover dressing for later.))
1 cup of croutons

Mash the garlic in a wooden blow (I used the bowl I had gotten from my parents when we lived in Micronesia, it was out of palm, worn and beautiful, and I sometimes thought of Chuuk when I used it)Add the egg yolks, the mustard, lemon juice and Worcestershire. Whisk well and slowly add the oil, whisking as you go (It’s easy to see the oil when and when it is not incorporated–it’s not an emulsion if you can see ribbons of oil). Add the anchovies and the Tabasco and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the Parmesan and pour into a cruet. Add a cup of croûtons to the bowl and a cup of the dressing and mix to coat (I had found this an important step as the croûtons got all nice and soaked but still crunchy.) Then add the lettuce, toss and shave some fresh cheese over.It’s delicious and fast to whip up, just the right blend of lemon, garlic, and the rich taste of the anchovies and cheese.

The night before I had grilled two nice fat salmon steaks on my George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine!! I had won this grill at the annual holiday party I had whooped and hollered when I got it, being slightly, or more, sloshed and proclaimed to all that I had never won anything before (true). Then I got very uncomfortable at the prospect of lugging the thing home, on the train, with my feet in my fabulous reddish high heeled boots that hurt like hell! Plus I had started to flash like mad; the booze did NOT help those! By the end I had some water, fanned myself madly for a bit with a limp napkin then got up and, indeed, lugged the grill and myself home, wincing for the those last 2 blocks from the train on 4th Avenue–wincing and swearing in Greek. But it had been worth it, the grill was really cool and worked fast. The salmon I had gotten from the little Korean fish market right off the train on 4th. It was cheap and the fish fresh. I got the salmon steaks, over a pound, for 6 bucks!

I whisked up the marinade of olive oil, fresh chopped rosemary, lemon juice and garlic and brushed it on the fish, popped in on my prize and grilled for about 5- 6 minutes. It was medium rare and delish-nutrish– topped with some capers of course!