Shrimp (and Steak!) Caesar Salad - 5 stars!

note to reader: beware. this is a very long post. it also exposes my OCD compulsions that i occasionally have with cooking. :-)

i absolutely love caesar salad. i consider it to be an indulgence, because there's nothing overly nutritional about it. specially since i normally like to put a lot of bacon and croutons in my caesar salad.

it took me a long time to figure out the right way to make caesar dressing. i have never found a store bought caesar dressing that doesn't have dairy in it. this surprises me because a truly authentic caesar dressing doesn't require parmesan cheese to thicken it; it's thickened by egg yolk, primarily. many recipes will call for mayonnaise instead of egg yolk for health safety reasons, but it just doesn't taste the same if you use mayo. i have finally mastered a caesar dressing recipe that rivals high end restaurant caesar salads. sounds a bit egotistical, but it's been years, like eight years, in the making to perfect my caesar dressing. :-)

my first visit to el gaucho in belltown enlightened me on how to make a real caesar dressing. they offer table-side caesar salad there, meaning they make the dressing from scratch at your table. there's a particular set of ingredients that you add in a very particular way, grinding the ingredients into a paste as you add each one. after you make the dressing, you toss it with the romaine lettuce and parmesan in a large bowl. this meant that i was able to have our server pull my portion of the salad out of his mixing bowl after he tossed it with the dressing, but before adding the parmesan cheese for the person i was dining with.

after this visit, i knew what ingredients to look for in a recipe, and i found the recipe below. connoisseurs claim that you must use a wooden salad bowl to grind the dressing ingredients in. i love my wooden salad bowl, and i have no desire to mutilate the bottom of it by grinding a dressing into it. it's also an awkward shape to use, so i just use a medium glass bowl. metal would be a no no, because it will react with the lemon juice in the recipe.

the best caesar dressing requires serious attention to minute details. if you pay attention to these details, you will have fancy steakhouse worthy caesar salad, rather than ok homemade caesar dressing.

the trickiest part of the dressing is creating the garlic paste, which is the base of your dressing. i have found the best way to do this is to chop up the garlic cloves (use four large cloves per batch), and then grind a healthy amount of sea salt and pepper over the chopped pile of garlic on your cutting board. i let the garlic sit for a couple minutes after grinding the sea salt over it, because the salt will cause the garlic to begin to release its garlicky juices, making it easier to create a paste out of it. using the side of my large chopping knife, i mush the garlic across the cutting board, gather it up on the other side of the cutting board, and mush it back across the cutting board. kind of hard to describe, so the next time i make caesar, i'll take a video if i remember to. once you have the technique down, it's fairly easy. do this over and over and over until the garlic is more of a paste consistency, less of a chunky consistency.

scoop your garlic paste up and put it in your medium glass bowl. add the following ingredients, one at a time, making sure to grind them thoroughly into the previous ingredients.

2 anchovies (or 1 teaspoon anchovy paste - i ALWAYS just use the paste. whole anchovies make me gag; i just can't help it)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (the real stuff, not the dried stuff)
1 egg yolk, coddled
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

whisk approximately a quarter cup of high quality olive oil into the paste. i taste it at this point to see if it needs more lemon juice, or more olive oil. adjust accordingly.

this amount of dressing works well for one head of romaine. for caesar salad, i always chop my romaine leaves into 1/2" strips, rather than tearing them. the dressing clings to the evenly sized lettuce pieces much better.

toss the dressing with the lettuce in a large bowl, then add fresh grated parmesan or parmigiano-reggiano or whatever kind of cheese you think would be best. i can't help you there. :-)

the best croutons to add are marcy's slightly spiced calabrese croutons. they're hard to find, and can be a bit more expensive than regular croutons, but they're worth every penny. here's what the bag looks like:



i had steak left from the ranch bruschetta salad, so i grilled it and added to this caesar. i also had some jumbo cooked prawns. next time, i'd leave the steak out and just have the shrimp, or vice versa. using both steak and shrimp was a bit too much and overpowered the salad.

Special notes:

- my parents gave me a high end extra virgin olive oil for christmas, which i used to make this particular caesar batch. it made a HUGE difference to use a very high quality olive oil. there are a lot of dishes that a basic extra virgin olive oil works just as well in, but i would recommend splurging on a small, expensive olive oil if you are going to make this dressing.

- if you're not having the caesar as your main course but are instead having it as a starter salad, add bacon. high quality, thick sliced pepper bacon compliments this dressing the best. i also find that it is best to fry the bacon in whole strips, and to cut it into small pieces after it is cooked and cooled (rather than cutting into small pieces and then frying it). it seems to have a better crisp, crumbly texture to it this way.