This is a re-post of a classic recipe that is and will always be a part of our household – Aimee’s family Caeser salad recipe. The first time this was made for me, I literally was bowled over by how different this caeser was compared with all those other sub-par caeser’s that I’d eaten in pubs and restaurants over the years. This salad makes you forget all about those other salads and shines as a meal unto itself. I maintain still that it’s the best recipe we’ve ever produced on this blog, so at our 2 year anniversary, I give you it once again – with updated pictures. Enjoy!

Caesar salad is an American staple.  In fact, Caesar salad is probably one of the most predictable menu items, whether you are at a high end restaurant or a local diner.  Even at the grocery store, you are guaranteed at least ten varieties of bottled Caesar dressing.

Somewhere along the line, the standard for Caesars has been lowered.  Often, you end up with wilted romaine overdressed with a  mayonnaise-heavy, salty dressing and stale and dry boxed croutons.  When a Caesar salad is made well, however, nothing satisfies quite like it.  With a little effort, a real Caesar salad and fresh croutons are easy enough to make at home, and are worth every moment of the extra effort.  So put that “Caesar in a Bag” kit back on the shelf, and pick up a few fresh ingredients to make a real Caesar salad.

The Croutons:

Ingredients:

• 3 one inch slices of good, crusty bread, cubed (I recommend sourdough)
• 6 peeled whole cloves of garlic
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a medium sized skillet.  Add the whole cloves of garlic and cook until they are soft and golden brown.

Remove the garlic cloves and reserve for the dressing.  Add the cubes of bread and stir or toss thoroughly to coat with the olive oil.  Cook the croutons in the skillet until they are golden brown on all sides, usually about five minutes.  Stir or toss frequently to prevent them from burning.  At the end, add salt and pepper to taste and toss or stir.  Remove and place on a paper towel to cool before adding to the salad.

Caesar Dressing:

Ingredients:

• 6 cloves of sauteed garlic (reserved from cooking croutons)
• 1 clove of raw garlic
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
• The juice of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce
• 3-6 anchovy fillets, or anchovy paste, depending on your taste
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper

In a large salad bowl, using the back of a fork, smash the sauteed garlic to make a paste.  Add the egg yolk, the Dijon mustard, the mayonnaise, the Worcestershire sauce, and the lemon juice and stir.  Use a garlic press crush the raw clove of garlic and add it to the bowl.  Finely chop the anchovy fillets and add to the bowl.  Add salt and pepper and stir well. Slowly stream in the olive oil as you stir the other ingredients.  The oil should emulsify with the other ingredients, but the dressing will still be a bit chunky.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I usually taste the dressing with one of the croutons.  Yum!

Wash and dry and entire head of romaine lettuce, torn into bite size pieces.  Add to the bowl with the salad dressing.  Add the croutons and the Parmesan cheese and toss well.  Serve immediately.

Serves 4-6 people.

This is one recipe that has actually sat in our queue for a while – I wasn’t sure that I wanted to post it, but eventually decided to.  It’s certainly a delicious sounding dish when you look at it, and it was good, though I think it would’ve been even better if we had worked a little bit harder on making the dressing right – perhaps even incorporating some avocado and the sour cream into the dressing…ok, enough of my tangent…let me explain what I mean:

First of all, roasted carrots are delicious.  Hell, I think all root vegetables that you season well and roast in the oven for a while are pretty damn hard to beat…but carrots have a special place in my heart.  I’ve loved them since I was a kid, when my Mom used to poach them and then mix them with some butter, salt and a touch of honey.  I’ve begun to experiment with some other methods of cooking the vegetable, and this recipe deals with some smoky, sweet, savory flavors in it’s seasoning.

Once the carrots are roasted, we took the croutons from the no mayo Caesar Salad post that Aimee did a while back and add them to the salad, along with some creamy avocado and lettuce.  I recommend the carrot/avocado combination for sure, but I might serve those two on their own without the rest.  In any case, here’s what we did:

• ~1 lb. organic carrots (can be varying colors) – washed
• 2 avocados – peeled, cored and sliced into generous sections
• 3-4 slices of good sourdough, ciabatta, baguette or foccacia bread – something you like!
• 1-2 hearts of romaine lettuce – roughly chopped

• Small handful of Sesame seeds
• Small bunch of Thyme – leaves picked and chopped
• 4 cloves fresh garlic – roughly chopped
• 2 Tbsp. whole cumin seeds
• 1 Tbsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Zest of 1/2 a lemon
• Around 2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
• 2-3 Tbsp. sour cream
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp. honey
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt and fresh black pepper

Start with the carrots, as they’ll take the longest to cook.  Boil a pot of salter water and preheat the oven to 375 F.  Once the water is boiling, add the carrots (cutting some of them on a bias it they’re large) and cook for around 10-12 minutes until they basically cooked through.

Meanwhile, toast your cumin seeds in a separate pan until they’re fragrant and then transfer them to a mortar and pestle and crunch them up.  Add the chili flakes, salt and some pepper and continue to combine.  Finally add the thyme, lemon zest and 2 cloves of the garlic and combine further along with a small splash of olive oil and vinegar – you want sort of a paste consistency that will nicely coat the carrots.

Drain the carrots once they’re cooked and mix them in a large bowl with the spice mixture that you prepared.  Then place the carrots on a parchment lined baking sheet and roast them in the oven for 30 minutes or until they’re colored to your liking (I like my carrots a bit darker…).

While the carrots are roasting, prepare the croutons and the dressing.  Cut your bread into medium cubes and start a pan over medium heat and add a good glug of olive oil.  Add the other 2 cloves of garlic and cook them until they’ve turned a light brown color, then remove and add the bread.  Cook the bread, letting it get coated by the oil until it’s turned a nice golden brown, then kill the heat and season with some salt.  You can also read about cooking croutons in the Caesar Salad post.

You can also prepare the dressing at this point too.  Simply add the mustard and lemon juice to a small bowl and mix together.  Then chop/mush up the cooked garlic and and add that to the dressing.  Add some salt and pepper and the honey and whisk together.  You can then add the sour cream and whisk in a drizzle of olive oil to emulsify.  This should leave you with a creamy vinaigrette – adjust seasonings to taste.

Combine the avocado, roasted carrots, croutons and romaine lettuce and mix with the dressing.  Toss in the sesame seeds and serve.  You can [optionally] finish with a little more sour cream on top.  Enjoy!

Here’s another simple salad that I absolutely love to put together, and it’s especially convenient to make now in the midst of our kitchen remodeling project. The carrots combine with sweet summer corn (perfect and in season right now!) and creamy avocado to make a great combination of flavor. Paired with some delicious creamy lemon dressing, this is the quintessential summer salad to serve along side grilled meat or fish.

I first heard of this, I must admit, through an old Barefoot Contessa episode and it’s been tweaked a bit here to include some of my favorite vegetable combinations. I did take the Contessa’s advice here and included raisins in the dish, which I think adds some really great (interesting) texture and sweetness. But one of the best parts of this dish is that you can really combine any old fresh crunchy vegetables to this salad, a bunch of lemon and dressing and it will more than likely work out on the plate. I paired it with some pre-made spinach chicken sausage, which worked really well.

The quality of the carrots really help here to, try to buy yours from a local farmer’s market or at least try your best for locally grown, organic carrots – they’re the sweetest and most delicious!!!  Have fun with this recipe and improvise, I did!  Try adding some Madras curry powder to it too, a classic combination.  It’s a totally easy and delicious recipe to do:

Serves 4-5

• 2 bunches (about 2 lb.) of carrots – orange and/or yellow – Shredded on the medium holes of a box grater
• 2 ears of fresh sweet corn – see prep below
• 1 small head of broccoli – diced small
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup of large raisins, dark or golden
• 1 large Haas avocado – roughly chopped
• 6 green onions (scallions) – cut fairly thin on a bias
• 3-4 sprigs of tarragon – diced
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• Salt and pepper

For the dressing:

• 1/2 cup good mayonnaise (Hellman’s preferred)
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. freshly ground cumin seed – toasted and crushed in your mortar and pestle
• Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp. each of salt and fresh ground pepper

Start by chopping all of you vegetables.  Put your raisins into a small bowl and cover them with a little water while you prep the rest of your veg.  This will help them plump up a bit.  For the corn prep, slice off the corn kernels from the cob length-wise and then milk the cob.  To do this, flip your knife over to the butt-side and rub it up and down the cob.  This should produce a sort of milky, chunky liquid that you should add directly to the salad.  It’s full of awesome corn flavor!  When your vegetable prep is done, combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and add the lemon juice, tarragon and salt and pepper.

Next make the dressing by combining all of the ingredients listed and adjusting seasoning to taste.  You can also add some hot sauce to this if you want to add another element to the flavor of the dish.  Start dressing the vegetables with just some of your dressing and mixing to combine.  Doing the dressing a little at a time will prevent you from over-dressing the salad.  Add as much dressing as you desire, adjust seasonings and enjoy!

This is one of those recipes that I’ve been making for years.  In fact, chicken salad was something that I learned to do as a kid, when I preferred it over tuna salad, so I’d convince my Mom to get me canned chicken instead of canned tuna.  The recipe has evolved quite a lot over time, and eventually settles with these basic ingredients.  I’ll sometimes make this with some other things in it – artichoke hearts (not the pre-marinated sort) or some sort of nuts come to mind.  But my favorite types of chicken salad are heavily seasoned with herbs (basil, tarragon, sage, whatever) and include some sort of fruit – apples, cranberries or grapes perhaps, which I really think is key for sweetness.  Chicken salad in my mind should be that classic combination of salty (from the chicken, sauce, and nuts) and sweet (from the fruit).

That being said, the real secret to chicken salad is the way you cook the chicken.  Don’t let other people fool you, take some time and care cooking your chicken when you make chicken salad.  Don’t just boil pre-cut breasts that you buy at the supermarket.  Buy a whole chicken and roast it in your oven – like my friend Tyson just did in this post.  When you roast your own chicken and leave come of the skin on (the breast skin that is nicely browned), it gives the chicken salad an awesome caramelized flavor that I love.  Tyson’s method of cooking chicken inspired me to make this chicken salad, and trust me, roasting chicken for it will make a big difference.

Tarragon is another herb that is so classic in this dish.  If you’ve never used tarragon, it’s flavor is reminiscent to licorice, stronger than fennel, but really good (and I don’t really care for licorice candy).  I recommend using fresh tarragon instead of dried, and also adding some basil.  You can also use sage or oregano or any herb of your choice.  The dressing here is super simple and heavy on the lemon.  Seven ingredients total and 2 of them are salt and pepper.  Here’s how it goes:

• 1 whole roasted chicken – see this post – or a combination of 2 breasts and 2 thighs – roasted and cooled in the fridge
• 1 granny smith apple – diced
• 1 small onion – small dice
• 2 stalks celery – diced
• 2-3 Tbsp. fresh tarragon – chopped
• 5-6 large basil leaves
• Salt and fresh ground pepper

For the Dressing:

• 1/2 – 3/4 cup good mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard (or any mustard you like)
• A few dashes of Tabasco (or other) hot sauce (1 tsp.)
• A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce (1 tsp.)
• 3 Tbsp (around 3/4 to a whole) lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

Start by chopping your vegetables and tossing them into a bowl and mixing them up to combine them.  Then start on picking the chicken.  I like to remove all of the skin that hasn’t been browned, but leaving the skin that has turned that classic, delicious color.  Basically, it you’d be tempted to eat the skin with the chicken you’ve cooked, put it in the salad!  Pick all of the chicken off of the bones, chop it keeping it the size of your liking and add it to a bowl with all the rest of the chopped veggies.

Meanwhile, mix the mustard, Tabasco and Worcestershire together.  Add in the mayo, salt and pepper and lemon juice and mix to combine.  Adjust seasoning as necessary.  I really like a good amount of pepper in this…and add more Tabasco if you like your chicken salad a little spicier.  Add the herbs to the veggies, mix to combine – then add the dressing and mix together.  You can adjust the seasoning as you like, adding more mayo or mustard or herbs or whatever.

I really like to serve this by shredding some romaine lettuce, cutting it super thin and mixing that into the chicken salad.  Almost like having a salad with chicken salad in it…yum!  Of course, the classic sandwich presentation isn’t bad either.  Have fun and enjoy!

We do not appreciate asparagus the way that we ought to in this country.  For much of my life, I grew up eating asparagus at least one day a week, regardless of the time of year, and along with many people I know, considered it to be one of my favorite vegetables.  When I was a girl, I used to particularly love asparagus steamed and dipped in mayonnaise, the thought of which now makes me cringe.  Looking back, I realize that this was an acceptable way to eat asparagus because for most of the year I was getting it from halfway across the world, so there wasn’t nearly the delicacy of flavor or nutrition to ruin.  I am happy to say that my taste buds have progressed since then.

The truth is, for those who know anything about how asparagus is grown, it is a crop more than any other that is worthy of respect and appreciation.  I first learned about the grueling process of growing asparagus when I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Vegetable Miracle.  Unlike most crops, which yield their fruit within a few months after they are planted, asparagus doesn’t produce what we recognize and love to eat for the first three years.  This is discouraging for many home vegetable growers, but the patience is worth it.  During that time, the plant is growing and developing a system of roots that is storing energy and nutrients in preparation for the production of those lovely little spears.  But after all this waiting, the asparagus season is short, producing tender, edible spears for only a few weeks.  So, if the farmers can maintain the patience necessary to grow it, we should have the patience to wait until it is in season locally to eat it.

When I can get my hands on fresh, local asparagus, I cook it is often as possible, every day if I can.  My favorite preparations are quick and simple, allowing the subtle flavor and extraordinary nutrition to remain intact.  Jamie Oliver has an entire chapter in his cookbook, Jamie at Home, dedicated to asparagus that is full of these kinds of recipes, as well as some comments on his experience tending to it in his home garden.

The recipe below requires only seven ingredients, so make sure they are top quality, especially the balsamic vinegar.  I recommend Bistro Blends Heirloom Balsamic Vinegar ($23), but any aged, pure 100% balsamic vinegar will do the trick.  I used lemon-thyme, which I am growing on my back porch, but you can often find it in the store.  Lemon-thyme has a remarkably lemony flavor, and is delicious for this dish, but if you can’t find it, use regular time and finish the dish with a sprinkling of lemon zest.  I call this a salad because I think it makes an excellent first course, but it also works as a side.  If your having guests, make more than you think you need.  They’ll want seconds.

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch asparagus
• 1 large shallot, sliced thin
• 4-5 sprigs of lemon-thyme
• 1 tbsp. Olive Oil
• 2 tbsp. Aged Balsamic Vinegar
• Salt and red pepper flakes to taste
• Two tbsp. grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese for garnish

Heat a medium-sized skillet over medium heat.  Add the olive oil and the shallots.  Saute until the shallots begin to soften.  Add the asparagus and season with salt and red pepper to taste.  Remove the leaves from the thyme and add to the skillet.  Cook the asparagus for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the balsamic vinegar and let cook for another two minutes.  Remove the asparagus from the heat and plate.  Garnish with the cheese and serve immediately.

Cooking with my step-brother Paul is always a treat. He and I look at cooking the same way at times…”what do you have around? Alright, lets do it.” Of course, he’s a much better, more practiced chef, but the point is the same: once you have the confidence and a working understanding of what you got at hand, you can make anything taste good.

Couple weeks ago we got together for a “quick” dinner and some time with the ‘ol Cold River Vodka. I went to the Whole Foods down the road and wondered for a while running the options over in my head. Grabbed a few yams, some green beans (Cali isn’t too far away!), a head of kale, carrots, and some lovely looking beets. I knew Paul had some elk steaks waiting in his freezer, the rest would just come together.

We got the stuff out on the table, cracked a beer and started going for it. Paul quickly made a stuffing out of apples and some frozen corn he had left over. If you’ve never stuffed and rolled a steak (flank steak works great), then read on!

We decided to bake the beets for a kale-carrot-beet salad. I got to work on the yams, deciding to cube them and roast them as well. The green beans would be salt and peppered, drizzled with olive oil and roasted as well (thanks Mom!). Paul opened up a bottle of apple cider and put that in a pot to reduce for a nice syrup to top the stuffed elk steaks.

For the stuffing, Paul cut up a couple pieces of old bread and toasted them up. Fine dice an apple or two, throw in some corn, a little fine diced celery and onion, salt and pepper to taste. I think I saw him throw in some rosemary, a little olive oil, and some garlic. As with any stuffing, the moisture level is crucial. Since we weren’t “stuffing” this into a bird, but rather rolling it up in an elk steak…we made it a little wetter. You can achieve that with a little oil, some chicken, beef, or veg stock. The apples and corn will also give off some water, be sure to take all that into account.

Don’t laugh. The hammer was washed before and after, it sure did the job! After trimming up the steaks a bit, Paul lightly pounded the elk steaks to thin them out and get more surface area. With fresh, lean meat like that it goes pretty quick. The elk steaks were a gift from a friend around the holidays, the buck was shot the first week of November in northern Colorado. Paul had brought a tenderloin from the same animal to Thanksgiving at the Ben Hame, searing it and finishing it with a blackberry demi. I knew it was going to be good this time around too.

Once you have the steak ready, stuff it! Using cooking twine or skewers you can roll the steak around the stuffing and either bake it, sear it, or roast it. We decided to sear the steak, then bake it. You’ll want to heat up a skillet, THEN add the oil, and sear each side of the meat. Be careful with how hot the pan is, you can easily splash oil up or start a fire with the water or blood from the meat.

Once you have the steaks seared, you will want to bake them for about 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees. This all depends on the size of the steak, the thickness, and how much stuffing you have in. Get out your thermometer and give it an occasional poke, you’re looking for 140 degrees inside the roll.

Take your beets and wrap them in tinfoil. You can bake them like that for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. You’ll know they are ready when they feel “ripe” and the skin easily slides off with your thumb…careful, they’re hot!

For the yams, I cubed them and seasoned with a variety of warm flavors. Drizzles of molasses, agave nectar, and a bit of maple syrup. A light dusting of cinnamon, a touch of nutmeg, some black pepper and salt. Bake like that for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees. You’ll want to pull them and turn over at some point for equal distribution of goodness.

Sam Wolfe at the Alta Lodge prepares yams this way for pork, beef tenderloin, or even smoked salmon…they are always a hit.

The salad is so key in any meal. I love kale after eating it everyday in Cali the last two years. Beets always scared me as a kid coming out of the can around Thanksgiving, their blood red color spooked me. Now I can’t imagine a world without them. I like to saute them in a little oil and garlic, cool and then put on a salad. We baked them this time around, quickly sauteed the kale in some olive oil (if you cook it too much it looses its crispness and apparently destroys all the nutrients stored up in its stock and dark green leaf). You know beets, carrots, and kale are good for you based simply on how vivid their colors are. The carrots, beets, and kale were all sauteed in this salad, then left to cool and reassembled. Awesome combo of flavors and texture.

Not the best pic, but here is the meal! The beans were roasted with salt and pepper, a drizzle of olive oil for 10-15 minutes at most (again, 350 degrees).

Pile the yams up in the middle, lay the beans across one side, sliced and stuffed elk steak on the other side, drizzle the reduced cider across the whole meal. Yummy town.

Hope this meal inspires some new ideas. Roll up that piece of steak with some “stuffing”, grab the yams next time instead of potatoes, grab a head of kale and savor its leafy greenness. Another idea for rolled up steaks is to take a cheap, tender flank steak and make a stuffing of roasted portabellos, fresh basil, chevre, Parmesan, bread crumbs, and roasted tomatoes.

Winter is a great season for warm flavors, give a couple of these ideas a shot next time if the spirit moves ya!

Here’s some more Elk and rolled steak ideas:

• Kitchen Parade – Elk Meatloaf
• Mark Bittman – Matambre: Stuffed, Rolled Flank Steak
• Cuisine Capers – Braciole – Rolled Steak Italian Style

When I think of Mexican food, I think about my sister Sabrina, who loves cooking Mexican, and now I understand why – simplicity, convenience and most of all, deliciousness.  Living in Southern California, it’s not surprising that she has taken to this great cuisine.  The Mexican culinary traditions and flavors are very evident in the area, where you’re more likely to find the local taqueria than the steak house walking down main street.

Sabrina has told me a few times about her taco salad, and I’ve tried a few variations of it at her house.  This is my first attempt at making the dish myself and it actually turned out pretty well.  Hell, the way I see it, it’s not hard for a dish to be good when you add seasoned sour cream and guacamole to it.

The key to this dish was the meat – Aimee’s idea and specialty: ground turkey seasoned with a homemade Mexican spice blend that includes cayenne, cumin, salt, chili powder, garlic and onion powder and black pepper.  You can really add anything you want to this though, including ancho chili or fresh garlic that you can blend together in a mortar and pestle.  This spice blend gets added to the meat as it cooks together with some stock and creates a delicate, moist base to the salad (or tacos or anything else).

The rest of the salad is really up to you in terms of ingredients.  Being winter time, we chose to use cabbage and lettuce, but some fresh tomatoes and corn in the summer time would be surely welcome.  Here’s how it went:

For the Meat:

• 1 package ground turkey (or beef, lamb or pork) according to your tastes
• 1 medium onion – diced
• 2 cloves garlic – mashed
• 2 poblano peppers – rough dice
• 1 jalapeno pepper – seeded and diced
• 1 small habanero pepper – seeded and diced (omit if you don’t like it spicy)
• ~1.5 cups of chicken or beef stock
• Mexican spice blend: 1 Tbsp. each of: cayenne, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, chilli powder, salt, black pepper – mix together in a small bowl or mortar and pestale
• Vegetable oil

For the Salad (add and remove ingredients as you like!):

• Romaine lettuce – shredded
• Red cabbage – shredded
• Red onion – sliced thin
• Shredded pepper jack and/or cheddar cheese
• Sour Cream
• Avocado – or Guacamole of mashed avocado, cilantro, diced onion, lime juice and salt
• Fresh salsa
• Prepared meat from above
• Chopped cilantro
• Black beans
• Sliced lime for garnish
• Corn tortilla – cut into strips and fried in a little vegetable oil

Method:

So start by preparing the spice blend from above – you can really adjust the levels of the spices as you so choose, but you might want to make a little extra to add to the sour cream (really good!) or just add more to the meat.  So start by sweating the onion in some oil over low-medium heat.  Add the peppers – mild to spicy, so the poblanos first, followed by the jalapenos and then the habanero.  Add the garlic and continue to cook down.  At this point, turn up the heat a little bit and add in your meat.

Cook the meat down, browning it a good amount.  Once it it almost cooked through, add 1/2 of the spice blend and a little of the stock.  With a wooden spoon, take up some of the meat bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Let the stock cook off and add a little more and repeat.  Once most all of the stock is cooked off, add the rest of the spice blend and cook until the meat reaches a consistency of almost a very thick stew.  Adjust seasonings as needed at this point.

At this point, you can mix up the guacamole, and assemble the salad, greens and vegetables on the bottom.  Remember, you can add what ever you want to this!!  Spoon the meat on top of the lettuce with some of the cheese and other fixings.  I found that mixing some of the spice blend with the sour cream makes a really good condiment.  But go nuts and add whtever you want!  This is tacos in salad form really, so whatever you want to add is great!  As a serving note, I would probably serve this in a big bowl next time (now I know why those big tortilla bowls are convenient).

Here are some other really good looking takes on the recipe:

• Small Kitchen, Big Taste
• The Crumbling Muffin Top
• The Street

With a light dressing and feta cheese, which is naturally low in fat, this is a healthy and satisfying salad that could work as a full meal or a first course. It is easy to make, but is an impressive upgrade from the traditional Greek salad served at your local pizza place.

The Dressing

Ingredients:

• 1 Lemon
• 1 Teaspoon Red Wine Vinegar
• 1 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard
• 3 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 Teaspoon Sugar
• 1 Small Clove of Garlic
• 1/4 Teaspoon Cumin
• 1 Pinch of White Pepper
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

I often use a measuring cup to make salad dressing, not because I need to measure everything exactly, but because they are deep enough to not spill when you whisk vigorously and they pour well. Squeeze the juice of the lemon into the bottom of the measuring cup. Add the mustard and vinegar and whisk. As you continue whisking, stream in the olive oil. Crush the garlic into the dressing. Add the sugar, cumin, white pepper, and salt. Stir well.

The Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 Head of Crisp Romaine Lettuce
• 1/4 of a Red Onion
• 1 Tomato or a Handful of Grape or Cherry Tomatoes
• 1/2 of a Cucumber
• 1/4 Cup Feta Cheese
• 1 Handful of Pine nuts
• 1 Ripe Haas Avocado

First, place the pine nuts in a dry pan over high heat. Toast until golden brown. Watch carefully-they burn fast! Remove from the pan to cool.

Wash the lettuce and tear into bite size pieces. Put the lettuce in a large salad bowl. Peel and slice the red onion and cucumber and add to the bowl. Cut the avocado into bite size pieces and add to the bowl. Add the tomatoes, cheese, and pine nuts. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well. Serve immediately.

Serves 4 as a lunch sized salad portion.

Variation: Place salad on top of a baked pizza crust. Fold and eat for a delicious two person dinner!

Somewhere along the line, the standard for Caesars has been lowered.  Often, you end up with wilted romaine overdressed with a  mayonnaise-heavy, salty dressing and stale and dry boxed croutons.  When a Caesar salad is made well, however, nothing satisfies quite like it.  With a little effort, a real Caesar salad and fresh croutons are easy enough to make at home, and are worth every moment of the extra effort.  So put that “Caesar in a Bag” kit back on the shelf, and pick up a few fresh ingredients to make a real Caesar salad.

The Croutons:

Ingredients:

• 3 one inch slices of good, crusty bread, cubed (I recommend sourdough)
• 6 peeled whole cloves of garlic
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a medium sized skillet.  Add the whole cloves of garlic and cook until they are soft and golden brown.

Remove the garlic cloves and reserve for the dressing.  Add the cubes of bread and stir or toss thoroughly to coat with the olive oil.  Cook the croutons in the skillet until they are golden brown on all sides, usually about five minutes.  Stir or toss frequently to prevent them from burning.  At the end, add salt and pepper to taste and toss or stir.  Remove and place on a paper towel to cool before adding to the salad.

Caesar Dressing:

Ingredients:

• 6 cloves of sauteed garlic (reserved from cooking croutons)
• 1 clove of raw garlic
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
• The juice of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce
• 3-6 anchovy fillets, or anchovy paste, depending on your taste
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper

In a large salad bowl, using the back of a fork, smash the sauteed garlic to make a paste.  Add the egg yolk, the Dijon mustard, the mayonnaise, the Worcestershire sauce, and the lemon juice and stir.  Use a garlic press crush the raw clove of garlic and add it to the bowl.  Finely chop the anchovy fillets and add to the bowl.  Add salt and pepper and stir well. Slowly stream in the olive oil as you stir the other ingredients.  The oil should emulsify with the other ingredients, but the dressing will still be a bit chunky.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I usually taste the dressing with one of the croutons.  Yum!

Wash and dry and entire head of romaine lettuce, torn into bite size pieces.  Add to the bowl with the salad dressing.  Add the croutons and the Parmesan cheese and toss well.  Serve immediately. 

Serves 4-6 people.