Our cos lettuces are ready for eating, so yesterday we decided to make a Caesar salad for lunch using the first bunch.
I'm not a huge fan of mayonnaise, and it seems that the pre-made Caesar salad dressings are usually pretty strong on the mayo front. So I did a quick recipe search before braving the supermarket (it is a long weekend, and also the Finke Desert Race, meaning that town is chockers at the moment).
The recipe I found was simple and made a really zesty dressing that matched well with the fresh, crisp lettuce.
I also made the croutons using last week's stale baguette that would have otherwise been ditched. I cut the bread and tossed the it in olive oil, salt and pepper and two crushed garlic cloves and chucked them in the oven for about 10 minutes whilst preparing the rest.
For the dressing, following the recipe, I combined 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, juice of a lemon, crushed garlic clove, salt and pepper, 1 tsp capers and 1 tsp dijon mustard. Then you crack an egg into the combined mixture and whisk it together. Then very very slowly add 1/3 cup olive oil, whisking the whole time until all the oil is mixed in. The recipe stressed the importance of doing this very slowly so that it doesn't separate.
Meanwhile we pan fried some chicken breast pieces and also boiled a couple of eggs. You could also poach them, or coddle them. Ours were medium boiled.
Toss half of the dressing through the leaves, then stir through some shaved parmesan, then the rest of the dressing - in a large bowl. Then transfer to serving bowls or plates, top with the freshly crisped croutons, chicken pieces and slices of egg.
I just realised that we forgot two components - crisply fried diced bacon, and anchovies. To be honest, the lettuce was the star of the show - super crisp and sweet, with the zesty dressing cutting through nicely.
And not a taste of mayonnaise whatsoever.
If you'd like to try this recipe for yourself, have a look here.
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