RSSMy Kid Makes A Mean Caesar Salad
October 23, 2008
My children are on a smoothie craze. The blender never stops. Lying in bed at night reading, I hear the BZZZZZZ, at 8.45PM! What are they doing down there?
I don’t want to know. I don’t care what I’ll find in the morning. Stay in bed. My favorite is to be woken up at 10.30pm to be asked if it matters that the blender is smoking but I shouldn’t worry, it was probably just left on too long.
So I bought them an $8 hand mixer. How much harm could they really do with one of those? Since children have the innate ability to smell Bandaids, tape (with an especial sensitivity to duct tape), and Kleenex, I figured they could deal with whatever might happen.
My 13 year old adores Caesar salad. She eats it in dangerous quantities. Homemade Caesar Salad is incredibly easy to make, not a big production at all, and quite healthy. I showed her how to make it herself, using the hand blender. It’s fast, easy, and she’s adapted it to be perfect.
It’s tangy, not sweet. You can control this by varying the amount of lemon juice and grated cheese. I know folks who add maple syrup, but I don’t care for the sweet taste.
You’ll need 2 huge bowls, one for washing the lettuce and one for the salad itself. The one for the salad should be made of metal or glass because the salad dressing is oily and acidic and the plastic may be hard to clean afterwards.
Here’s what you do :
- Tear 2 large heads of Romaine lettuce into the plastic bowl. Cover with water. Swish it around like a washing machine for 15 seconds or so. Let soak while you start the dressing.
Put the following into a deep glass or jar that your hand blender can get to the bottom of:
- ¼ of a 300g block of silken or soft tofu (a great emulsifier, I thought of it myself when I didn’t have an egg!)
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2” (1 Tbsp.) anchovy paste from the tube
- 2 Tbsp Worc sauce
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- ½ c less 2 Tbsp. of extra-virgin cold-pressed olive oil
- ¼ c grated fresh Parmesan and some extra to sprinkle on top
Dump the water out of the plastic washing bowl. Refill with water to cover the lettuce and swish it around again. Let sit.
Think about what else goes in the dressing that you forgot. Obviously, there’s no order for adding ingredients.
- ¼ t salt
- ½ t fresh ground pepper
- juice of 1 lemon (this is pretty lemony and allows you to use less oil; you could use 1/2 lemon if you like and the full 1/2c. oil)
Spin dry the lettuce. Put it in the glass or metal bowl.
Buzz the dressing with a hand blender, moving the blender up and down in the glass, till well blended. It takes about a full minute. It will appear chunky at the beginning and more liquid after a short while.
Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan on the salad.
You are now done. The kids made supper!
Sadly, they’re still making smoothies in the blender.
PS: We don’t usually add croutons because the ones in the box are rather awful and I’ve burned the homemade delicious ones so many times that we’ve gotten used to the salad without them. I’ve burned so much food, you have no idea. There are oven timers all over the house and I still forget about the food in/on the oven.
It’s dead easy to make your own croutons. Cut some bread in cubes, toss in a little olive oil, and put them in a frying pan/skillet on low and mix them around now and again. Takes about 20 minutes. Don’t leave the room or begin another project till they’re done. Carrying egg timers on your person might solve it for you but it doesn’t work for me.
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This looks fabulous! I’ve stayed away from making my own caesar dressing ‘cos of the egg thing….the tofu is a great idea! Everything else we typically have on hand (I use anchovy paste in pizza sauce) so I’m picking up some tofu tomorrow.
I think the addition of tofu is a brilliant idea! Mayonnaise based dressings (which is essentially what a Ceasar dressing is) are always too fatty and greasy for me, but this may solve the problem. It also sneaks some protein in there. I may just try it this weekend.
In a pinch, we also use Thai fish sauce instead of the anchovies and egg whites (egg substitute) insead of the whole egg.
A few thoughts on your caesar salad. Do you know that the caesar salad is not Italian. It comes from the Hotel Cesar in Tijiana, Mexico. I had the pleasure of tasting it there all the while praying I did not get sick. It was wonderful.
I do not use egg in my dressing but instead use Kraft Parm grated cheese which I pour into the dressing to thicken it and then use real parmesan shaved on the romaine.
Have you ever seen a salad spinner? OXO makes a good one. You just wash the romaine or whatever, throw it in the spinner and turn the handle to dry it. It really works well and then I store the remaining lettuce in the spinner. (Thats if you have room in the fridge. )
Lastly don’t know how I discovered this but you can make the most wonderful croutons in the microwave. I bring home all leftover designer breads from when we eat out and store them in the freezer. Use them for stradas, breadcrumbs, or great croutons! spray a dish with olive oil spray . spray the croutons which you have cut with the olive oil spray then sprinkle with garlic powder(I use ground garlic and parsley which comes together as a seasoning) Set the micro for one minute on high. Then do the other side by turning spraying and seasoningand probably another minute. They are crisp! You can even burn them so you may have to adjust this a bit. Don’t eat them all before you get them on the salad but much better than watching them absorb all that oil for 20 minutes in the fry pan.
I, also crisp crackers in the micro!
The tofu just works really well here. I use Silken tofu so the dressing is not so thick. I expect that the thicker the tofu, the creamier the dressing. Let me know what you think.
Fish sauce! I can’t believe I didn’t think of it. It would add that background flavor very nicely. I don’t think the Anchovy Paste does anything else really, other than add salt. I’ve never brought myself to taste it on its own.
I love the croutons method too. Even I couldn’t burn this. And we always have crusts to use up, since my offspring have an aversion to them.
I go through 2 salad spinners a year. I’ve yet to find the perfect one without spending $50. The string ones shred. The turn-knob on the top style is too difficult to work. I’ll look at OXO next. I use these a lot, for drying fresh herbs, parsley, kale, and broccoli for salads.
Rosalie, your picture is a beauty. It was easy, wasn’t it? And it just adds so much.
Was the Mexican Caesar the same as the Italian we’re used to? I wonder what cheese they used.
From Rosalie,
A great source of information about the history of Caesar salad. I found it interesting that the acidity of the dressing is supposed to kill the Salmonella, should there be any in the egg.
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Caesar%20salad
I cheat with croutons – I toast bread in a toaster, rub a raw garlic clove across the still hot bread, chop it up and drizzle oil lightly over it. Voila.
And I love caesar salad, although I usually use iceberg lettuce because of the extra crunch.
Now I have to have it tomorrow. Grin.