The cerebellum – toasted, the grey matter – mealy, the medulla – gone off. A sound mind could never have come up with an impromptu combination as “out there” as this. The mighty salad created in a hurried attempt to provide an offering to the table on a Fourth of July long ago. Needless to say, those familiar with the makings of this vinaigrette can be often sent into a tailspin attempting to juggle and balance some very strong flavors. Anchovies, Worcestershire sauce and lemon can create a tongue splitting clash or meld into a sublime dressing. You can either be lucky or give it the scientific precision it needs to be successful and repeatable.
My best experience was served table side in a restaurant in Ixtapa, Mexico. All ingredients were pre-measured into tiny vessels and combined with flair by our mariachi styled server. Obviously he took the later approach and reveled in it. White teeth grinning under the canopy of a black mustache. It was memorable indeed and I would be very happy to serve that again and again. However, feeling that measuring spoons stymie creativity and that I am stubbornly “above” all of this I continue to bang my head on Caesar Cardini’s front door. One day I hope to create a truly fine Caesar vinaigrette by taste, before my family finds me lying incoherent and drooling on the kitchen floor.
The Ingredients
I gave up looking for decent Romaine heads, as the vast majority of lettuce greens in this town are wilted almost beyond recognition on the shelves. We eat a lot of salad so we needed an immediate fix for this problem. Luckily the good old Tupperware lettuce crisper can work its saintly miracle and revive any salad green on its death bed.
I usually have a decent selection of cheeses in my refrigerator. At least 4 cheeses in there always. One of which is a large wedge of parmigiano reggiano to be used here. Others would include gruyere (my fave), goat’s milk cheese (chevre), havarti for sandwiches and aged cheddar for nibbling with salami, fig jam and olives. Sorry to digress. Cheese is …well cheese. The remaining ingredients were easy to procure including the anchovies. Found the canned version but would have preferred a jar for longer storage life. Another welcome find was the availability of garlic not grown in China. It’s my socio-political-economic-environmental preference.
The Method
Split a garlic clove in half and rub around the interior of your serving bowl. This gives a subtle (for garlic) fragrance and still enough garlic flavor to know your eating a Caesar salad. I mince 3 anchovies fillets and add to the bowl along with one egg yolk (some folks afraid of ingesting salmonella will coddle the egg first to kill any bacteria on the shell). Next add a tablespoon of Dijon to aide in emulsification of the oil and vinegar. Add a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and 2 tablespoons of good red wine or sherry vinegar. Generally a vinaigrette will consist of 1 part vinegar and flavorings to 3 parts of oil. Mix all well before drizzling the olive oil into the bowl. I generally add about half a cup but when you have a smooth dressing with body have a taste and adjust for sourness or richness. I err on the rich side here as I always add a good squeeze of lemon juice after the salad is assembled. Toss in the torn romaine leaves , add croutons of your choice (homemade of course), and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Liberal twists of the pepper mill add some spice. Now the luxurious aspect of this dish, shaving strips of that giant nugget of aged parmigiano onto the plated salad. guaranteed to impress!
The Result
I find this vinaigrette challenging and have tried many variations. In fact I don’t think I have made the same dressing exactly the same way twice. The blabber above is simply a guideline to cater to your personal tastes. Some like raw garlic, other don’t. There are actually some people out there (there’s no need to name them) that despise anchovies although you will never taste them in this dressing. I wish you success!
famishedgut 