Caesar Salad and me

The reason for this post

 

Last Tuesday evening we were invited to a potluck dinner in honor of our neighbors across the street that were moving. My distant cousin Barbara Dorius and her husband hosted the dinner.  We were asked to bring something to the dinner. We consulted with each other and decided that we would bring a Caesar salad. It is my wife’s favorite salad and we have it often for Sunday dinner.  We both make the salad, but I have been doing it recently.  It is really easy and fast to prepare.  I had a limited amount of time to make something, because I am at the Church Office Building until 5:00 on Tuesday and the dinner was scheduled for 6:00.

During the dinner our good friend and neighbor Ron Barney commented on the salad and asked who had prepared it. He asked if my wife made it and she told him I did. He said that he really liked it. I was flattered. I decided to share this recipe with him because he was so complimentary. This is for Ron and for my grandchildren and children.

The history

I had read somewhere that this salad was first invented in Mexico and the Internet says: “This classic was invented somewhere we never would have guessed: Mexico. Legend has it that Italian-American restaurateur Caesar Cardini invented the salad in 1924 in Tijuana, Mexico. According to The Telegraph, Cardini owned a restaurant in the tourist destination to “attract Americans frustrated by Prohibition.”

There are disputes about this but that is beside the point. We like it.  Our history of the consumption of this salad is as follows.  The order does not matter, but the facts are these:  We have eaten it at home prepared from the recipe that will follow.  We ate it at the Old Baldy club in Saratoga, Wyoming.  This is a private club and was originally built and established in the early 1970s by George Storer from Chicago, the late tycoon who made a fortune pioneering cable television through his Storer Broadcasting Corp., Old Baldy is probably the biggest source of revenue in the Platte Valley, where farmers, ranchers, loggers and miners all are fighting depressed economic conditions.

When I was on the board of directors of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Wyoming, Art Abbey the president, had a membership to the club and we held some of our board meetings there.  I saw Bob Hope in the dining room one night.  We were having Caesar salad at one time and Art remarked that it wasn’t true Caesar salad because it did not have anchovies in it.

We went to a restaurant in Salt Lake that was in an old church building.  The waiter made the salad from scratch at our table.

We liked to go to Atlantic City, Wyoming to eat at a restaurant called Miners Delight. It was run by a couple who moved then from the Midwest.  Paul Newman (not the actor) was an advertising executive for Pontiac.  He retired and went to culinary school and then opened the restaurant on South Pass. Click Here. He used to prepare Caesar salad.

We got a cookbook entitled “The White House Cookbook” by Rene Verdon. He was the White House chef for John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy.  This is the recipe that we use.

I scanned in the three pages from the cookbook and ran OCR and copied it into Word and this is the result.

“SALADS

A GOOD SALAD properly made serves to freshen and fortify a gourmet meal. In some cases it can be made the main dish in a luncheon or even a dinner, especially in spring and summer. As has been said so truly, “Salad makes the stomach glad.”; which makes it all the more astonishing that cookbooks of a half-century ago did not even list recipes for them.

For the most part, salads are made up of vegetables, herbs, eggs, meat and fish. They are usually seasoned with salt, pepper, oil and vinegar. Some cooks substitute lemon juice for wine vinegar, but I do not especially recommend it. A wine vinegar of good quality will give a more piquant flavor to any salad. I also prefer olive oil, although any good nut or vegetable oil may be used, depending on taste.

A truly well-made salad must have vegetables of the best quality that are dry, crisp, cold and fresh. Flavor combinations must be appetizing, and enjoyment is enhanced if the color combinations are attractive to the eye. Finally, the salad dressing must be appropriate.

I have a few suggestions about creating salads--extra touches that will make even wine lovers happy. Try sprinkling garlic powder on them instead of using bits of a clove of garlic. Be delicate, always. Some people merely rub garlic on the salad bowl, but that is a matter of taste. Garlic powder permits an even distribution of flavor. Those who prefer a more zesty French dressing may add a bit of horseradish or a suggestion of Tabasco sauce.

Edges of lettuce leaves or pineapple rings will be gayer if they are dipped in paprika. You can add an extra quality to pineapple by rolling the edges in nut meats, chives or finely chopped parsley. Grated walnuts added to the dressing or sprinkled on the salad will also be enthusiastically received.

Easily prepared fruit salad toppings include shredded. cherries, chopped raisins or peanuts, and shredded coconut.

The order of things is important. When you dress salad greens with oil and vinegar, do not add the vinegar before the oil or you will discover that the oil does not cling to the wet greens and instead settles to the bottom of the bowl. First, season your salad with salt and pepper, add the oil, then the vinegar.

A touch of Roquefort cheese crumbled into French dressing adds flavor, sophistication and gives a better tone to fruit salads. Salad greens can be enhanced by adding the tender inside leaves of raw spinach. Raw cauliflower flowerets and diced avocado, which has been sprinkled with lemon juice to prevent discoloration also make a nice extra touch.

If you like your celery crisp and crackly, place it in cold water with several slices of lemon for at least an hour. Contrast in salad color can be obtained by accenting light greens with dark parsley or watercress.”

MAITRE JEAN’S CAESAR SALAD (6 servings)

salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice or wine vinegar

3 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

2 bunches of romaine lettuce, washed and dried

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 can of anchovies, drained

2 eggs boiled for 1 minute

1 cup croutons (bread cubes toasted lightly in olive oil and pinch of oregano)

Preparation: Sprinkle the salt and black pepper at the bottom of a wooden salad bowl. Add the garlic and mix. Add the mustard and lemon juice or wine vinegar and mix until the salt dissolves. Add the olive oil and stir until the liquid is blended.

Wash the romaine well and dry the leaves. Tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces and add this to the salad bowl. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese and anchovies and break the eggs over the salad. Sprinkle with the croutons and mix gently but thoroughly.

Our version

We have tweaked the recipe and this is how I prepare it. I do not like too much garlic, so I use a quarter or a half of the clove depending on the size. I slice it into small slices and then with a wooden spoon I grind it up using the salt that I grind from my salt grinder.  It is coarse salt and to the salt I add 6-7 grindings of a pepper mixture from my pepper mill that contains black, red, white and green peppercorns.  I grind and mash the garlic until there are no bits.  I then add the Dijon mustard and mix. I use Gray Poupon, but any good grade of Dijon mustard will work. I think that the olive oil should be virgin and fresh.  I use the one from Costco in the dark bottle.  Light has a tendency to oxidize the oil and it turns rancid faster, so I keep it in a dark place in my cabinet.

The vinegar that I have found to work the best is one that I buy at Caputos in downtown Salt Lake it is a Bordeaux red wine vinegar.  I have used white wine vinegar and have also tried balsamic vinegar. I prefer the Bordeaux red wine vinegar.

I mix all these ingredients together. 

Next come the eggs.  I have found that if I put the eggs in 1 inch of cold water and then put the covered pot on the stove using the highest heat and set the timer for 7 minutes that the eggs come out the way that I like them.  When the time is done place the pan in the sink and add cold water until the pan overflows and then quickly remove the eggs and crack them and using a spoon remove the white and the yolks and then with the wooden spoon dice the white into small pieces and the mix the yolk thoroughly into the dressing.  This is what takes the longest.

Parmesan cheese

I use Parmigiano Reggiano. This is imported from Italy and I buy it at Costco. It is also available at any good Italian market. I put it in the food processor and process it with the blade until it is very small. I use more than the recipe calls for.  I use at least ¼ cup depending on the size of the salad I prepare. Some people use Krafts Parmesan cheese.  It is not the same and will not give the same flavor.

Romaine lettuce

Costco has two different packages available, the larger heads and the smaller heads.  I have used both.  For the two of us I only use one head.  For the salad I prepared for the potluck dinner I used three small heads. The smaller heads have less green leaves than the larger heads.  We have bought romaine lettuce at the grocery store and these heads seem to have an abundance of dark green leaves.  I prefer the whiter leaves. We wash the leaves and put them in a salad spinner and remove most of the water and then wrap them in a dry dishtowel before breaking them into bite-sized pieces by hand.  I was taught never to cut them. To make them crisper wrap them in a dry dishtowel and put them in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes.

We then place the prepared romaine lettuce on top of the dressing in the wooden bowl (ours is from laminated bamboo), then sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top.

Just before serving use the salad tongs or spoon and fork and thoroughly toss the romaine lettuce to coat with the dressing and the cheese. Using the fine Parmesan cheese allows it to use the dressing to evenly coat the lettuce with the cheese so each bite has all the flavors.

Croutons

We used bakers bread for the croutons for the party.  Alice prepared them with olive oil and oregano.  We served them on the side because some of the guests have gluten intolerance.  In any case sprinkle the croutons on top of the salad after it is tossed just as it is served.  No one likes soggy croutons. My personal preference is croutons made from a French baguette or French country loaf, but I am willing to eat the others.

 

Anchovies 

We leave these out. We prefer not to add a fishy taste to our salad. As the Germans would say it's Geschmachsache or a matter of taste. 

I really don't remember ever having anchovies in any of the salads that we have eaten. 

If you get too much garlic and have dragon breath my son Clark referred us to Harold McGee’s book “On Food And Cooking”.  He states that if you want to get rid of garlic breath, eat an apple or some other fruit that contains browning enzymes.

Perhaps for desert you could have a slice of Swäbische Apfeltorte.  Ask me for the recipe. 

Enjoy your Caesar salad, we do.