Ides Of March Caesar; A Tale Of Two 'Chovies
- 2 whole hearts of romaine
- 2 or 3 good, flat anchovies from a jar (oil that is)
- 2 egg yolks (toss the whites out, you are not going to need albumen anytime soon, are you?)
- 2 leaves fresh basil (untraditional ingredient)
- Parmegiano reggiano
- 1/2 teaspoon Coleman's superfine powdered mustard
- sea salt
- finely ground pepper
- Squirt of lemon juice
- Drizzle(s) of olive oil
- Sliced, day old French bread for crouton (singular)
- Garlic clove(s)
- 4 or more white anchovies aka boquerones
- Heat your oven to 400 degrees
- Take the romaine hearts and cross cut them into strips and spin them dry and hold
- Rinse the flat anchovies in cold water and set aside to be chopped, quickly
- Separate the eggs and "coddle" the yolks, as in, place them in ramekins in a bain marie and cook in a hot oven for no longer than 1 minute. Don't forget to turn the oven off.
- Bowl-a-rama. Whisk together egg yolks, dry mustard, basil, pepper, salt and anchovies, lemon juice and olive oil to emulsify and then toss the salad greens with the dressing
- Meanwhile (your enemy is "meanwhile"), slice a demi-baguette into slices about 3/4" thick, cut on the bias. This will be your crouton. In a ridged grill pan toast the bread slices. If you don't have a grill pan figure something else out.
- Cut the garlic into halves and rub the bread/crouton vigorously, as with fervor
- Place one crouton on each plate and top with salad greens. Grate or shave parm over each portion, whichever looks better to you in a dark and crowded bar. Using kitchen scissors quickly snip the boquereones into small pieces to top off the salad. Voila! And if you are in Mexico you've already lost your car keys.
- Note to cooks: while it might be hard to believe now, in the olden days (like 1960) they used to mix salads in wooden bowls. Some of the Caesar recipes I've looked at were explicit in that direction. Of course that was before God invented Pyrex. In those days people weren't so afraid of salad borne microbes. But then, they didn't have to be. Somehow the combination of salad green and e-coli hadn't yet become an issue worth thinking about, let alone salmonella in chickens and eggs.
- Additional note to cooks: with our oceans getting fished out and BP destroying what's left pretty soon the only seafood that can survive sustainably will be anchovy and squid. So it's good to know how to prepare a Caesar salad or a fritto misto. This is not a joke. The lives of millions of people on the Gulf Coast have been changed in the worst way for perhaps half of a century to come.
hearts of romaine, flat anchovies, egg yolks, fresh basil, parmegiano, us superfine, salt, ground pepper, squirt of lemon juice, olive oil, garlic
Taken from food52.com/recipes/4600-ides-of-march-caesar-a-tale-of-two-chovies (may not work)