Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Ceasar's Salad

Ceasar's Salad

We all have our favourites when it comes to food. My favourite food would be the Classic Ceasar's Salad. Now this is one dish that would make me travel out just to get the best Ceasar's Salad around town. As it stands, TGIFridays hasnt failed to let me down on their Ceasar's Salad. A huge portion but done extremely well. The next time you go to Fridays, and can't decide what to have, be sure to try their Classic Ceasar's Salad. Let me tell you a little about how Ceasar's Salad came about.

The creation of Ceasar's Salad has been attributed to an Italian, Ceasar Cardini, who at the time was a restaurateur in Tijuana, Mexico. According to records, supplies in the Cardini establishment ran short one holiday weekend in 1924. Ceasar experimented and that evening the Ceasar's Salad was born. "Take everything to the table" he said, "and make a ceremony of fixing the salad". Let guests think they're having the specialty of the house". Later, it was voted " the greatest recipe to originate from the Americas in fifty years" by the International Society of Epicures in Paris*.

For purists, ceasar salads are made from simple, fresh ingredients, and contain fresh garlic (used to flavor the oil), cold, dried heart of romaine leaves, fresh ground pepper, a dash of salt, imported olive oil, fresh lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce (where the anchovy flavor came from), homemade croutons and Parmesan cheese. The cheese is usually grated in front of you. More upscale restaurants may prepare caesar salads right at your table (tableside), although these have been more difficult to find.

Of course over the years, ceasar's salad has been improvised to meet our taste buds. My favourite mix of ceasar salad is when its topped with bacon bits, turkey ham, cajun chicken with olives. Now that's rich and yummy!

For those who want the ingredients to a simple but tasty ceaser's salad, here you go:

INGREDIENTS
Baby Romaine and Lolll Rossa leaves
Cherry Tomato
Parmesan Cheese
Garlic Croutons
Bacon bits, or cajun chicken, or turkey ham, or just mixed them all together
Olives

For dressing:
3 medium sized eggs, 2-3 cloves finely chopped garlic, 3 anchovies
1 tsp worcestershire sauce, 2 tblsp lemon juice, 1 tsp dijon mustard, 200ml extra virgin olive oil

For Croutons:
6 slices french baguette, 20g butter and garlic

Method:
1. Dressing:Using a food processor mix the eggs, garlic, anchovies, worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and mustard until smooth. Finish off by folding in the olive oil to produce creamy dressing.
2. Put the leaves into a salad bowl and toss the leaves gingerly with the dressing. Mix well and top it with the croutons, bacon, tomato, olives, and parmesan cheese.
3. Serve immediately.

Well thats done for today. A simple subject to tickle your tastebuds. Enjoy!

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