Caesar Salad
At nine years old, the closest I'd come to cooking was upending a box of Cap'n Crunch into a bowl. One Sunday, I found myself glued to The French Chef; Julia Child was making Caesar salad. It seemed like the best thing I could possibly eat. I asked my dad for permission to make it. As luck would have it, we had the ingredients. With my chicken-scratched notes, I assembled it. By God, it was good: the tang of the Parmesan and lemon, the sweet flash of the Worcestershire, the mellow egg, all draped upon an interplay of romaine and crouton crunches. It's been 40 years since, and I could eat it every day; Caesar salad is that perfect. —James Oseland
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Credit: Todd Coleman
INGREDIENTS
1½ cups olive oil3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
8 oz. stale crusty Italian or French white bread, cut into 1" cubes
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp. hot sauce, such as Tabasco
4 oil-packed anchovy filets, drained and roughly chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
12 oz. whole romaine lettuce leaves, inner leaves only
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup finely grated Parmesan
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Heat 1 cup oil and 1 clove garlic in a 12" skillet over medium heat. Add bread, and cook, tossing often, until golden brown and crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain, and set aside.2. Rub remaining garlic over inside of a large wooden serving bowl, and leave in bowl. Add juice, Worcestershire, hot sauce, anchovies, and salt and pepper, and whisk until anchovies are broken down. Add remaining oil, and whisk until just blended. Add lettuce leaves, and toss to coat in dressing; drizzle egg over leaves, and toss again until evenly coated. Add reserved croutons, Parmesan, and salt and pepper, and toss until evenly combined; serve immediately.
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What causes this ubiquitous error is that the Worcestershire Sauce is, in fact, made from fermented anchovies. However, one very good thing is that the recipe specifically calls for the use of only the small inner leaves of the Romaine lettuce.
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This salad was actually intended to be eaten as a finger food. I have thrown dinner parties where no silverware was even allowed on the table since all the food was supposed to be "finger food". The two biggest hits of the party were usually the Caesar Salad and the Asparagus spears with Hollandaise sauce.
Robert Hayes Halfpenny
Minus the hot sauce.