Caesar Salad Dressing

Warning: Do not make unless you order Caesar Salad on the regular in restaurants.

-Or else I can almost guarantee you'll end up wasting this recipe along w/half a cup of valuable Extra Virgin Olive Oil & precious Parmesean Cheese. I do not condone this, so don't even think about it.-

There's really no cooking involved in making Caesar Salad. I use a blender to make mine. It doesn't take rocket science to make this dressing. I do feel like I need to cover a few causes for concern with this one though.

Anchovies

Once blended, their flavor is undetectable. Take my word for it. I've served many seafood haters this salad dressing without so much as a peep from any one of them. If you have to leave them out, don't make this recipe. You don't like Caesar Salad.

Raw Egg Yolk

Using a raw egg yolk to emulsify the dressing is classic in Caesar salad. That's why I opt for it. If you've been affected by the health scare associated with the consumption of raw eggs, I understand. If you have to leave it out, then leave it out & replace with 1TBL of dijon mustard or 1TBL of mayo.

Parmesean Cheese 

For this recipe, I prefer to use the grated, green-lidded, bottled stuff. Though not authentic (and arguably fake/gross), the flavor of the dressing isn't compromised in my eyes. I do see the merit in using the real-deal, but I'm not made of money. I usually blend the cheap stuff in with the dressing, and then grate & stir through shreds of real Parm to the finished product. This is all a matter of personal preference, so use whichever Parmesean cheese you deem necessary. 

I bet it's killing my Mom that I'm spelling "Parmesan," Parmesean. She pointed the spelling error out to me after my Parmesean Chicken blog post. While I should maybe go back & edit for the sake of being an obedient daughter... I won't. Somehow that just wouldn't be very Kelsey of me.

Alright, now that all areas have been covered that needed covering, let's make some Caesar Salad Dressing.

Ingredients/Directions:

1 Raw egg yolk

1 Fat garlic clove

3-5 Anchovy fillets (or 3-5 teaspoons anchovy paste)

1/3c Grated Parmesean (all I had was shredded, but I normally use grated)

1teas Worcestershire sauce

1teas Tabasco (or other hot sauce)

Salt (easy on the salt. the anchovies are pretty salty)

Pepper (Be heavy handed. I counted 30 grinds of pepper & ended up adding about 10 more in the end)

Blend

Stream in 1/2c of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Add juice of half a lemon

Add some extra shreds of Parmesean

Stir through. Serve immediately. Or store and save for later. (Will keep in the refrridgerator for a week & some change)

How I separate and egg: I crack an egg, dump the yolk in my hand, and let the whites fall through my fingers.

Crush

Chop (Thanks Z & D for the handy dandy mini-knife set)

I "fished" out 4.
 ...Get it? I said "fished" because anchovy is a fish, but I used the word "fished" like I was digging out what I needed.
Puns are super cool.

Cheese In



Using the cap to measure. It's okay, professionals do this.



Tried the Extra Thick version. I recommend the orginal.

Pepper in

Pulse to chop. Scrape the sides to help out.

Stream in your Extra Virgin Olive Oil

It gets loud

That's basically it. I usually like to photo my own food for the blog, but I saved my dressing for later. I'll add my own photo when I use it & add a picture then. But to hold you over for now...



My Caesar Salad.
Mine breaks some rules.
But that's okay.

Caesar Salad lovers unite!