Simple Caesar Salad

Property of The Entertaining House and The Entertaining Kitchen

I'm a salad girl. I love a good salad. They're filling and refreshing, require little prep work and not much required for cleanup either. In fact, in my opinion, the salad is as good as it gets. It's a well rounded, well balanced meal when you add beans, fish, chicken or meat for protein. It's not heavy or filling and nothing beats a summer supper the way salads do. Add a nice crispy baguette, and we are set to go!

I cooked dinner with a friend last night. We made grilled chicken Caesar salad. My friend grilled the chicken and I made the dressing. He was about to use dressing from a jar. Gasp! Can you imagine? I quickly intervened and explained that no Caesar dressing will ever taste as good as one made from scratch. I've tried many over the years and I have finally found one that's a winner every time! And, since I'm always watching my girlish figure these days, I look out for recipes that are not laden with too much fat or too many calories. This recipe calls for mayonnaise, which I prefer as I am leery of feeding my children raw eggs. Also, I use light mayo to lighten it up a tad.

I've adapted this recipe from I don't know where and while I've given proper measurements, as a rule I eyeball everything... last night I added more Worcestershire and some extra cheese... Tear off a few pieces or Romaine and taste as you go along... I'm not really a recipe follower... Recipes, like rules, need to be bent some times!

Caesar Dressing

Ingredients:

3 cloves of garlic, minced - I prefer to mince mine by hand - I find too much of the good stuff gets left behind when you use a garlic press

1 tbs Dijon, heaping - of course
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce - or two!
1 tbs sherry or red wine vinegar -I'm heavy handed here too!
2 tbs mayo

Juice of 1 large lemon

1/2 C olive oil
1/2 Parmesan and more for sprinkling
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Some people like to puree their dressing. Not I! I love the texture that the cheese and the minced garlic give the dressing.

If you have a large jar like an empty mayonnaise or pickle jar use it. 

Into the jar place all your ingredients.

Shake well. Taste...

Wash and clean your Romaine lettuce, place in a large salad bowl and add the dressing. Mix well, taste. If more dressing or more pepper is needed add it now. Add croutons and or freshly grilled chicken or shrimp if desired...

Bon Apetit!

Jessica

Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato Salad

I love a good BLT sandwich. When done right with crispy bacon and fresh juicy tomatoes there is nothing like it. So I wondered how I could take these ingredients and turn them into a salad. With tomatoes lining up on my counter, so fresh they are on the verge of turning, I needed to come up with a recipe that would use them all up. (The next batch gets picked tomorrow.)

I thought about making this Panzanella-like. Panzanella is a traditional bread salad served in the Umbria and Tuscany regions of Italy. It is essentially large pieces of stale rustic bread, tomatoes, cucumbers and vinaigrette, though I have had it various ways. Panzanella can get soggy. So I decided to make croutons from my stale bread. Worked like a charm!

This salad was a hit across the board -- even my non tomato eater ate gobbled it up (though passed the red bits off to his brother!)

Ingredients:
1 package, 3 heads romaine lettuce trimmed, washed and cut into strips

4 large tomatoes (or 1 per person) trimmed and cut into bite sized chunks

10 strips of bacon, do not crumble as you want big pieces to bite into

3/4 of a baguette or 4 stale dinner rolls, cut in to bite sized pieces

6 scallions, chopped, using both green and white parts

Olive Oil, about 2 tbs for the pan

Salt and garlic powder of seasoned salt

To prepare your croutons, pour olive oil into a pan and heat over a medium high flame. When hot add the bread and coat each piece well with the olive oil. Add seasonings to taste. Brown each side and when golden brown remove from pan and place on a plate on a piece of paper towel. Cool entirely before adding to salad.



I like to cut my lettuce. I cut it in small strips as it is manageable for the children. They have an awfully hard time with large leaves of lettuce. Place lettuce in salad bowl. Add chopped scallions, and tomatoes. Mix well. When croutons have cooled, add croutons. When bacon has cooked, let cool before breaking it into large, bite sized pieces.

To make the dressing you'll need a medium sized mixing bowl, cruet or old jar. Combine ingredients in the following order and mix well until all the ingredients are blended. Pour on salad and toss just prior to serving.

For the dressing:

1/3 cup of canola oil
1/3 cup of cider vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbs. water
1/2 cup of light Mayonnaise
You may have some dressing left over, as I used about 3/4 of what I had made.

This is a salad that needs to be consumed immediately after being made.

Serves 4 adults as a main meal. Serves 8 as a small salad.

Red Leaf Lettuce with Strawberry Sherry Vinaigrette

The kids and I went strawberry picking today. We had the most delightful time and came home with 5 pounds of strawberries that must get used fairly quickly. I had some very soft, very ripe strawberries and decided to play around and make a dressing. I do not typically like anything sweet in my salad. Asian dressings are my exception. I was not sure how this was going to turn out, but I was absolutely delighted with the end result! I promise this is not at all a sweet dressing. If anything the sweetness of the berries cuts into the acidity of the vinegar.

The recipe couldn't be easier!

1/3 Cup olive oil

3 Strawberries

3 Tbs. Sherry Vinegar
Sea salt and pepper to taste

In a medium sized bowl mash the strawberries with a fork until it looks like a puree. (You will need to use a very ripe berry. Hand-picked berries are less firm that the store bought varieties and work better)

Pour olive oil and vinegar in to the bowl and mix well. Using a strainer, pour the dressing into a jar.

Pour desired amount of dressing onto salad.

Add some crumbled feta cheese and if you do like a little sweetness in your salad add a few sliced strawberries.

Grilled Salmon Nicoise

Not too long ago I mentioned that the only "proper" Salade Nicoise was one that was made with canned tuna fish. Canned in oil. Not fresh tuna. Not fresh salmon. Not fresh any fish.

Well I am known for breaking the rules and I wanted salmon and I wanted it grilled and I wanted a Nicoise. So I went ahead and made my own variation.

On a large platter I arranged asparagus, black olives, new potatoes -- sliced, Campari tomatoes, white beans and romaine lettuce

We grilled the salmon, with a little bit of Blackened seasoning, and to perfection and served it on top of the salads. This is a meal I will cook again often. The children will eat it and it's simple enough to serve to guests as all but the fish can be prepped ahead of time.

Ingredients:

2 heads of Romaine lettuce, washed and trimmed
1/2 - 3/4 pounds of new potatoes, cooked and sliced
6 Campari tomatoes, washed and quartered
1 can of white beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives
6 scallions, washed, trimmed -- using both white and green pieces
2 bunches of asparagus washed and trimmed (I always peel away tough outer layer with a veggie peeler)

Directions:

Wash, rinse and dry lettuce... cut or tear into bite sized pieces. Arrange on platter
Add tomatoes, quartered
Cook asparagus in boiling water for no more than 3 minutes. Remove from water and give a cold water bath. Let sit a few minutes, remove, pat dry and add to salad
Add olives
Add beans
Cook potatoes in boiling water, 10 - 15 minutes, cool and slice. Add to salad
Add scallions over the top.
Just prior to serving add vinaigrette

Prepare fish by rubbing spices, and cook for desired time. (For salmon steaks about 3 minutes per side, more for filets and larger pieces. You may want to consult a grilling book to make sure you adequately cook your fish.)

Vinaigrette:

2 tbs Dijon Mustard
1/4 Cup of white vinegar
1/2 cup of olive oil
Mix well (I like to shake in a jar) until fully emulsified
Feel free to change to meet your tastes... less mustard or less vinegar

Salade Nicoise

I am so lucky my kids love salad. We eat them regularly for dinner with a nice crusty baguette or ciabatta. As a child I was fortunate enough to spend my summers in the South of France. My grandmother's house in Cannes was my summer home. There I lived at the beach. We had our own reserved place at Bijou Plage on the Croisette. We would get there just after our Petite Dejeuner and stay there all day until it was time to go home, wash up and get ready for dinner. Unless my grandmother was hosting one of her fabulously elegant dinner parties we all ate together. I never ate a "children's menu" and because of this my children don't either. They have their likes and dislikes, but for the most part they are wonderful and healthy eaters. So I can get away with salad for dinner. Especially when they are filled with all sorts of goodies that they like.

We eat a lot of Salad Nicoise in the warmer months. It's fresh, light and so flavorful!

The salad hails originally from Nice, France. And while now it's all fancied up with grilled tuna or salmon, the proper and original way to serve it is with canned tuna. In fact many chefs vehemently object to using fresh fish in Nicoise! (Admittedly, I do like to fancy it up myself when I make it for company!)

I do vary mine as well depending on what ingredients I have. So you may feel free to do the same!

Ingredients:

Serves 5-6

3 heads of Romaine cleaned and placed on the bottom of a large serving plate or platter. (I do cut the lettuce for my children)
2 tomatoes, cut in wedges, about 6 to 8 wedges per tomato
A generous handful of Nicoise olives (I use pitted kalamata olives)
2 Cans of tuna drained
3 eggs, sliced
A handful of new potatoes, boiled and quartered
Anchovies, optional -- but they really do add a ton of flavor
A generous handful of cooked green beans, haricots vert are best if you can find them
*Dijon Vinaigrette

I did not have tomatoes so I used sliced red peppers and my kids love cucumber so cucumber always works itself into our version!


Arrange all your ingredients on a plate so that the presentation appeals to the diner as much as the flavors do. Pour desired amount of dressing over the salad and serve immediately!

Dijon Vinaigrette

Ingredients
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1/2 tablespoon minced shallot
1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Place all ingredients in a mason jar and shake well. (Keeps nicely for up to a week or so. No need for refrigeration)

A Valentine Lunch

My friend Emily came over for lunch yesterday. I hadn't seen her in ages and I wanted something that was light, relatively fuss-free and that we could linger over. So I made a Valentine Salad that I served along with a nice crusty baguette and garlic, olive oil and butter spread, Pellegrino, a fresh, light white wine. For dessert we had miniature heart-shaped fudge brownies, and little cranberry almond shortbread cookies.




Valentine Salad

2 hearts of Romaine, picked and trimmed,
1 can hearts of palm
1 can artichoke hearts (I used the ones packed in water)
Kalamata olives, pitted -- a dozen or so
Marinated mozzarella balls, small -- about 10
1 can of garbanzo beans

Directions:
Cut lettuce into thin strips, or shred
Drain artichoke hearts, and quarter
Drain hearts of palm and cut into small slices -- if one has a tough exterior, simply remove outer layer
Drain and rinse chick peas
Cut mozzarella balls into quarters
Add all ingredients in to salad, in no particular order

Vinaigrette, known as
"Grandma's Dressing"

1 cup of light extra virgin olive oil
1/4 apple cider vinegar
4 tbs. water
2tbs. powdered beef bouillon

In a cruet or jar add vinegar, water and bouillon, shake well. Add Olive oil and shake well until emulsified.
My mother in law makes this salad dressing all the time. I was surprised by the addition of the bouillon, but it adds a depth of flavor that really accentuates the flavors in a salad. We use this salad dressing frequently here too. In fact, the kids all eat salad in this house, but only with Grandma's Dressing!

Garlic Olive Oil, Butter Spread for Crusty Baguette

I learned this trick many years ago when I was working at Williams-Sonoma. We often had samples of our product for customers to nibble on when they came into the store. The bread maker we sold there was a hot comodity. We were in a recession then, as we are now, and people were looking for ways to dine with friends that was less expensive than going out to dinner. They loved the idea of being able to make home made bread with ease. This spread was one we came up with at the time that we offered along with the warm, fresh breads that emerged from the bread bakers. It was met with rave reviews!

1 stick of butter, room temperature
1/2 cup of olive oil
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
In a small food processor combine all ingredients and mix well.
I like to serve the butter in small ramekins

Dessert...
The brownies were made by using my old standby-- my favorite tried and true recipe. I substituted the nut pieces for semi-sweet chocolate chips. About 3/4 of a bag's worth!




Cranberry Almond Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter
1/2 cup of sugar
2 cups of flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup of dried cranberries


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cream butter and sugar together until well blended and stiff, add the vanilla and mix well. Add the flour and mix well. Fold in cranberries. Place dough onto a lightly greased tart tin or jelly roll pan. Make sure that dough is evenly spread. Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool and harden and with cookie cutter cut out hearts. (For the best results place the sheet in the freezer for a few minutes)