Caesar Salad Made Easy
Making Caesar salad from scratch sound complicated. There's croutons to make, bacon to cook, and that dressing with all those ingredients... but it's really not that hard if you know a few tricks!
I had a job in my 20’s at a semi-fancy restaurant, and part of that job was wheeling a cart to each table and assembling a Caesar salad in front of the patrons quickly, and with style. I was terrible at it. So terrible in fact that they never let me near the customers, and fired me after a month.
Fast forward a couple decades and I’m a dad trying to get my kids to eat salad, and failing miserably - and then one day it dawned on me that there is bacon in a Caesar salad, and that my kids will eat anything with bacon in it. Despite being an atrocious “garde manger” (salad maker guy) so many years ago - I still remembered everything that went in a Caesar, and how to make that awesome salad dressing from scratch. The only catch was figuring out a way to do that quickly on a weekday. Here’s how to do it:
Salad Ingredients:
Romaine lettuce (enough to fill a salad bowl)
Croutons
2 strips of bacon
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Dressing Ingredients:
1-2 tbsp Mayonnaise
1-2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1-2 tsp Dijon mustard (optional)
lemon juice from 1/4 lemon
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2-4 anchovies (or 1-2 tsp fish sauce)
Step 1: Croutons
Start the croutons first because they take the longest to make due to the time that is required to make them crispy. Croutons are pieces of bread that have been brushed with oil and toasted. The standard procedure for this is to heat up an entire oven, then dice up bread, then toss the bread with oil, then spread it on a baking sheet, then bake it at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes. Works great, but what a waste of time and electricity. Here’s an easier way: put two pieces of bread in the toaster at about a 1/3 or 1/4 setting. Its should only be lightly golden brown when it comes out.
I do this first so that the bread can sit in the toaster and get crispy while I’m assembling the salad even though the toaster isn’t on, simply due to the residual heat in the toaster. After it has sat in the toaster like this for about 5 minutes take it out and rub some oil on it (about 1 tsp each piece), then put it back in the toaster at it’s lowest setting. This is safer to do with a toaster oven, but it will work with a standard toaster - providing that you do not leave the room, and you are comfortable with the risk of it catching on fire. I have found that at the toaster’s lowest setting it’s just not in there long enough to burn at all, and instead it gets very crispy. This is best done with vegetable oil because it has a low smoke point. Again, if you are worried about burning your house down - use the safer big oven or toaster-oven methods.
Step 2: Bacon
Frying up 2 strips of bacon is time consuming, so just put it in the microwave (covered) for about 2 minutes or less. Cook until done but not crispy. Do this early so that it’s not super hot when you are cutting it up.
Step 3: Dressing
The standard way to make Caesar salad dressing is to create a mayonnaise use a raw egg Dijon mustard, and some oil, and then add all lof the dressing ingredients. Since making the mayo is time consuming - just use mayonnaise and add a little Dijon mustard to give it a little more zip, then mince up the garlic and anchovies and add them with all the other dressing ingredients. A handy (in inexpensive) substitute for anchovies is fish sauce. I do all of this right in the salad bowl since that’s where it’s all going anyway.
A note on fish sauce
Fish sauce is a salty brownish-yellow liquid that is squeezed out of fermented fish. It sounds disgusting, but human being have been loving this stuff for over 200 years, primarily in Asian cuisine, but also in the Mediterranean. This is most likely due to the “umami” (savoriness) flavor that it adds to dishes. Since anchovies smell and taste like fish sauce, it can be used as a substitute for anchovies in a Caesar salad dressing. Why is fermented fish juice safe to eat without cooking? I have no idea, but it is. I’d be dead if it wasn’t, and there are many dipping sauces that call for it.
A note on anchovies
Anchovies are tiny minnow-like fish that are dried and cured with salt. They have a very salty and fishy taste. Many people turn their nose up at them, but many of those same people eat them every time they order a Caesar salad at a restaurant… and love them. Like with fish sauce - it’s all about that umami flavor, which is one of the five tastes (sweet/sour/salty/bitter/umami). The salad will taste like there’s something missing without it - so hold your nose and put it in - your tongue will thank you!
Step 4: Assembly
Wash and dry the lettuce (if you don’t dry it the salad is soggy). The easiest way to dry it out is to roll it up in a clean towel. Cut up the lettuce into a desired size, cut up the croutons (1/2 inch cubes is a good size), dice up the bacon, put everything in the bowl and toss. Parmesan is a fussy thing - not everyone wants it and not everyone wants the same amount - so leave that on the side for people to add as they see fit.
Why this recipe works:
It is ironic that that I started by saying how easy this salad is to make - and then wrote a 1,000 word article on how to do it - but I swear, all of this takes 5 -10 minutes to do after having done it a few times. The key time savers are the use of the toaster, the fish sauce, and the mayonnaise. I probably make this once a week, and more often that that when we have lettuce in the garden. Give it a try using the time-saving tricks, and maybe it will become a regular thing at your table as well!
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Here’s a video where I make this salad:
Here’s a quick way to make mayonnaise from scratch: