Caesar salad at ten in the
morning? Pizza and ice cream for breakfast on a cruise with Sarah? Key lime
shakes at home? Finally figured that one out.
Where would I be without my Vitamix?
We laugh about the day we
were taken in by the $400 blender. It was the first day that it appeared in
Costco. We concluded that we had reached the age of insanity, or was it
maturity, when we actually bought it. And we haven’t been sorry, not for one
day.
So there I was at ten this
morning. There was a big container of Caesar dressing that I had whipped up in
my Vitamix two days ago. It was sitting just above some fresh romaine lettuce,
and it was beckoning to me, so I answered its call. Is Caesar salad for breakfast less
bad for you than cotton candy?
When the company named the
Vitamix, I think they had the word vitamin
in mind. They demonstrate all these yucky shakes with vegetables and fruits
with the skin and seeds, of course. They add some evil-looking powder and let
you taste it. It scares me because I have to read the ingredients on everything
I eat, lest there be some migraine-making-monster hidden in the list. So I
never try their stuff. I stand there and keep muttering about my key lime
shakes. Really healthy stuff: ice, sweetened condensed milk, and key lime juice
(I live in Florida, so it’s available at the corner store.).
So what went into the
Caesar dressing? Unfortunately, you really do need a Vitamix to make it because
it's so powerful that it heats the eggs to kill whatever bacteria might be
lurking Otherwise, you have to warm the eggs some other way.
I start with an
egg or two (I’m terrible at giving out recipes—my way is taste it to try it.)
Let it whirl until the eggs are warm, just short of cooked. They dump in a can of
anchovies with the olive oil, a clove of garlic, the juice of a lemon or two,
and drizzle in some olive oil until the dressing looks like mayonnaise. On top
of it all goes a hefty amount of Parmesan and some pepper (no salt—anchovies are
salty enough). The dressing will keep in the refrigerator for a week or two.
Serve it with Romaine lettuce and some croutons. It was a really good
breakfast.
To a real restaurant, like
Keen’s Chop House in NYC, where the Caesar salad has been legendary, my method
is a sacrilege. They start tableside with a big wooden bowl. They rub it with
garlic and add a raw egg, then the lemon and the anchovies and olive oil,
mashing like mad with a wooden spoon. In goes the Romaine, that they claim they
tear (Romaine is never supposed to go near a knife.) and then the Parmesan. It’s
really good, but costs a small fortune. About now my mouth is watering for the
mutton chop dinner. If you haven’t been there, you won’t understand.
But back to my Vitamix: If
the Caesar dressing looks like mayonnaise, it’s because mayonnaise is made from
nothing but eggs, lemon, and oil. Try making your own with really good olive oil: Hellmann’s
beware. The same emulsion method works for Hollandaise sauce, but you use less
lemon and butter instead of all. The trick is the Vitamix. I never could make
it work with the Cuisinart. I guess it just doesn’t spin fast enough.
Oh no, it’s lunch time. May
I have some more Caesar salad?
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