The Day After - A Nice Chicken Caesar Salad
So, as much as we try to avoid it, every once in a while you need a good hangover meal. This past Saturday we had the celebration of my move to Australia ten years ago. While it wasn't massive I certainly felt the effects the following day.
So the challenge was presented - make a nice meal that was easy on the stomach. Believe it or not, I had never made a Caesar salad, so this was a great opportunity.
The first challenge was to make a great dressing. The recipe I followed is:
6 garlic cloves
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice
Anchovy fillet
Combine garlic, mustard, vinegar and two pinches of salt in a blender and mix thoroughly. Add mayonnaise and blend together to form a thick base. In a slow stream add olive oil through hole in lid. Scrape dressing with spatula into a bowl and season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice. If desired, add anchovy to dressing to create a deeper, saltier taste. (thanks to FoodNetwork.com).
If you're going to use white wine vinegar then I highly recommend (:
And if you can, spring a little and get some top notch Himalayan salt.
The dressing...
For the salad itself I grabbed the following ingredients at Thomas Dux:
- Bag of baby Cos hearts (or Romaine)
- Grated Parmesan
- Anchovy fillets
- 500g chicken tenderloins
- 2 eggs
- 5 slices of Pancetta
First, I fried up the Pancetta and chicken (with salt and pepper).
I then poached the eggs and started assembly, adding a handful of achovy fillets to each salad along with the grated Parmesan.
If you haven't poached eggs before there are heaps of articles on how to do it - Google is your friend here. I fill a deep pan with water and a couple tablespoons of vinegar, bring it to the boil, create a whirlpool with a spoon, and then add the egg for about 3 minutes.
How it looked before the addition of the dressing. I think I can improve on this presentation next time.
The complete dish with dressing.
In the end the salad was great. I would add a bit more lemon juice to the dressing and look at a different plating method next time - but all in all a good dish. If you try it, let me know how you go!
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