All hail Caesar! (salad)

It’s probably about time we had a salad featured on this blog. No, wait! Come back! It’s not that kind of salad. Sure there’s lettuce in it but this is a caesar salad. King of the salads and a million miles away from boring rabbit food. Featuring bacon, awesome croutons, anchovies, cheese and roast chicken. Hail Caesar!

We had some leftover roast chicken on Sunday. While we could have just made some nice sandwiches for a few days I thought I could put it to better use. I’m not much of a salad eater. Most of them are unimaginative, dry and pretty unappealing. Usually if you pick up a salad box from a supermarket it might have some meat in it but generally the whole package will be underseasoned and with barely enough dressing to go round as there’s some misconception that salads can only be healthy.

Well screw that. Salads can be tasty as well! That’s where this comes in. If there’s one salad that ignores the health nuts it’s the mighty caesar. Parmesan, bacon, parmesan, croutons, parmesan, anchovies and some more parmesan make this a salad to be reckoned with. Of course that doesn’t mean it’s unhealthy. It could never be described as low-fat but using good ingredients and keeping the portions balanced will make sure it stays on the right path.

The dressing is the key to the whole thing. Make sure you don’t skimp when it comes to putting the dressing on the salad itself. I don’t think it would work as well with that strange beast known as extra-light mayonnaise. Stick to the real thing or homemade if you can be bothered.

I seem to have bought the world’s strongest white wine vinegar which overpowers anything it touches. Once I added it to the dressing I had to reach for the Worcestershire sauce to try to balance it out again. Next time I’d be tempted to leave it out and squeeze in some lemon juice instead.

Serves 2

3 anchovies
1 clove of garlic
5 large teaspoons of real mayonnaise
White wine vinegar
Worcestershire Sauce
Fresh sourdough loaf
6 rashers streaky bacon
Fresh parmesan
Romaine lettuce
Roast or grilled chicken

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
Tear some chunks off the sourdough and place them in a small roasting tray.
Pour over plenty of olive oil and some good salt then place in the oven for 10 minutes, shaking them around occasionally to make them golden all over.
Meanwhile grill or fry the bacon until crispy then tear it into thirds.
Bash the garlic with a knife or just the flat of your hand, remove the skin and place it in a small food processor with the anchovies, mayonnaise, a splash of vinegar and a dash of Worcestershire sauce.
Add some grated parmesan and whizz it all up.
Check the taste and add some more parmesan or Worcestershire sauce if it’s a bit too vinegary.
Build the salad in layers with the lettuce, then the croutons, bacon and chicken before adding some shaved pieces of parmesan at the end.
Drizzle over the dressing and serve.