Recipe of the Week

 With good intentions, I begin a series called "Recipe of the Week".  

Mike says it is the best Cesar salad he has ever eaten.  The dressing, whipped up by hand, has just the right mix of fishy, salty anchovy and garlic.  Below are the directions.  

Take three slices of oily, smelly, salty anchovies out of their can and onto a cutting board.  Don't worry about the drops of oil that coat these delicious morsels.  Chop the fish meat into small pieces. 

Peel a sumptuous clove of garlic (if you have garlic from my garden, your clove will be fat, juicy, and spicy) and coarse chop alongside of the chopped anchovy. 

When you tire from chopping these two ingredients into tiny pieces, flatten out your knife and press down on the two, working the mixture into what looks more like a slurry of combined goodness.

In a small bowl, place the yolk from the egg you just went out and gathered from the hen house coming in and separating out the white into the sink garbage disposal into the bowl.  (If you have no chickens, I am sorry for you).  Beat it up with a wire whisk. 

Add fresh lemon juice.  About half a lemon was right - around 2 tablespoons.  Wisk.  Add a squirt of very good mustard.  Wisk.  

Now dribble, ever so slowly, good olive oil into this mix whisking, whisking constantly.  The mixture is going to thicken.  I added a few drops of water when I was getting pretty tired of whisking.  

To finish, add the anchovy/garlic slurry and some shredded Parm cheese.  Whisk and be ready for a real taste bud treat. 

I cheated with the croutons and was delighted with the results.  Took some older bread (whaaaat, bread in our house??!!), cubed it and put it in a pan with olive oil.  Heated, threw in some seasonings and done!!  Croutons made without a cookie pan and/or oven!!  

Mix the dressing into your chopped Romaine, divide into serving bowls, top with croutons and cheese.  Be prepared for the best Cesar salad you have ever eaten.