rachel

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Caesar Salad with Cajun Prawns

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Ingredients

Salad:

  • 150g baby cos leaves, picked, rinsed and carefully dried
  • 300g tinned anchovies
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled and grated
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 5 tsp red wine vinegar
  • ½ tsp lemon juice
  • 25g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 egg yolk
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 125ml extra virgin olive oil

Cajun Prawns:

  • 15 fresh tiger prawns, shelled with tails intact
  • 3-4 tbsp Cajun spice mix
  • 2 tsp olive oil

Garnishes:

  • 50g Parmesan shavings
  • 5 quails eggs
  • cracked black pepper
  • 5 thin slices of pancetta
  • 5 pre-marinated white anchovies
  • 5 slices of foccacia, frozen (about 2x10 inch strips)
  • oil for deep frying

Caesar salad is my favourite salad in the whole wide world, but I rarely make it since the dressing has so many components and I can't usually be bothered. However, I needed a fairly substantial starter to go with my duck confit, so I decided to do this. I ate something similar in a restaurant once, and this is my version of it. (Serves 5)

Salad Dressing:

  1. Using a mortar and pestle, place a pinch of salt in first, then bash up the anchovies, and garlic. (The salt will act as an abrasive surface.)
  2. Add in the egg yolk, mustard, Worscestershire sauce, vinegar, and Parmesan, then bash it up again.
  3. Scrape the sauce off the pestle, then add in 1 tsp of black pepper (the powdered sort) and whisk in the olive oil (which should be drizzled in), until the mixture emulsifies. Add in the lemon juice, and whisk again.
  4. Correct the seasoning if necessary, and set aside in the refrigerator.

Note: You will have about 5x the amount of dressing you need, so refrigerate the leftover in a tightly sealed container. It's difficult to make it in any smaller amount, and anyway it's always nice to have some homemade dressing in the fridge.

Bread rings:

  1. Using a small cylindrical tin as the mould (or a medium sized cucumber), grease the outside of the tin, then wrap one slice of bread around it. Secure with kitchen string.
  2. Deep fry the bread in oil over medium heat until golden brown.
  3. Remove from the oil and drain on kitchen paper. When cool enough to handle, remove the string and re-grease the tin.
  4. Repeat until you have 5 bread rings.

Other Garnishes:

  1. Preheat the oven to 160°C.
  2. Place the pancetta on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper and bake for 15 minutes until crispy. You may need to weigh it down so it remains flat.
  3. Boil the quails eggs in simmering water in a saucepan for 2.5 minutes. Remove from the saucepan, and let it cool in an ice bath. Peel, and set aside.

Cajun Prawns:

  1. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a non-stick pan.
  2. Dust the prawns with the cajun spice mix, pressing it into the prawns.
  3. Pan fry them for about 2-3 minutes on each side, on high heat, turning once.

Note: If you can't find cajun spice mix, you can blitz up black peppercorns, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, paprika, chilli powder, dried thyme, garlic and onionpowder and some salt in a food processor. Be sure to toast the spices before blitzing.

Assembly:

  1. Toss the salad leaves in the dressing.
  2. Place one bread ring on a plate, and fill the ring with the dressed cos leaves.
  3. Hook 2 prawns over each bread ring.
  4. Garnish with pancetta, quails eggs, and the marinated anchovies on the side. (I burnt the pancetta so I just crumbled the unburnt pieces over)
  5. Sprinkle with black pepper, and the shaved Parmesan.
  6. Serve, and enjoy!
  • howie
    howie says

    this looks awesome, prawns would go perfect with it.

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