Caesar salad with shrimp

This Caesar salad with shrimp is absolutely the best salad I have ever made. I ordered this shrimp caesar salad in the oldest restaurant near my hometown city hall almost twenty years ago. My family simply love this place. Because it’s classy, elegant and old-fashioned. No matter when you come there, food is always same perfect quality. They keep same recipes. You can order same salad after twenty years and that’s amazing.

I fell in love from the first bite. I tasted the Caesar salad made by other chefs, none of them were better.

So I recreated the same taste. What to expect? This salad is not too spicy, not too salty, not too greasy, but full of flavor, mild taste.  I’m sure you will love it. I don’t like it too salty (too many anchovies adds saltiness) and too sharp taste (too much of long matured cheese).

My Caesar salad is full of flavor, crunchy and soft at the same time. It’s cheaper to make it at home, and as I always say: Home is the best restaurant.

Unlike authentic Caesar dressings which are made with olive oil and thickened with raw eggs, this one has a mayonnaise base, which means you don’t have to worry if you’re squeamish about raw eggs.

My kids love this dressing so much that they’ve learned to make it themselves. They don’t even wait for me to make a salad. They sit at the kitchen table with a big heart of romaine and dip the leaves in.

Instead of whole anchovies, I use 1 tablespoon of oil from anchovies with no salt added.

Caesar salad with shrimp

1 serving

For the marinade

• 1 orange (cut orange in half and squeeze juice into a bowl)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• A pinch of ground black pepper
• 6 medium-sized peeled shrimps
• vegetable oil for cooking

For the salad

• 1 romaine lettuce (can be any other salad you like)
• a pinch of soft-flavored hard cheese
• 2 boiled quail eggs or 1 chicken egg
• 4 olives
• 5 thin slices of French baguette (toast and place it on top of the salad)

For the dressing

• 2 large tablespoons good-quality mayonnaise
• A drop of apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon of anchovy oil (the oil from the anchovies with no salt added)
• 1/2 garlic clove

Instructions

1. Make the marinade: Cut the orange in a half and squeeze juice into the small bowl. Crush two cloves of garlic and add them to the juice bowl. Add a pinch of ground black pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add washed defrosted shrimps and keep it for the night or 3 hours at least. It depends on the shrimp size.
2. Make the dressing : In a small bowl whisk together 2 generous tablespoons of mayonnaise, half of the crushed garlic, a drop of apple vinegar and 1 teaspoon of anchovies oil.
3. Put the lettuce in a large bowl, pour the dressing onto the lettuce, and toss well.
4. Toast thinly sliced french baguette.
5. Pour oil into a pan, add the shrimp to the hot oil and fry, turning once, about 1-2 minutes.
6. Add lettuce in the serving plate, add a pinch of shredded parmigiano, place the shrimp, olives, hard boiled egg, and toasted french baguette. Enjoy!