Recipe: Caesar Salad

Caesar Salad
rec.food.cooking/Dave Jerzycki

Everyone has a different variation of this, here's mine:

Make some garlic olive oil. I use one clove of garlic, crushed, and place it in 1/4 to 1/2 cup of some good olive oil.

If you are so inclined to make some croutons: coat some day old French bread cubes with some olive oil and bake in a 325 degree oven till browned. I usually just buy some croutons at the store.

Have ready: 1 large egg, a head of romaine lettuce torn up into bit sized pieces, 2-4 tbsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice (I like lemon juice so I use at least 4 tbsp), 1/4 to 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese.

To coddle the egg, immerse in boiling water for 1 minute. Hint: I take an egg out of the fridge to let it come to room temp. Putting a cold egg in boiling water will crack it.

In a bowl, place the lettuce, toss in a few croutons, and give a generous twist of the pepper mill. Add about a 1/4-cup or so of the garlic olive oil and mix. Break the coddled egg into the bowl, sprinkle with some of the lemon juice, and lift with a salad fork, and spoon to mix. Toss in the cheese and mix again. (Before I start preparing the salad, I like to put some salad plates into the freezer to chill down.) Remove the plates from the freezer, add on your salad, and serve.