RECIPE: The Cae Sal by Molly Baz

by |June 18, 2021
Comfort Cooking

Winter is officially here, which means it’s the perfect time for cosy and delicious food! Our Comfort Cooking collection is full of amazing books with seasonal recipes from expert foodies like Julia Busuttil Nishimura, Josh Niland and more. Today we’re featuring a recipe for The Cae Sal (aka Caesar Salad) from the one and only Molly Baz, from her new cookbook, Cook This Book.

Happy cooking!


Cae Sal - Molly BazThe Cae Sal

Serves: 4

If you only knew the things I’d do for a Cae Sal. Or perhaps you already do. To call it my brand would be to grossly underrepresent what this salad means to me. It is the Greatest Salad of All Time (GSOAT). I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, talking about, eating, considering and developing what I believe is the platonic ideal of a Caesar salad—crisp, cold romaine hearts, a thick peppery, garlicky dressing, lots and lots of Parmesan cheese, homemade croutons, and enough lemon to make it all pop. And while technically you are going to have to make a mayonnaise from scratch in preparing this dressing, it’s actually super-duper easy and not as prone to failure as you might think. Trust.

Ingredients

Produce
1 garlic clove
1 lemon
4 romaine hearts

Dairy
2 large eggs
50g grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Pantry
½ crusty baguette (about 175g)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse sea salt
Coarsely ground black pepper
4 oil-packed anchovy fillets
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
125ml canola or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Method

Make the croutons: Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Tear ½ of a baguette into irregular 2cm pieces; you should end up with about 3 good handfuls of torn bread. Toss on a rimmed baking tray with 2 tablespoons olive oil, ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt, and a few good cranks of black pepper until well coated. Bake until deeply golden brown and crisp, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool.

Make the dressing: Separate the yolks and whites of 2 large eggs. Place the yolks in a large bowl (where you’ll build your dressing) and reserve the whites for another use.

Finely grate 1 garlic clove and the zest of about half of a lemon into the large bowl. Squeeze in the juice of half of the lemon.

Finely chop 4 anchovies, then mash them to a paste, using the side of a chef’s knife until homogeneous; add to the large bowl.*

Add 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard and whisk everything to combine. Place a damp kitchen towel underneath the bowl to stabilise it so it doesn’t slip ’n’ slide all over the place as you whisk in the oil.

Starting with a very thin stream at first, whisking constantly as you go, incorporate 125ml of canola oil into the yolk mixture until it is thick, creamy and pale yellow.

Whisk in ¾ teaspoon coarse sea salt, ¾ teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, and 25g grated Parmesan cheese. Taste the dressing on a leaf of romaine—it should be salty, cheesy and lemony. Make any adjustments necessary until it tastes so good that you’d be happy eating a bowl of it alone with a side of crouts. ③ Prep the lettuce: Tear the leaves of 4 romaine hearts into 5cm pieces and transfer them to the bowl of dressing. Squeeze the juice of half of the lemon over the romaine, season with salt, and toss the leaves to coat, avoiding incorporating any of the dressing beneath just yet.2 ④ Serve: Add the croutons and gently toss the lettuce with your hands until well coated. Add 25g grated Parmesan cheese and toss again. Divide among plates and top with more grated Parmesan and black pepper.

*You are about to make mayonnaise by hand, BUT it’s not as hard as it sounds. The mustard, garlic and anchovies that get mixed into the egg yolk will help support the emulsion.

**It’s always a good idea to preseason your greens with some acid and salt so they are zippy and zingy and hold up to the dressing. The lettuce contains water, which is going to dilute the flavour of the dressing, so you’ll always need a little extra acid to combat that.

Cook This Book by Molly Baz is out now.

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Molly Baz

Cook This Bookby Molly Baz

Cook This Book

Techniques That Teach and Recipes to Repeat

by Molly Baz

If you seek out, celebrate, and obsess over good food but lack the skills and confidence necessary to make it at home, you've just won a ticket to a life filled with supreme deliciousness. Cook This Book is a new kind of foundational cookbook from Molly Baz, who's here to teach you absolutely everything she knows and equip you with the tools to become a better, more efficient cook...

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