Welcome - Food and ADA - Caesar Dressing

Welcome. I wasn't entirely sure about adding a blog to my site. I'm not going to update it regularly, but there will definitely be times that I want to go over something in more detail. Most of the time, that's going to be something about food, or something related to ADA. Since I'm stuck without my air conditioning at the moment due to a lightning strike hitting my neighbor's house and partially hitting mine, I decided today would be a good day to start the blog. Why? Because it doesn't matter if Owen gets the HVAC working right now or not. I'm not cooking a hot dinner on a July day. Also, Owen needs his space to work, and being a mostly retired engineer, I want to poke my nose in a little too much. He's a great HVAC tech that works for a good company. I'm going to call this a good distraction.

While I'm not going to cook anything tonight, I'm still going to make dinner. Chicken caesar salad. How am I not cooking but still doing chicken? Easy. the miracle of the Costco chicken. You'll find me mentioning the Costco chicken many times. While it doesn't beat the flavor of pretty much any other chicken we cook, it also costs less than any other chicken we get and it works when you need it to. If I was cooking tonight, I would be using chicken breast, cut into strips, seasoned with salt and green peppercorn and seared in a pan with a 50/50 mix of olive oil and butter. Tonight, it's a rotisserie chicken breast with skin removed and cut into appropriate sized pieces.

Every salad still needs lettuce. So, tonight is going to be a 50/50 mix of romaine and kale. Romaine is from the store, but the kale is grown in the custom built hydroponic wall that will likely be expanding. The more we've gone back to making things and growing things, the better the wife and I have been feeling. It's a journey just like anything else, and we'll see how far it goes. Right now, it's still expanding. Mostly retired engineer...I'm going to keep building stuff, and I like food, so it'll just keep happening until I'm out of capacity to keep things running.

Caesar dressing comes in many forms with a general target profile. Anchovies are a necessity. How much anchovy and how much lemon juice are the two biggest differences in the final flavor profile for a homemade dressing. Creamy or not is a personal preference. So, here's my homemade caesar dressing preference.

Caesar Dressing

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 1 tablespoon freshly squeeze lemon juice (about 1/2 a lemon)

• 3 cloves garlic

• 1 teaspoon stone ground mustard

• 3/4 tablespoon anchovy past

• 1 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 30 grams parmesan cheese (1 ounce - sorry, I like to weigh things in metric)

Add everything into your blitzing method of choice and pulse a few times. I really like my Vitamix and turn it on at 1, then ramp up to 6, then leave it for about 10 seconds. Not long at all, and comes out great.

Not strong enough or too strong, alter the anchovy paste by 1/4 tablespoon at a time. Lemon needs adjustment, squeeze a little more or less or add some zest. Don't be afraid to add a touch of zest directly to your salad if you're a bit shy on lemony goodness. Need it to be a little thinner, add more olive oil after blending and give it a good shake right before pouring.

If you want it creamy, substitute the olive oil for crème fraîche or Greek yogurt. Use a garlic press on the garlic, and use a microplane on the parmesan cheese. Then stir everything together. Homemade crème fraîche will be a different day, but it's 100% worth it.