Caesar Salad Recipe

This time, Chef Roscoe Roberson takes us back into the tropics with a recipe straight from the Hey Love archives: Hey Love Caesar Salad!

A fun riff on the classic.  Using bitter green's with the smokey dressing gives it more depth than the usual Romaine lettuce.  I prefer the ones in the recipe but any lettuces or chicories will do.  The dressing uses smoked oysters instead of anchovies giving it the smoke while still lending the dressing the right amount of umami.  I use Hapi brand party mix crackers because at Hey Love we love to party!  That being said, feel free to use: bridge mix, wasabi peas, rye crisps, chex mix, or anything except boring croutons.  You'll also need some really good parmigiano and some fresh dill to finish the salad with. You may need a scale to measure out the grams.  If you don’t own one they’re really inexpensive and will vastly improve all of your culinary adventures.  Live a little!  

Suggested chicories mix:

One head of frisee chopped into one inch pieces
One head of radicchio chopped into one inch pieces
One head of escarole chopped into one inch pieces
One head of curly endive chopped into one inch pieces
Place all green's into a large bowl or container and run cold water over them until they are floating at least four inches off the bottom.  Let sit for at least an hour and up to 2 hours to clean and remove some of the bitterness.

Smoked Oyster dressing:

53 g of smoked oysters
35 grams of cornichons
35 grams of cornichon brine
30 grams of worcestershire sauce
500 grams of mayonnaise
1 clove of garlic grated
2 g course ground black pepper
Juice of 1 lemon

Add the first 4 ingredients to the bowl of your food processor and pulse lightly until the pickles are relish size.  And remaining ingredients and let run for 30 seconds.  Scrape sides of bowl and let run for another 30 seconds or until everything is well incorporated and smooth.
Season with salt to taste.

To build:

Spin lettuces until dry and fluffy or at least make sure they are well drained and patted dry.  Gently toss the green's and the dressing with your hands until completely coated.   I prefer to lightly overdress caesar salads but dress to your liking of course (You will have left over dressing for more salads).  
Plate or bowl your green's and then microplane a generous amount of parmigiano cheese all over the salad.Finish with a fist of Hapi crackers and some fresh dill sprigs...maybe another grind of pepper.
At this stage add fried chicken, Smoked salmon, Grilled shrimp or anything else that floats your boat.
Serve it up, and go call your Mom and tell her what a great job you did!

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