Garlic Lover’s Genuine Caesar Salad with Giant Garlic Shrimp and Grilled Artichokes

What’s better than a creamy caesar salad?  How about a a creamy extra-garlicy caesar salad with giant garlic shrimp and grilled artichokes, paired with a new Ontario craft brew – Augusta Ale from Kensington Brewing Company.

Do you know any caesar salad snobs?  You know, the ones that talk about “authentic” or “real” dressing for a caesar salad? Well, I’m not one of those people.  I often question if authentic style is always/ever the best.  And what exactly makes a dressing “real”?

But you know what?  Creating a caesar salad dressing from scratch is the only way to go.  You can’t sneeriously get the fresh garlic flavour in any store-bought packaged dressing.   However, rather than calling it “authentic” or “real”, I prefer the term “genuine” (please don’t be confused with Ginuwine).  I also like Jamie Oliver’s use of “proper”.

Here’s a recipe framework that I play around with when making small batches of caesar dressing (if you need more, scale it up!):

Ingredients

1. 1 egg yolk
2. a few splashes of Worcestershire Sauce
3. 5 smashed anchovies fillets
4. a squeeze of lemon juice
5. a couple big splashes of your favourite vinegar (balsamic, sherry, red wine)
6. a bit of lemon rind
7. a spoonful of mustard
8. smashed garlic – 4 big cloves
9. pinch of salt
10. pepper to taste
11. pinch of sugar
12. extra virgin olive oil
13. a whole lot of freshly grated parmesan

Instructions

1. Whisk ingredients #1-#11 in a large bowl.
2. Add olive oil slowing while whisking until it reaches the consistency that you are looking for (it’ll be a fair bit of oil).
3. Add parmesan into bowl and mix.

Lettuce and Croutons

I prefer to use straight up crunchy Romaine lettuce in my caesars salads, but feel free to riff on your choice of leaf.

For croutons, I recommend making your own.  Take a loaf of bread, cut it into cubes. If you are a garlic-adverturer like me, use garlic bread.  Toss these cubes with olive oil and salt.  Fry them on medium heat until golden and crispy OR if you are making a large amount, just use the oven.

Giant garlic shrimp

I love giant shrimp in a non-oxymoronic way.  How can you go wrong with extra large shrimpers covered in garlic butter?  Here’s a quick instructional run down:

• Melt a wad of salted butter in a frying pan over medium heat.
• Add garlic, garlic scapes (if you can get them), and some red chilli flakes.
• Sautee shrimp for a few minutes on each side.

Throw these shrimpies on top of the salad and add some grilled artichokes.  I used artichokes from a jar, but I’m sure they’d be better if I had made some from scratch. This a solid scrumptious meal for any garlic lover. CAUTION:  This salad will cause garlic breath and happiness.

 

Beer

I paired this Garlic Lover’s Geniune Caesar with a new Ontario craft beer:  Augusta Ale by Kensington Brewing Company.  Augusta Ale is a delicious session ale that adds the flavours and smells of Cascade and Centennial Hops on top of a nutty malt backbone.  DRINK GOOD BEER!

Strawberry Salad with Fried Haloumi and Prosciutto Salami

There’s nothing like fresh local strawberries.  When they are in season, I could literally eat them by the fistful.  I highly recommend you go out and get some…now (while they are still in season (there’s no time like the present)). Here in Berlin (also known as KW), you can pick up local strawberries all over the place including the Waterloo Town Square Farmer’s Market, Kitchener Farmer’s Market, Vincenzo’s, and elsewhere.

Now that you have recently picked strawberries on the mind, do you need a savoury way to eat them?  Try them in this Jamie Oliver inspired Strawberry Salad with Fried Halloumi cheese (Jamie at Home pg. 198).

What is Halloumi you ask?

From Wikipedia:  Halloumi (Greek χαλούμι, Turkish hellim, Arabic حلوم ḥallūm) is a Cypriot semi-hard, unripened brined cheese made from a mixture of goats’ and sheep milk, and sometimes also cows’ milk.^[1][2][3][4] It has a high melting point and so can easily be fried or grilled. Halloumi is set with rennet and is unusual in that no acid or acid-producing bacterium is used in its preparation.^[5] 

To make this strawberry salad and fried haloumi you will need the following:

• fresh local strawberries
• baby arugala
• roughly chopped fresh basil
• haloumi cheese
• canola oil
• balsamic vinegar
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• prosciutto salami (or any tasty thin and delicate italian cold cut)
• toasted bread

Instructions:

To make a balsamic vinaigrette: mix 1 part (good quality) balsamic vinegar with 3 parts of your favourite olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.  If your pantry isn’t stocked with a nice balsamic vinegar  and if you don’t have a favourite olive oil, I highly recommend to start exploring.  Be careful though, once you’ve entered the taste-realm of good quality vinegars and oils, there’s literally no going back to the cheap stuff.

Fry the Haloumi using the frying oil in a hot frying pan until it is carmelized on both sides.  If you are like me and like fried things that are salty…throw a pinch of salt on that fried cheese!

Slice strawberries and mix them with the baby arugala and basil.  Toss in dressing, plate, and top with slices of the prosciutto salami.

Serve the haloumi on some toasted bread and serve the strawberry salad on the side.  This can be a great lunch any day of the week.  It’s so easy to make that we quickly threw it together before an afternoon of exploring caves in Cape Croker. When we ate this scrumptious meal, my beer of choice to pair with it was Hops and Robbers IPA.

Craft beer, strawberry salad, fried haloumi…a damn scrumptious camping meal.  I love eating good food while hanging out in the wilderness.  Check out the dinner we had once we returned from the caves of Cape Crocker:  Campfire Crab Seafood Bake

Campfire Crab Seafood Bake

Does the thought of camping food bring up visions of hot dogs and chips?  If so, the post might be perfect for you.  Hopefully, it will both change your food thoughts and camping food behaviours.

Crab seafood bake has become my favourite dish (camping, restaurantouring, and otherwise).  What’s better than seafood, new potatoes, and corn steamed in a white wine and butter sauce?  Furthermore, this meal is criminally easy to make over a campfire after a day of hiking, swimming, boating, or whatever you like to do in the great Canadian outdoors.

Things you’ll need:

• Disposable baking tray with lid (lid can be replaced by aluminum foil)
• Smokey Seafood Seasoning (available at Bulk Barn, alternatives:  your own seafood seasoning blend or Old Bay Seasoning)
• White wine (enough for the dish and to drink along with the meal)
• Butter
• Lemon
• Italian flat parsley
• Onion
• Corn on the cob
• Baby new red potatoes
• Crab clusters (pre-cooked, at least one per person)
• Shrimps (uncooked, 6 per person)

Cooking instructions:

1. Build a decent fire.
2. Chop up the parsley, onion, new potatoes, and cut the corn cobs in half.  Place into tray.
3. Add several glugs of white wine, juice of the lemon, some healthy globs of butter, and a fair bit of the smokey seafood seasoning.
4. Cover tray and place over fire until potatoes and corn are cooked.
5. Once the veg is ready, add crab and shrimps (other seafood like scallops and mussels could also be added).  More butter can also be added here (butter is good).
6. Cook for a short amount of time until the shrimp are fully cooked.
7. Eat your heart out.

For the version in the photos (taken at Cape Croker Park on the Bruce Peninsula), we used Two Oceans Sauvignon Blanc, but any white wine that you enjoy will do.  On other recent camping outings, we’ve also made this dish with Mill Street Lemon Tea Beer.  Campfire crab seafood bake is one of the most scrumptious campfire meals possible.  Seriously, try it the next time you are camping and you won’t be disappointed.