Monday, July 12, 2010

Something Smells Fishy...

Whenever my family would go out to eat when I was a kid, instead of asking for garlic bread or mozzarella sticks for an appetizer I would invariably order a Caesar salad with lots of fresh cracked pepper on top. While it was certainly not the healthiest option out there, it was still a salad... so my parents were more than happy to let me have at it - and I would clean the bowl, with the exception of the ever-present croutons. I still cannot understand the appeal of adding cubes of stale, tooth-shattering bread soaked in oil to a perfectly decent bed of greens, but mind you I also abhor adding fruit, nuts or seeds to my salads too. I'll chalk it up to a texture thing.

But anyways, with all my Caesar ordering, I shuddered at the thought of allowing anything like anchovies onto my dinner plate. I had never tasted them, but from what my mom told me about them I really did not want to know for myself. So I would badmouth the tiny, salty sea creatures and express a kind of disgusted awe at the fact that my grandfather loved them on his pizza and would order them if given the chance. Little did I know that I had been eating the dang things for years, simply mashed up and blended into a creamy dressing or sauteed with onions and garlic before melting into the marinara sauce on my seafood fettuccine!

Well, once I found out, I wasn't really about to give up eating Caesars - I mean, I'd been loving the taste for that long, and it wasn't like the taste had changed at all! But I had never made my own creamy Caesar from scratch before. At home, Caesars were made from a head of romaine and a bottle of dressing - it seemed too much of a fuss to make the vinaigrette from scratch, what with all the egg yolk business! Then I stumbled across Lydia's (from The Perfect Pantry) recipe for "Caesar Salad with Shrimp", which in addition to utilizing the anchovy in paste form (yay, no mashing!) also used either prepared mayonnaise or Miracle Whip - one of my vices that I get a craving for every so often. So I bought the tube of fish paste, the jar of Whip and a carton of baby romaine lettuce, thawed out some "salad shrimp" I had in my freezer and gave it a whirl. Holy cow was it good! It's become a no-cook Summer supper staple for me, especially these days with the insane temperatures! This is also my submission to Marye's Real Food... Real Quick event and Meals on Mondays this week.

Creamy Garlic Shrimp Caesar
Serves 2
1/4 cup Miracle Whip
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
2 tsp anchovy paste
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Worcestershire
12 oz baby romaine lettuce
7 oz cooked salad shrimp
  1. In a small dish combine Miracle Whip, 1 tbsp Parmesan, anchovy paste, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic powder and Worcestershire. Chill 1 hour.
  2. In a serving bowl, toss lettuce with the chilled dressing until well coated.
  3. Divide between two bowls and top each with an equal portion of salad shrimp.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 235.6
Total Fat: 9.6 g
Cholesterol: 212.3 mg
Sodium: 912.9 mg
Total Carbs: 8.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.9 g
Protein: 28.3 g

3 comments :

  1. But if you get them in their tin, packed in oil, you already have the oil part! All you have to do is add vinegar, one of those eggs that's safe to eat raw, whiz up with a stick blender, and you're there! And: the eggs would only have to be boiled for 1 minute before using, if you were really worried about it.

    Anything to avoid Miracle-you're-eating-that-stuff Whip.

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  2. Sarah, you're the first person I've ever met who didn't like croutons! I thought I was alone on that one!! Yuck. What's the point?

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  3. This sounds delish! I would go for mayo rather than Miracle. I'm not a Miracle Whip gal....and you're the first person I have met that doesn't eat croutons. If you have time, stop by and link up to Meals on Mondays.

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Thanks for the feedback!