Mountain Living

All-American Flowers

A column by Amy Cooke

Red White and Blue Flowers.

Red, white and blue flowers look pretty together any time but, this week, it is a special joy to combine these beautiful patriotic shades. The whites are usually the easiest, with bright daisies and frilly Queen Anne's Lace.

Red roses are a great choice and geraniums, snapdragons and hollyhocks are usually flowering now, too. The blues are often the most difficult but lupines, columbine, delphinium and hydrangeas provide shades from azure to royal. Combine some of all three in your most beautiful vase and celebrate the wonder of our country along with the glory of the garden. If your garden doesn't have enough red, white and blue this year begin planting some red hollyhocks and blue delphinium for next year's bouquets.

Now that you have your beautiful red, white and blue centerpiece, what should you fix for this special holiday weekend? Perhaps Caesar Salad is the perfect choice. Stories about its origin abound and contradict but one of the most told is that a man named Caesar came from Italy to live in the U.S. and worked in a restaurant in Tijuana. What's more American than that? One night he ran out of almost everything and used the few ingredients he had left to make a delicious salad at the dinner table.

Despite the fact that today you can get almost anything made with 'Caesar' dressing flavor this version of the salad lets the true flavors sparkle and shine. It is wonderful just as it is but you can add grilled chicken or fish or red ripe tomatoes if you like.

The drama and taste are biggest when you do make it at the table in front of your family and friends but, if that doesn't suit your holiday plans, you can also just make Caesar salad dressing. Put everything except the bread, garlic and olive oil (which are for the croutons) into your food processor and let it go until it is smooth. That's all there is to it and you can use it to make a delicious salad or to go on top of that grilled fish or chicken or...

Traditional Caesar Salad
Get out your prettiest, largest bowl and make this at the table in front of your guests. If possible, have the big bowl and the salad plates chilled. It is dramatic and delicious and will make this week's holiday, or any day, special. If you do not want to eat eggs that are not thoroughly cooked you can substitute a pasteurized product (found in the dairy section of your market) or use about 1/4 cup of commercial mayonnaise. You can also do what we do here and raise chickens so you will have really good, fresh eggs but you cannot begin that this week. Traditional recipes usually call for the crusts to be removed from the bread. You can cut all of them off and save for breadcrumbs but I think the crust adds flavor and texture. The last minute crouton heating is good because the contrast between the cold crisp greens and the warm toasty bread cubes is delicious but if you are worried about doing to much right at the end you can heat them earlier and use them at room temperature. Now, about those anchovies: If you or your family does not like them you can just omit them. You can also use them to add depth of flavor and people will eat your salad and think it is fabulous unless they see the anchovy can. The fish melt into the dressing and are not identifiable as anchovies or any kind of seafood. If you really like them use the entire can. If you are not sure, you can buy anchovy paste in a tube and use 1 to 2 teaspoons in place of the whole fish. One last solution is to use more Worcestershire Sauce, but, then, you would have to keep secret that one of its ingredients is, you guessed it, anchovies. Use Parmigiana Reggiano for the best cheese flavor and grate it right into the salad to preserve that best flavor.

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1 small loaf Italian or French bread
2 garlic cloves (more needed later)
about 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (more needed later)
about 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 (more) garlic cloves
1 or 2 anchovy fillets
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
about 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
about 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 heads Romaine lettuce, washed and chilled
freshly ground black pepper
about 1/4 pound Parmesan cheese

Preparation:
Remove the eggs from the refrigerator so they can become room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the bread into cubes, about 1/2 to 1 inch across. Place onto baking sheet in one layer and bake until golden brown. This step can be done ahead and the toasted cubes can be stored, tightly covered, for a couple of days.

You will need a couple of cups of simmering water in a few minutes so begin heating your kettle.

Peel the garlic cloves (and while you are peeling go ahead and peel the other two cloves that you will need soon.) Finely mince the first two garlics and place into a large skillet with about 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Start with a cold pan, cold oil and cold garlic for the most flavor. Heat the garlic and oil gently, over low heat, until it is very aromatic. Allow the garlic to turn golden, but don't let it brown or the flavor can be too bitter. Reserve the garlic oil in the skillet.

While the bread is toasting and the garlic is infusing begin making the salad dressing. Select the big beautiful bowl. Put the salt in the bowl, then add the peeled garlic cloves. Mash them together until you have a lovely, fairly smooth, garlic salt paste. Add the anchovy fillets and mash until you have a paste again. Repeat with the Worcestershire Sauce and lemon juice.

Begin re-heating the garlic olive oil in the skillet.

Place the two room temperature eggs into a small bowl that is just large enough to hold them. Pour simmering water over them and allow to sit for about one minute. Pour off the water and crack the eggs into the salad bowl. Stir the eggs into the rest of the dressing, add about 1/3 cup of the olive oil and stir well.

Warm the garlic olive oil, add the toasted bread cubes and let them heat and crisp.

Break the lettuce leaves into large pieces as you toss them into the bowl on top of the dressing. Toss gently to coat all of the leaves. Grind a generous amount of black pepper over the salad and toss again. Grate the Parmesan over the salad and toss again. Taste for seasoning and add a little more salt, pepper, lemon juice or olive oil, if needed.

Add the warm croutons, toss one last time and serve with a flourish!