Fresh Lemon Garlic Grilled Shrimp Caesar Salad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

photo credit: The Salon

  I had found an amazing looking salad over at the Salon Kitchen Challenge. It was the winning entry by Lucy Mercer for a Loaded Caesar Salad with lemon, garlic shrimp and avocado. It had immediately caught my eye and stomach. The salad itself is so versatile, in being that you can add more fresh veggies, change the shrimp for salmon, chicken or steak of just leave it as is (which is excellent!)

I have made a few adaptions from Lucy's Original Recipe work with what is available from the Cowtruck and to also adapt to what I already had in my fridge too ;)

Caesar Dressing:

 2 lg egg yolks
 1 tbsp  of fresh lemon juice
 1 tbsp of white wine vinegar
 1/2 tsp of  Worcestershire sauce
 1 tbsp of Dijon mustard
 1/4 tsp of anchovy paste*
 1/4 cup of olive oil**

 In a blender combine all of the ingredients, except for the oil, and blend until full combined (you can whisk if a blender is not available.) Slowly add the oil the other ingredients until it is emulsified. Refrigerate the dressing until ready to serve. Can be made ahead by 4 hours.

* I keep a tube of anchovy paste in my refrigerator at all times. It is easier and more economical than dealing with cans of anchovies.
** Note that the recipe calls for olive oil not extra virgin olive oil. The EVOO flavor will be too strong for the dressing and over power the rest of the ingredients.

For the Salad:
 
 2 heads of romaine lettuce chopped into 1 inch bite sized pieces
 1/4 cup of grated Atwell's Gold Cheese from Narragansett Creamery
 1/2 red onion diced
 1 avocado diced
 
 Just before serving toss the lettuce in the dressing. Equally the divide the lettuce onto four salad plates. Top each bowl with avocado and red onion and a sprinkling of Atwell's Gold Cheese.  Lay 2 skewers of cooked over each bowl of salad

Lemon Garlic Shrimp

 32 peeled shrimp 
 3 cloves of garlic, minced
 2 tbsp of olive oil
 3 tbsp of fresh lemon juice
 sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
 soak 8 -  4" skewers in water

 In a large bowl combine all of the ingredients and whisk together.  Toss the shrimp in the marinade until it is fully dressed. Cover the bowl and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
 Skewer the marinaded shrimp five to six shrimp to a skewer.
On a preheated grill (medium to 400*f) lay the skewers on the grill grates and brush with the remaining marinade. After about 4 minutes flip the shrimp and cook until they are pink (about 1 to 2 minutes.)

 In place of the croutons I had made bread sticks using frozen pizza dough.

1lb of defrosted whole wheat pizza dough defrosted.
2 tbsp of melted unsalted butter
3 cloves of crushed garlic
sea salt & pepper to taste
sprinkling of chopped parsley

 Defrost the dough and work it into 8 equal sized balls. Roll the ball into tubes about 1/2 - 3/4 in thick and about 3 to 4" long.
 On a lined baking sheet or warm pizza stone place the bread sticks into a preheated 450*f degree oven for 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.
Pull the rack with bread stick out of the oven and brush the tops of the bread sticks with the melted butter and sprinkle with the salt, pepper, garlic and parsley. Return the rack to it's place and bake for another 2 to 3 minutes.
Serve the bread sticks warm with the salad.