Category Archives: Salads

Caesar Salad

Caesar Salad was the invention of Caesar Cardini, an Italian-American restaurateur, who claimed to have created the first Caesar salad when his kitchen ran out of supplies on Fourth of July 1924. Wikipedia lists the traditional ingredients:

A Caesar salad is a salad of romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and black pepper.

We used 2 egg yolks, ¼ cup olive oil, 1 tsp Thai fish sauce, 2 cloves garlic, juice of one lemon, and Dijon mustard.

You’ll also need lettuce and grated cheese. The classic ingredient is Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan) cheese, but we like Pecorino Romano as an alternative flavor.

Mix the ingredients in a bowl and add salt and pepper:

You can add some finely grated cheese to the sauce at this stage too.

Slice up one or two heads of romaine lettuce, mix the sauce over it, and top with grated cheese:

To make it an entrée, add beef slices or calamari with chopped nuts:

It’s extremely easy to make, and quite tasty!

Chicken, Shrimp, and Egg Salad

This is a simple dish which Shou-Ching’s father used to make for them as children. It can use almost any meat – whatever you have handy. And it cooks in only a few minutes.

Eggs are always worth including. Cook some eggs in a wok at low heat with a healthy oil (we used butter, olive oil or coconut oil will do):

We added pre-cooked shrimp, and some shredded chicken meat left over from a chicken soup. With shredded carrot and cucumber, it was served like this:

Next you need a sauce. Ours was made by mixing:

  • 3 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • Salt and pepper
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp almond butter (or crushed nuts, or nut butter of your choice)
  • Optional: a few drops of soy sauce and sesame oil

The sauce is crucial for the dish; we consider rice vinegar and Dijon mustard essential. If you are serving children, add a little sweetness to the sauce with some rice syrup or diced fruit.

Drizzle the sauce over the food:

By the way, this is a good sauce also for any “safe starches” you may include in your meal. As discussed in “How to Minimize Hyperglycemic Toxicity,” Oct 20, 2011, mixing vinegar and fats or oils with starches will reduce their impact on blood glucose levels.

Serve the chicken, shrimp, and egg salad with white rice, Homemade Seasoned Seaweed (Jan 9, 2011) or Fermented Mixed Vegetables (Nov 27, 2011), and you have a complete meal in a traditional style of Asian home cooking. Don’t be shy to mix all the food together!