Ontological discussions aside, I’ll share out my recipe for one of my favorite variations of a Caesar that embraces its origins. It’s one my friends usually request I make/bring.
It’s composed of four main parts, made in this order: the the meat, the croutons, the dressing, and the leaf.
For the meat we’re making a carne asada. You’ll want a flank or a skirt steak, or anything thinner with good marbling. For the marinade use olive oil as the base. I generally do around 2 cups of olive oil for a larger serving. Don’t sweat the exact amounts for a marinade. Add around 10% Apple cider vinegar, 10% red wine vinegar, and 10% lime juice. Use garlic, cumin, black pepper, salt, smoked chipotle peppers (you can also find them in an adobo sauce which works great - skip the sugar if you use the adobo), two spoonfuls of sugar.
Blend all of it together heavily, then pour it over the steak. I like a smoothie blender for this as they tend to work better for these small batches. IMPORTANT: don’t wash the blender, we’ll use the remains each time to influence the subsequent thing. Marinate the steak for at least 2 hours.
Next we’ll make the croutons. Store bought and homemade croutons are very different. For the marinade add a full clove of garlic into our used blender, black pepper, salt, two spoonfuls of nutritional yeast, a thumb sized portion of Parmesan, and rosemary. Add oil so it fills in the gaps in the blender. The goal is a paste, not a liquid. Blend it up. Cut up the bread into slices, then tear it into chunks. The tearing creates better texture. Put the paste in a bowl, smear it all around, dump the bread into, and toss it so it’s coating all the bread. Put it in the oven on a low broil (grill for those in Australia). Careful as it can burn easily. Check it every minute til browns, toss it, then put it back in. Repeat til the outer shell is dry but the inner part is still squishy. They shouldn’t be wet. Remove and chill for 10min before adding them.
For the dressing, half olive oil, 15% lime juice, 15% white wine vinegar, 10% pepitas, 10% Parmesan. This is your base. Add an egg yolk, black pepper, a squirt of mustard. Blend it up, taste it, adjust as needed. I skip the anchovy for the Mexican vibe this salad has as I don’t think it resonates well, but by all means go for it.
Grill the steak high heat.
For the leaf any salad leaf will do, but add radish slices as well.
Toss the leaf and the dressing, top with crouts, steak, pepitas, and Parmesan. Enjoy. Should take you 60-90min of prep.