GEM CAESAR

Jack Newton

Jack Newton

28th November 2023
Jack Newton

GEM CAESAR

45 min

GEM CAESAR by Jack Newton 

Ingredients

Dressing

  • Lemon ( whole juiced )
  • Mustard ( tbsp)
  • Anchovy ( 6 fillets )
  • Egg yolk ( 4 )
  • Sherry vinegar ( 2 tbsp )
  • Garlic ( 4 cloves )
  • Worcestershire sauce ( tsp )
  • Tabasco ( tsp )
  • Veg oil ( 500ml )
  • Salt ( lrg pinch )
  • Pepper ( lrg pinch)
  • Parmesan ( 50g )

Hazelnut Crumb

  • Hazelnuts ( 500g )
  • Breadcrumbs ( 500g)
  • Garlic ( 4 cloves )
  • Lemon ( rind of 2)
  • Veg oil ( 50ml)
  • Salt ( pinch )
  • Pepper ( pinch)

Chervil Oil

  • Chervil ( 300g )
  • Parsley ( 50g )
  • Hazelnut oil ( 400g )

Serving

  • Gem lettuce ( sliced )
  • Lemon wedge
  • Grated parmesan ( 15g )
  • Picked herbs ( 5g dill, 5g chervil, 5g parsley)

Method

Chevil Oil

1. To make the chervil oil, blanch the herbs in boiling water for 30 seconds and plunge in an ice bath, squeeze out excess moisture and add to the blender with oil. Blend on high for 10 minutes until the oil slightly heats.
2. Strain oil through muslin cloth and sieve leaving overnight refrigerated to extract the most intense flavour. Strain into a bottle and keep in the fridge.

Caesar Dressing

1. For the caesar dressing mix eggs, mustard, anchovy, garlic, vinegar together then slowly pour in oil until thickened,
2. Next mix in remaining ingredients adding some water if mix thickens too much, we’re looking for a mixture that’s isn’t too thick that is will not pipe easily but will still hold its shape.
3. Pour into a piping bag and refrigerate.

Hazelnut Crumb

1. Toast hazelnuts in the oven for 8-10 mins at 170 degrees until lightly browned.
2. While nuts are cooling blended bread into small breadcrumbs, we use our day old house focaccia here for more flavour.
3. Once nuts have cooled, blend to mostly a fine crumb leaving some larger pieces for texture. Add breadcrumbs and nuts together in a pan with the oil, garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes. Mix well and add lemon rind and salt and pepper to taste.

Serving

1. To plate the dish, wash gem and cut in half removing bottom stem, pipe caesar dressing between layers of lettuce to ensure fully coated.
2. Add an extra layer on top of leaves, you want this to be overdressed essentially.
3. Add herb oil to leaves and grate parmesan liberally over leaves. Cover gem with hazelnut crumb and plate, To finish add herbs and wedge of lemon to plate.

In these challenging times…

The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall  – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.

Over the last 16 years, The Staff Canteen has built what has become the go-to platform for chefs and hospitality professionals. As members and visitors, your daily support has made The Staff Canteen what it is today. Our features and videos from the world’s biggest name chefs are something we are proud of. We have over 560,000 followers across Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and other social channels, each connecting with chefs across the world. Our editorial and social media team are creating and delivering engaging content every day, to support you and the whole sector - we want to do more for you.

A single coffee is more than £2, a beer is £4.50 and a large glass of wine can be £6 or more.

Support The Staff Canteen from as little as £1 today. Thank you.