Parmesan-Crusted Salmon Ceasar Salad

Boy, I wrote that title and thought, 'Wow, it makes this salad sound fancy!' And to some degree, it is. This is a classy dish that just screams summer to me. Fresh, crunchy lettuce, plump little tomatoes, a tangy twist on classic Caesar dressing, and salmon pieces wrapped in a delicate Parmesan-breadcrumb crust make this a light, healthy meal that leaves you full but not stuffed. I don't think I've ever eaten a restaurant salad that left me with the same feeling of full flavour, but healthy calorie-count.

I'm not usually a salad person, but I had some lettuce languishing in my fridge after making burgers and gougeres, so one day when I needed something clean and light I thought I'd try to gussy it up into something that even my non-salad-eating self would like. Most of my original recipes happen this way, I think: I'll look into the fridge and think "Oh, that needs to be used before it goes bad. What sort of thing could I do with it that doesn't require a trip to the grocery store?" Laziness and thrift are the mothers of my culinary invention.

This particular gem was inspired by the lettuce I needed to use, and the fact that I'd frozen a salmon steak earlier in the month, so I had some salmon on hand. I'd thought about using chicken originally (and you could probably substitute chicken for salmon here and still have a great salad), but I didn't have any chicken on hand. It was late in the week, and I needed to get to the grocery. So salmon it was, and I think it ended up being a fortuitous choice. Chicken, while a nice all-purpose meat, can't rival salmon for both clean, healthy flavor and a certain classiness that salmon conveys. Salmon has long been my go-to meat when I need to feel like I'm being good, when I feel like I've eaten to much fried or cream-heavy stuff for a few days. Salmon is a palate cleanser, and pairing it with the refreshing salad makes for a really healthy, sort of Zen meal.

I will definitely make this one again, and I foresee it becoming a staple in my summer repertoire. As long as there are fresh veggies and swimsuit figures to consider, this salad is a great way for me to feel like I'm doing something good for myself, as well as good for my tastebuds!

Parmesan-Crusted Salmon Caesar Salad

For the dressing:
1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
A scant 1/2 cup olive oil
About 1/2 - 1 tbsp finely chopped cooked salmon (I just microwave a small chunk off the salmon I'm about to cook anyway, then mince it with a sharp knife)
3 loves garlic, very finely chopped
1 egg
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 cups lightly packed Parmesan or Parmegiano-Reggiano, finely grated
Salt
Pepper

For the salmon nuggets:
1 lb salmon fillet (salmon steaks don't work so well for this, and fillets are cheaper anyway)
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan
1/2 cup plain or Italian fine, dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 eggs
3 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
Salt
Pepper

For the salad (use your favorites here, obviously, but here's what I used):
Romaine lettuce
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
15 baby carrots, sliced into small circles
2 eggs, boiled and sliced into quarters
1 cucumber, sliced into circles


Begin by making the dressing. Combine the vinegar, oil, minced salmon, a pinch of salt, and a sprinkling of pepper in a small mixing bowl and whisk thoroughly. Add the egg and a few sprinkles of the cheese, whisk those in, and taste it. Add more salt or pepper as necessary. Add the lemon juice, and whisk that in. Taste it again, first by itself, then on a piece of your lettuce. Adjust the dressing to suit the taste of the lettuce -- if the lettuce is very sweet, it may be fine as is, but if the lettuce is a little old or minerally, you may want to add more lemon juice to pull out brightness, more garlic to spike up the fresh flavour a little if the lettuce is bland, or a pinch of sugar to mitigate the acid in the dressing if the lettuce runs toward the minerally. I usually just go with whatever my instinct is, and use a combination of the above techniques to achieve a balanced taste. The key is to add things slowly, so that you don't ruin the dressing. When in doubt, spoon a small amount into another cup, adjust that and taste it until you've got it right, then adjust the rest when you know what needs to be done. When you've got the dressing to your taste, whisk it once more for good measure and stick it in the fridge to chill out while you do the rest of the salad.

Next, make the salmon nuggets. Use a very sharp knife to remove the skin from your salmon fillet. Next, salt and pepper the fillet on both sides, then cut it into nugget-sized chunks. 1 - 1 1/2 inch squares is usually what I go for. In a small mixing bowl, mix together the Parmesan, breadcrumbs, parsley, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 3/4 tsp salt. Stir this until completely combined. In a separate bowl, beat the egg lightly.

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Dredge the salmon chunks in the egg, then coat them in the breadcrumb mixture. Set them in the pan to cook, turning them occasionally so that all side of the breadcrumbs get browned. Cook until salmon is done through (about 2 minutes per side, in my experience), then remove the chunks to a paper towel and allow them to drain. Not all of the chunks will fit in the saucepan at once (you don't want them to crowd each other overmuch, it will interfere with their browning process), so you'll probably have to do these in a few batches. When the salmon nuggets are finished, they can be put in an oven or toaster on 200F to keep warm while you prep the rest of the salad.

The final step is salad preparation. Assemble your lettuce into the bowl, and retrieve your dressing from the fridge. Drizzle the dressing very lightly over the lettuce, then toss to ensure that all lettuce pieces are covered in a thin film of dressing. Dust the whole thing with the remaining cheese (remember how you only used a few sprinkles earlier?), coating each piece of lettuce in a 'dust' of grated cheese. Add whatever other salad toppings you're using (tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, croutons, etc), and pour any remaining cheese over the top. Place the salmon nuggets on top of the salad, and serve the remaining dressing alongside for people to spoon over the salad as they please.

Servings: 2-3, depending mostly on how much salmon everyone like to eat