Canlis Salad

Seattle has a ton of amazing restaurants, in case you didn't know that. Some of them are swanky, some are not. One of the swankiest is Canlis. I've never had the privilege of dining there, but my luck friend Jess got to go for her birthday last year. After she posted about it on Facebook I spent some time drooling over their website (their Q&A page is pretty amusing, I thought). Incidentally, in honor of the restaurant's 60th anniversary they apparently had some contest in Seattle where they had hidden golden menus around town and I think gave out clues. My brother told me all about it, but I don't remember all the details because I have two children that have sucked away most of my brain power. One of his friends found one and the price was a dinner at Canlis with 1950 prices. How freakin' awesome is that?!

Anyway, back to the website. When I was perusing it after Jess went I saw they had a recipe section. "Really?! Canlis recipes?! I could make the food myself without having to use one of the husband's entire paychecks to eat there?!" is what I thought to myself (okay, it probably wouldn't be an entire paycheck, but I don't think we'll be going to any swanky restaurants for awhile after our Joel Robuchon dinner). I saw this salad recipe and thought it sounded awesome. The first time I made it was over the summer when we had our friends Cindi and Derrick over for dinner, but apparently I never posted the recipe. When my mom and I were figuring out what we should have for Christmas Eve dinner, I thought of this salad. And this time I took a picture so I could post it! It's really pretty easy and so, so tasty!!

Canlis Salad
Source: Canlis restaurant website

Salad
1 large head Romaine hearts, cut into 1" pieces
(Wash individual leaves in warm water, drain and dry in colander then chill in refrigerator. Don't ever, ever toss a Canlis Salad with warm or wet leaves!!)
8 cherry tomatoes cut in half
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion
3/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese
1/2 cup very well done chopped bacon
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh mint*
1 tablespoon thinly sliced oregano leaves
1/2 cup croutons*
kosher salt and fresh ground tellicherry black pepper to taste

Dressing
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground tellicherry black pepper
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
1 coddled egg*

Ingredient notes:
Mint - you can't use too much mint (experiment yourself)
Coddled Egg - Pour boiling water into a cup and put a whole egg (in the shell) into the hot water , let sit for 1 minute. You may substitute with pasteurized egg mixture (found in the dairy section in cartons).
Croutons - We make our own croutons. Butter and Italian seasoning.

Directions:
To make the dressing, put the salt and pepper, lemon juice, oil, and coddled egg in a bowl and whip vigorously, then reserve. To a salad bowl add the prepared Romaine, green onion, cheese, bacon, oregano, and mint. Pour dressing over salad and toss thoroughly. Split the salad on to four chilled plates and arrange croutons, a sprinkle of Romano cheese and halved cherry tomatoes on the salad to finish the presentation.

*****

It's actually pretty easy to make and relatively inexpensive, too, which is awesome. The first time I made it I used Egg Beaters instead of coddling an egg. For Christmas Eve I went all out and did the real deal. Okay, it was only because I didn't have any Egg Beaters, but I wanted to try it the real way anyway. The dressing is so good...I just love homemade salad dressings. They taste a bazillion times better than anything you can get in a bottle at the grocery store. The mint in this adds such an interesting flavor, too. I heart fresh mint and would probably eat just about anything that contained it.

Just typing this and reading over it makes me want to have this salad with our dinner tonight. Hmmm...I think I have everything on hand except the oregano...



(Look, I even busted out my fancy china!)