At Londolozi you may know we often take ideas from popular and historic great dishes, some of which include our tagines, our Warldorf salad and our Londolozi Benedict; in turn they become Londolozi signature dishes, which are very tricky to remove from our menu due to guest demand!

Today, I am going to tell you about Londolozi’s Caesar Salad – one which we call ‘The CKB Caesar’ after our MD, Chris Kane-Berman who’s most favourite thing to eat is a Caesar salad and I certainly agree with him. What’s not to like about the combination of crisp village-grown cos leaves with lashings of caesar dressing, crunchy crôutons and parmesan!

Our caesar is not quite traditional in the fact that we spice it up a bit and add a wonderfully seasoned grilled prawn, or you can add a grilled chicken breast. I was delighted to find out from researching the Caesar that in the original recipe there were no anchovies, so I don’t feel so bad about omitting them from ours!

Caesar Salad history let’s us know that it was originally (and still is in the USA) a salad of romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and black pepper and traditionally prepared tableside.

Caesar Cardini – the master behind the Caesar salad.

The salad’s creation is generally attributed to restaurateur Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant who operated restaurants in Mexico and the United States. Cardini invented the dish when a Fourth of July 1924 rush depleted the kitchen’s supplies. Cardini was opposed to using anchovies in his salad, believing that the slight anchovy flavour came from the Worcestershire sauce!

Cardini made do with what he had, adding the dramatic flair of the table-side tossing “by the chef”

The first documentation of Caesar salad dates to 1946, when the newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen wrote:

“The big food rage in Hollywood—the Caesar salad—will be introduced to New Yorkers by Gilmore’s Steak House. It’s an intricate concoction that takes ages to prepare and contains (zowie!) lots of garlic, raw or slightly coddled eggs, croutons, romaine, anchovies, parmeasan cheese, olive oil, vinegar and plenty of black pepper.”

The Londolozi “CKB Caesar” on today’s lunch menu – village grown Cos leaves, medium boiled eggs, parmesan, crunchy croutons and grilled prawns – delicious!

The Londolozi “CKB” Caesar

Ingredients

Bunch of Cos Lettuce

Hard Boiled Eggs

Anchovy Fillets

Croutons – made with day old bread

Dressing

2 Cloves Garlic, chopped

500ml White Wine Vinegar

3 Egg Yolks

1 Whole Egg

1 Liter Olive Oil

1 Tsp Worcestershire Sauce

Handful of Grated Parmesan Cheese

Salt & Pepper

Method

1. Boil the eggs until hard with a soft center
2. Wash the Cos Lettuce
3. Arrange the Cos Lettuce with the eggs, croutons and anchovy fillets
4. For the dressing:- place the egg yolks, egg, garlic, vinegar & Worcestershire sauce in a blender. While blending slowly pour your olive oil in. Add the parmesan cheese. Season to taste
5. Drizzle over your salad and enjoy!

Moving on to something sweeter!

After many requests, I thought it was time to share with you our recipe for The Londolozi Banana Bread. You would remember reading about Brite, the Londolozi Baker who wakes earlier even than some of the resident wildlife to ensure these loaves are ready and warm for the guests. There is nothing better at the unsavory hour of 05h30 just before you head out on your morning safari, than a warm slice of this smothered in cinnamon butter! Yum!

Easy to make and delicious to eat – this banana bread can freeze well too.

Cinnamon Butter – very easy to make and can keep in the fridge for a few days – take ½ block of butter and allow to soften. Add 3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon and mix well. Add a little honey for sweetness if you desire. Spread liberally over the warm banana bread and proceed straight to heaven!

Londolozi’s Brite’s Banana Bread

Ingredients

500G Brown Sugar

500G Unsalted Butter

6 Eggs

1.5KG Self raising flour

20G Bicarbonate Soda

1.5KG Blended Bananas

20ml Vanilla Essence

Method

1. Blend the butter & sugar until fluffy.
2. Add the vanilla essence & eggs, one at a time until all mixed together
3. Fold in the flour and the blended banana ‘mash’
4. Mix well to combine all ingredients
5. Bake at 150*C for +- one hour
6. Serve with cinnamon butter

Brite meticulously weighing out the Banana Bread ingredients very early in the morning! Still with a great smile on his face!

The Banana Bread mixture ready for a final mix.

I hope you enjoy these recipes and look forward to hearing how your baking and salad making goes!

Let me know which recipes you’d like to see next!