Grilled Caesar Salad with Anticuchos Camarones

 For our Facebook live Savour the Flavour event we decided to each put our own spin on caesar salad. Since I've learned so much about tasty food from my husband's Peruvian family I decided to take inspiration from Peru with a dish called Anticuchos, which are meat skewers cooked on a barbecue. Since seafood is really popular in Peru I decided to use shrimp and make Anticuchos de Camarones. 

These skewers are brushed in a delicious spicy-tart-salty sauce and grilled so I thought why not compliment them with a grilled caesar salad? The smokey taste of charred romaine lettuce complemented the spicy, smokey Anticuchos really well.

Caesar Salad with Anticuchos de Camarones

Serves 4

For the Salad:

2 romaine hearts washed, dried and split down the middle lengthwise

1 teaspoon olive oil

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

Cotija cheese, crumbled, for serving

For the dressing:

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

3 anchovy filets

3 large cloves of garlic

1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoons dijon mustard

1 teaspoon aji amarillo paste

1/2 cup olive oil

3 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup finely grated parmesan

1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce

For the Anticuchos:

1/2 lb tiger shrimp, peeled & deveined

Marinade:

1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 teaspoon mirin

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic

½ teaspoon ground or 1 teaspoon fresh ginger

Method: combine the marinade ingredients in a small baking dish. Thread shrimp onto skewers and lay in marinade. Meanwhile, make the dressing: at the bottom of the mixing bowl toss a layer of coarse salt. Using the back of a fork, mash the garlic into a paste with the salt. Mash the anchovies into the salt and garlic late. When everything is well combined add the egg yolk and whisk to combine. As you continue working, add the mustard and aji paste, then slowly drizzle in the olive oil. The dressing should be thick. Whisk in vinegar, then Parmesan. Add pepper to taste. Set aside. Remove shrimp from marinade. Over indirect heat in a medium barbecue, grill shrimp 1-2 minutes per side, until just cooked through. Set shrimp aside. Brush lettuce with olive oil front and back. Season with salt and pepper. Over high heat, cook for one minute per side. When lettuce and shrimp have cooled you can assemble your salad: with the cut side up pour dressing over lettuce and serve with Anticuchos balanced over. Sprinkle with cotija cheese.