which_chick | (no subject)

In the realm of Trying New Things, today's dinner offering was Sorta-Salade Lyonnaise, starting with this recipe and diverging when I didn't have the ingredient. So, at my house, here's how it went...

Ingredient List from the NYT, for four servings:

4 cups torn frisée or other strong-tasting greens, washed and dried
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lb good slab bacon or pancetta, 1/2-inch cubes
1 shallot, chopped, or 1 tablespoon chopped red onion
2 to 4 tablespoons top-quality sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Salt
4 eggs
Black pepper.

My house had some bitter green starting with an E. Endive, I think. There is no frisee at my grocery, is why I had endive instead.

My house did have extra virgin olive oil, so I was OK there.

I dunno about "good" slab bacon. I had Weis Quality pre-sliced homestyle, so that's what I used.

Shallots and red onions do not exist at my house. I used half a very small yellow onion instead.

No sherry vinegar, top quality or bottom of the barrel. I used a splash of white wine and a similar splash of cider vinegar. I figured the white wine would be booze-flavored and the cider vinegar would be appropriately acidic.

No dijon mustard for me. I used some of Mom's home-made mustard that I got for xmas. It has chunks of mustard seeds in it. I got white wine from the above substitution, so I figured it was good enough.

I had salt and black pepper but the eggs were the small and bluish eggs of Liss's chickens (La's chickens make huge white and brown eggs. La's chickens make Extra Extra Large eggs that do not fit in the extra-large cartons so that the lids close. Liss's chickens make rattle-in-the-extra-large-cartons eggs.) Since any given egg is not equivalent to any other egg in my world, I decided to go with "Two Liss eggs = 1 very very large egg."

I was making one serving, so, y'know, modification there, too. I cut ingredients to reasonable-looking amounts and forged ahead. This is only an endive salad, after all, not rocket* science.

How'd it go?

I chunked and washed as many greens as I wanted to eat, shook 'em well to drain. I set them aside in the colander, including the endive stems and stuff. (They were fine to eat.)

In a frying pan, I put a glug of olive oil and the diced raw bacon. I fried it up until the bacon was almost crispy, then added the chopped onion. Because I am awesome, the chopped onion got translucent and sweet when the bacon was perfectly done. Go me! I drained off some fat at this point. Maybe a tablespoon. I added my "sherry vinegar" and mustard, let the lot boil briefly, then removed it from heat and tossed it over the salad greens in a serving bowl.

In a small sauce pan, I heated up two inches of water to nearly boiling. Using a custard cup I slid in two raw eggs and let them cook until the whites were set and the yolks were still very jiggly. This made a very interesting visual. I had to work hard to ignore the fact that the eggs will be *barely* warm through when removed. (Salmonella is for other people.) I removed the eggs, one at a time, using a slotted spoon and slithered them onto the top of the greens. I broke the yolks with a fork, tossed the salad again, and salted and peppered it.

And then I ate it. All. It was entirely delightful. The bitter greens stand up to the assertive dressing and the rich bacon and egg flavors. There's enough zing (from the mustard and the vinegar) to be tasted over the greens and the bacon/egg. There's smooth and rich from the bacon and egg to mellow out the mustard and vinegar. It's a very interesting and contrast-y salad, well balanced. I even liked the curly/feathery texture of the endive, which was kind of surprising b/c I normally like flat non-curly greens. And it's not at all difficult to make.

Give this one a whirl, even if you can only half-ass it like I did. :)

* "Rocket" is what British folks call arugula. Arugula is a bitter green totally suitable for use in Salade Lyonnaise. Even though I've killed the joke for you now, please laugh at it anyway.