Week 4: No Misery Here (Salade Lyonnaise or Salad with Bacon and Poached Eggs)

This week a couple of things are going on. First The Geek is heading out of town for several days to attend the Microsoft MVP Summit in Redmond, WA. The other is that the DVD of the Les Misérable 25th Anniversary Concert arrived in the mail. This just happens to be one of The Geek's all-time favorite musicals (and mine too). I decided to take a break from healthy eating and make a fantastic French meal to share with him before he went out of town as we watched the concert.

What do they say about best-laid plans? French cooking is a very time-consuming process and the day got away from me. Having to work this morning meant no time to carmelize the onions for French Onion Soup (a three-hour process). Parent-Teacher conferences after lunch took Coq au Vin off the menu. And running errands in the afternoon meant no Créme Brulée for dessert. By the time 5 p.m. rolled around, I was down to Garlicky pasta (Yes, I know it's not French but I told The Geek that it was from the Mexican part of France and I think he bought it!) and Salade Lyonnaise, a fabulous salad made with warm bacon dressing and poached eggs. Dessert was an apple pie from the grocery store bakery.

The idea for the salad came from one of my newest cookbook acquisitions, The Best International Recipe by America's Test Kitchen. You see, you cannot go to just any website when it comes to French cooking because most dishes involve many complicated and temperamental steps. Screw up just one thing and the whole meal is potentially ruined. And since I don't own any books by Julia Child, I knew ATK was my next best bet.

Lyon, the region of France from which this salad hails, is thought by many to be the home of the world's BEST French food. And I have to agree: Every meal I enjoyed while visiting there several years ago was fantastic. This salad was no exception. I could not find the recipe online and so I am posting it below.

The salad comes together very quickly. My local grocery store did not carry frisée and so I bought a packaged mix of European and spring lettuce. First make some croutons. Then you fry up the bacon, fry the shallots in the bacon fat, add oil and mustard and a little olive oil, and then toss with the lettuce. Poach an egg or two and you're done.

The Results
The pasta and the salad complemented each other nicely. The Geek raved about the yummy garlic in the pasta and the bacony-eggy salad. I thought the runny egg yolk gave the salad a creamy richness that was absolutely decadent.

Ratings

• Difficulty: Medium difficulty due to the fact that poaching eggs takes a little practice
• Time to prepare:  The salad came together in ten minutes
• Prognosis: Will definitely be making this again!

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Salad with Bacon and Poached Egg
From The Best International Recipe by America's Test Kitchen
Serves 6

CROUTONS
4 sl high quality white sandwich bread, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 Tbsp Olive oil
Salt and ground black pepper

SALAD
6 oz frisée
3 oz dandelion greens
3 oz maché
4 ½ oz thick cut bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces
1 medium shallot, minced
1/3 c red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/3 c olive oil

EGGS
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp distilled white vinegar
6 large eggs

For the CROUTONS: Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the bread cubes with the olive oil, ½ tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper and spread out over a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until the croutons are golden brown and crisp, 8 – 10 minutes. Set aside.

For the SALAD: Toss the lettuces together in a large bowl; set aside. Cook the bacon in an 8-inch skillet over med-hi heat until golden brown and crisp, but still chewy, 4 – 6 min. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate, leaving the rendered fat in the skillet. Add the shallot to the fat in the skillet and cook over med heat until softened, 2 – 4 min. Stir in the vinegar and mustard, scraping up any browned bits and cook until slightly thickened, about 2 min. Off the heat, stir in the oil and set aside.

For the EGGS: Fill a 12-inch nonstick skillet nearly to the rim with water. Add 1 tsp salt and the vinegar to the water and bring to a boil over high heat. Crack 2 eggs each into 3 small tea cups with handles. When the water boils, turn off the heat and immediately lower the lips of the cups into the water at once and tip the ggs into the water. Cover and poach the eggs off the heat until the whites are cooked, but the yolks are still runny in the center, about 5 minutes.

To assemble the SALAD: While the eggs poach, drizzle the vinaigrette over the greens and toss thoroughly to coat. Divide the greens among 6 individual serving plates and sprinkle the bacon and croutons evenly over the top. Using a slotted spoon, quickly and carefully transfer the eggs, 1 at a time, to a large clean plate, pausing briefly to let the water drain back into the skillet. Once all the eggs have been transferred, use your fingers to gently slide 1 egg onto the top of each salad. Serve immediately.