Friseé aux Lardons (and how to poach an egg)

Oh, pardon moi. This is a fancy French salad. Très fancy. The cooking class I recently attended at The Chopping Block simply called it "bistro salad with homemade croutons". But when I arrived at the class and saw the ingredients - hello, old friend! It's one of my favorite salads from a restaurant in New York that closed (Le Gamin). Frisée lettuce, lardons (bacon pieces), vinaigrette, and a poached egg on top. Peter reminded me that their version had some sort of blue cheese crumbles (I think Roquefort), but this version has croutons which I think I prefer. So I'm going to call it "frisée aux lardons" because when this salad and I first met, it was at Le Gamin and that's what they called it. Seriously...does it get any better than a salad with bacon and a poached egg?



That's one head of frisée lettuce. It doesn't look very big when it's tied up in a tight little bundle at the store, but one is plenty for two people. Breaking news. I have just learned, via the internet, that frisée is baby curly endive. And the recipe from cooking class calls for curly endive. So I think you would be ok using either.

Serves 6
croutons:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cups French bread (about 1/2 baguette), day old, cubed into bite-sized pieces
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place oil in a large mixing bowl. Add bread and toss thoroughly with oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place bread on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. (It's ok if your bread isn't a day old, it's going to get just as crispy in the oven).

salad and dressing:
4 bacon slices, cut into lardons
1 shallot, finely chopped
2-4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
6 eggs
1 head curly endive (or 2-3 heads frisée), cleaned and cut into big pieces
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

Heat a grill pan or saute pan over medium heat with a little grapeseed oil or extra virgin olive oil. Add the frisée and wilt just a bit on all sides to soften the lettuce; it should only cook for about a minute total. Cut into smaller pieces.

Place bacon in a cold skillet and heat over medium heat until just crisp. Add shallots and gently sauté until aromatic, about 1 minute.



Remove from heat and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar and scrape pan bottom to loosen the browned bacon bits. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add more vinegar if necessary, or a little olive oil if it's too tart.

To poach the eggs: fill a large, shallow pan with water and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low to drop water to poaching temperature (barely simmering - almost no movement but steam rising). Add 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to water. Crack each egg into a small bowl and right before you pour it into the hot water, stir the water so it's gently swirling around the pan. Cook the egg until whites turn white and yolks just begin to cook, about 4-6 minutes. Yolks should still be soft. Keep the water gently moving throughout the cooking time. Remove eggs with a slotted spoon to drain excess water.




While the eggs are poaching toss frisée and croutons in a large bowl. Add the warm vinaigrette and toss thoroughly.



Taste and season further as needed. Portion servings into individual plates or bowls and serve immediately topped with an egg.



Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop the presses. Do you SEE that poached egg? I did that. Me. A big girl poached egg all by myself. Poaching an egg was what I was looking forward to the most in the class. I had tried before, and actually think I was doing it right but it just seemed wrong. In those pictures above, especially the first one, it looks like the whites are spreading all over the place. That's normal. I guess I expected it to look like a perfect poached egg while it was still in the water, but it really doesn't look like that until you take it out. One tip is to use the freshest possible eggs. Don't use eggs that have been in your fridge for a couple weeks, apparently the whites thin out too much.

I have to admit, I didn't give this salad 100%. I was making two other things at the same time, one of which was a first-time recipe. I forgot all about the croutons until it was way too late, and I should have grilled the frisée a little longer than I did, but all in all I was happy with the vinaigrette, the poached eggs, and the salad as a whole. I cut the recipe in half and it was just fine. It is a pretty easy salad though, everything can be done in advance (not way in advance, but before you cook the rest of your dinner) except mixing the dressing into the frisée and poaching the eggs.

Arugula Salad with Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

This is modeled after one of my favorite salads from Patsy's. Mmmm, a pizza with mozzarella, basil, and tiny pepperonis and one of these salads. The perfect delivery order.



Serves 4
1 package baby arugula
about 8 sundried tomatoes, cut into small pieces
about 8 slivers of Parmiggiano-Reggiano

dressing:
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

To make the dressing mix all ingredients except olive oil. Slowly pour in the oil while whisking to create an emulsification. Pour over the arugula and toss to mix. Add tomatoes and cheese on top.

The basic rule of making a vinaigrette is 3 parts oil, 1 part vinegar. So if you want to make a lot more dressing, or any other type of vinaigrette, just remember the 3:1 ratio.

The salad at Patsy's also had endive and radicchio, which I forgot about until just now while looking at their menu. So add those if you want...or not. I had to buy a new package of sundried tomatoes and bought a bag of them instead of a jar with oil. I think the ones kept in oil are better, but it's a personal preference.

Panzanella

I had so much to write about from last weekend (and I still have one more restaurant post I haven't done yet!) that I haven't been writing about cooking much this week, and my photos and recipes are starting to pile up. I'll start with the most recent, so here's something I made last night.

Panzanella is a bread salad, but tomatoes are really the star of the dish. It's kind of a dichotomy though - it's a peasant-style dish because it involves stale bread, but because the flavors and ingredients are very simple it should be made with really good, fresh tomatoes.



3 medium beefsteak tomatoes
1/2 medium cucumber
1/4 white onion
2 large slices of good country or Italian bread, preferably stale
2 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbl. white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
freshly ground pepper
basil, for garnish



If your bread is not stale (and mine wasn't): Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the bread into crouton size cubes and toast in oven for about 15 minutes, or until very crispy on the outside. If your bread is stale, just cut into cubes.

Cut tomatoes into medium/large pieces - cut into wedges and then cut in half. Slice the onion into very thin pieces. Slice the cucumber into very thin slices.

Check out those knife skills. Watch out, Top Chef!


Combine the tomato, cucumber, and onion in a bowl. When ready to serve, add the bread cubes, olive oil, salt and pepper, and toss to thoroughly combine all ingredients.



It's such a fresh, light salad for summer. You can chop up basil and mix in with the dish, or just add a few leaves for garnish. Even though I love basil, I actually left it out. I really enjoyed the slightly sweet taste of the tomatoes and cucumbers on their own. I chopped the cucumber and onion very thin so that tomatoes are the main flavor of the dish, but you can really do it anyway you like...as long as you have great, fresh ingredients you can't go wrong.

Greek Lamb Kabobs with Tzatziki and Tomato/Cucumber Salad

Last night I wanted to break out of the usual fish, steak, pasta/pizza routine. Chicken can be so, well...boring. So I thought, why not lamb? Rack of lamb can be really expensive, but lamb shoulder - not too bad. And perfect for kabobs. And then the menu started forming in my head. Kabobs with lamb and red onion, tzatziki sauce for dipping...and some pitas, of course. And a refreshing tomato and cucumber salad on the side.

After looking at many, many Greek marinade recipes online I came up with this one. and I must say, the fresh oregano made the difference. I usually just use dried oregano, but since this marinade only had a few ingredients, I figured I should go for the fresh version. It smelled so good!



juice of 2 lemons
4-6 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil (depending on how much lemon juice you have - the oil should be double that amount)
2 Tbl. fresh oregano, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 lb. of lamb shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 red onion, cut into square slices for kabobs
wooden skewers

Mix all ingredients except oil and lamb in a bowl or tupperware.



Slowly add the oil while whisking, so the mixture emulsifies.



Add the lamb and put the lid on, or plastic wrap if you're using a bowl, and shake just a bit to get the lamb covered by the marinade. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2, but up to 8 hours.



Put the lamb onto skewers with pieces of red onion in between, and grill for about 5-6 minutes on each side.

Tzatziki sauce:
1 7-oz. container Greek yogurt (I used 2%, but use whichever fat content you like)
2 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbl. lemon juice
2 Tbl. fresh dill, chopped
3-4 Tbl. cucumber, skinned, seeded, and minced
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth. I think it's important to use Greek yogurt for this sauce because, a. it's a Greek sauce, and b. the texture is so much richer and thicker than regular yogurt.




And last, the salad:
2 large tomatoes, preferably beefsteak
2/3 of a large cucumber
1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbl. white wine vinegar
big pinch salt
freshly ground pepper

First I should make a note - 2/3 of a large cucumber sounds weird, but what happened was that I bought one big cucumber and used 2/3 of it for the salad and the other third for the tzatziki. So that's where the measurement came from.

Chop the tomatoes and cucumbers into a medium/large dice. When cutting the tomatoes, try to get rid of the seeds and guts. Combine in bowl with the rest of the ingredients.



Heat up some mini pitas in the oven at 350 for 3-4 minutes, and there's your Greek feast! The nice thing about this meal is that 90% of it can be done in advance, and left in the refrigerator until you're ready to eat. The lamb, tzatziki, and salad all get more flavorful the longer they sit in the fridge - so all you have to do once you're ready to eat is cook the kabobs and heat up the pita bread. Opa!

Hummus Part II, and Caprese Salad

I love the hummus recipe from Food & Wine so much, I've made it a few times in the past month. But the last couple times I've made it, I've used chipotle chili powder. I eliminated the paprika, and added 1 1/2 teaspoons of chipotle chili powder.



I have to warn you, it's pretty hot. I like it that way, but if you don't want it so spicy, just use 1 teaspoon of chipotle chili powder, and you can always add more.



And, caprese salad. I feel a little silly writing about caprese salad because it requires no skill, and almost no time to create. But it's so pretty I had to share. I made it a couple nights ago with burrata instead of mozzarella di bufala. I don't know if Whole Foods always carries burrata and I gloss over it because it's $13 or $14, but it was on sale the other day so I bought it.



Burrata is mozzarella, stretched and then stuffed with more mozzarella and cream. It's so creamy that just from touching it while slicing it up, my fingers looked like I dipped them in melted ice cream. It made my regular caprese salad extra good. After slicing up tomatoes and cheese, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, sprinkle salt and freshly ground pepper, and add some sliced basil. Yum!

Veggie Carbonara & Parmesan Cups

The inspiration for this dish came from the beautiful eggs I bought at the farmstand, and from wanting to use some bright spring vegetables. I thought a vegetable carbonara might be good - replacing the pancetta with asparagus, peas, and fava beans. I could only find dried fava beans and after a couple attempts to boil them, I quickly decided to not use them. They were just not looking good...kind of yellowish and not the bright green I was hoping for.

I made the carbonara by cooking the vegetables separately and adding them to the pasta with the egg sauce at the last minute, as you would do with pancetta - cook first and set aside, then add at the end. Here's how to do the egg sauce, with the measurements I used:

9 oz. pasta (spaghetti, linguini, or fettuccine)
2 large eggs
2 Tbl. freshly grated parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta according to instructions on the package. Beat together the eggs, and mix in the cheese. Once pasta is cooked, drain and put it back into the pot over very low heat. Slowly add the egg mixture while gently stirring the pasta and the egg will lightly scramble. Make sure the egg is completely incorporated with the pasta and just lightly cooked so that it turns a pale, creamy color. Add the pancetta (or vegetables) and garnish with more cheese and freshly ground pepper.



Well...Peter gave it a 6 out of 10. Hmm. On this scale, he gave the Thai grilled steak a 9 out of 10. Oh well. I guess carbonara just isn't the same without pancetta.

Now, for the parmesasn cups. My friend Courtney sent me a message saying she had been trying to make them and it wasn't working so well - she was getting something closer to "cheese tacos". And she asked if I would give them a try. Let's do it! I found some instructions in Food & Wine for parmesan cups with an eggplant salad, so I went with that.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese for each cheese cup. Spread the cheese onto a lightly oiled baking sheet, into about a 6-inch circle for each cup. Cook for 3 minutes, let cool for 30 seconds, then drape the cheese over an upside down bowl and let cool completely.

Start with cheese grated into big pieces. I bought it pre-grated.



Here's the first ones I attempted. I made the cheese circles a bit too dense, so once they cooled they were too soft.



I tried it again, spreading the cheese out more and cooking them at 425 degrees instead of 350.




Ok, better. Still not as crispy as I thought they would be, but they looked very nice and obviously tasted good. I mean, how can parmesan cheese not taste good? Here's the second one (left) compared to the first one (right). Bigger and not as dense.




I put caeser salad in them:



So pretty! This would be a something fun to make for a dinner party. I'd also like to try making little parmesan crisps to put on top of a salad - making much smaller rounds on the baking sheet and letting cool on a rack instead of over a bowl. Courtney, I hope this helps!

Salade Niçoise

It was really hot out yesterday, at 84 degrees it felt like a real summer day. I wanted to make something light for dinner, but still use the grill...Salade Niçoise it is! I knew it would be pretty easy, there's only a few basic ingredients and the tuna barely requires any cooking. I was reading the New York Times Dining section yesterday and stumbled upon an article with a recipe for a Dijon vinaigrette so I figured it was meant to be that I should use it.



How pretty does that look? The ingredients: lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, olives, and tuna. And...there should be hard boiled eggs, but they're really not my favorite. I did try to make them, but since I never eat them I didn't really know what I was doing and they were runny so they ended up in the garbage. Not a major loss for me.

Salad:
1/2 head butter lettuce
1/2 lb. green beans
12-15 white boiling potatoes
3 vine tomatoes
handful black olives
1 1/4 lb. tuna

Assembling and cooking the elements of the salad can be done earlier in the day and kept in the refrigerator...or not.

Potatoes: Put in a pot with enough water to cover them by a couple inches. Bring water to a boil and reduce to a simmer, and let cook for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Drain in a colander and put the colander back into the empty warm pot and cover with a kitchen towel to steam for another 20 minutes. Cut into bite-size pieces. Chill in the refrigerator.

Green beans: Cook in boiling water for 5 minutes, then put in an ice water bath or hold under cold running water. Cut into halves or thirds. Chill in the refrigerator.

Lettuce: Wash and dry the lettuce, and chop.

Tomatoes: Chop into large slices, about 6 per tomato

Tuna: Salt and pepper both sides of the tuna, and rub a bit of canola oil on both sides to prevent sticking. Grill for a little less than 2 minutes on each side. Slice against the grain.

Dressing:
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon red-wine vinegar
1 shallot, minced
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Combine the lemon juice, vinegar, shallot and mustard in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until the dressing emulsifies. Add salt and pepper to taste. Whisk again before dressing salad.

I used white wine vinegar instead of red, which was fine. I mixed some of the dressing in with the lettuce, then poured the rest over the other veggies.



Success! There were three of us dining last night, this recipe is a too big for two people and seared tuna doesn't make for very good leftovers so thank goodness Scott came over to share our dinner.

Dessert was just two-bite macaroons from Whole Foods (my favorite!), so I really only took the picture because I love my cute new bowl from Anthropologie.

Asian Chicken Noodle Salad

As I write this, I'm wondering why I'm calling it a salad. Maybe because I didn't cook any of the components together, or because some of them are raw, or because I think it would be just as good served cold as it was hot. However you look at it, it was really good and easy to make, and I have plenty of leftovers for lunch today. The dressing is my adaptation of a Martha Stewart recipe.



Salad:
2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
olive oil
salt and pepper
1/2 lb. snap peas
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/3 cup thinly sliced scallions
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1 package soba noodles
sesame seeds (white or black)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spread olive oil, salt and pepper over the chicken and bake in the oven for about 35-40 minutes, or until cooked through. Cut into bite size pieces.

While the chicken cooks prepare the rest of the ingredients. Cook the snap peas in boiling water 4-5 minutes. Drain, and make sure all excess water is gone before putting into a big serving bowl. Add the onion, carrots, scallions, and almonds to the bowl.

Wait to cook the soba noodles until the chicken is done - they cook quickly and this should be the last thing added to the dish, while still hot. It's ok if the peas and chicken have cooled off, the hot noodles will heat everything up. Once everything is cooked and in the serving bowl, add dressing (below) and mix to combine. Garnish with more almonds, scallions, and sesame seeds.

Dressing:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1-2 minced cloves garlic
1 Tbl. brown sugar
1 Tbl. lime juice
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. grated fresh ginger

Combine all ingredients, pour over salad.

Soy Vay Salmon

I know I say everything I cook is easy (which it is), but this takes the cake. It's literally a piece of fish, and a jar of marinade. Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce is a sweet soy sesame marinade that I started using on salmon because my mom does. It's really good, it's just the perfect cross between sweet and salt. I had never looked at the ingredients and so decided to last night, worried that it might have high fructose corn syrup in it (the horror! My craze over corn syrup is still in full effect after seeing Food, Inc.). I should have known better if my mom uses it...it's made from all natural ingredients, and the sweetness comes from sugar. You can find it in pretty much any grocery store. Sometimes it's not in the marinade section, but on it's own by the butcher/fish counter. I made the fish last night with my version of Thai pineapple fried rice (but really with quinoa), and a faux Caesar salad (which doesn't really go with the theme...but I had leftover Romaine hearts to use).



Teriyaki salmon for 2 people:
a little under 1 lb. salmon
about 1/4 cup Soy Vay Teriyaki sauce

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put the fish skin-side down on a piece of foil, on a baking sheet. Fold the sides of the foil straight up, maybe an inch. Pour the sauce over top of the fish, and cook in the oven for 18-20 minutes, depending on how thick the fish is. Use a spatula to remove the fish from the baking sheet, and the skin sticks to the foil and comes very easily away from the fish.

I use foil under the fish because of the sugar in this marinade - when it's cooked at a high temperature, and the sauce the runs off the fish onto the sheet it burns and turns into black char and is really hard to clean off the baking sheet, so it's easier to just throw the foil away.

Thai pineapple quinoa:
1 cup quinoa, dry
2 cups water or chicken stock
about 1/2 cup pineapple, sliced into small pieces
about 1/4 cup unsalted cashews
about 1/4 cup dried cranberries

Combine quinoa with water or chicken stock in a saucepan and bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer and cover. Cook for 10-15 minutes, or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Mix in pineapple, cashews, and cranberries. Those measurements are very loose...mix in however much looks good to you.

I say this is a version of Thai pineapple fried rice, just because it has some of the same components as a dish we used to order from a Thai restaurant in Chelsea. It also had egg and scallions and sausage in it, but the best part was the pineapple. Next time I might add a few more things to it.




Faux Caesar salad for 4 people (I usually cut in half):
2 rolls, cut into cubes
1 tsp. garlic salt
3 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil + extra for croutons
1 Tbl. mayonnaise
1 Tbl. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbl. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
2 Tbl. freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
3 bunches Romaine hearts, torn into pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss the bread cubes with some olive oil, and season with garlic salt. Bake on a baking sheet for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. While the croutons bake, prepare the dressing. Mix together the olive oil, mayonnaise, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire, garlic, and parmesan cheese. Pour over the lettuce in a big salad bowl, and add croutons when finished. Garnish with more parmesan and/or freshly ground pepper.

I have no idea where I got this recipe, it's been written in my recipe book for years. Probably from a magazine. I say it's faux Caesar salad because it doesn't have anchovies. I really like Caesar salad with anchovies, I would rather just make it at home without them because it's easier. Sorry, anchovies. But this dressing is really good! The homemade croutons really make the salad, they're nice and crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. You don't have to use rolls, if you have Italian or French bread that works too. It's just easier to buy the rolls if you don't want to buy a whole huge loaf of bread.