Artisan bread/ Crack/ David Lebovitz/ French/ modernist/ my favorites/ Salad

Bacon, Sous-Vide Eggs, Garlic Toasts and Escarole Salad – Salade Lyonnaise

 

eggs cooked sous vide at 149°F for 90 minutes

Salade Lyonnaise is universally beloved across France, but not in America. You would think any breakfast-like dishes that answer the early morning cravings for salty fatty bacon, creamy eggs, starchy potatoes and toasty bread will be an instant hit anywhere. Think again. I guess you have to hide the vegetables. Call it bacon, egg and potatoes on a bed of greens. That would certainly widen the appeal of this wonderful hearty dish. Just don’t call it a salad.

This recipe comes from David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen. We, the home cooks at Cook-the-book-Fridays are making the Salade Lyonnaise this week. I agree with David’s description that

“this salad is a confluence of good, yet humble, ingredients coming together to become something more important than each could be on its own.”

At the same time, if you treat each ingredient right, they’d play well together on the plate and on your palate. A simple meal with everyday ingredients can sing, under the right condition. Well, it’d go beyond singing if you pair it with a fruity red wine, like Brouilly, slightly chilled, as they do in Lyon.

I love a big and hearty salad like this one, especially in the summer season. On those hot lazy summer days, all you feel like is grazing at different times, instead of making a big meal. This salad serves as a template. The Dijon mustard and red wine vinaigrette can easily be prepared ahead of time. Put in plenty of minced garlic or shallots as you like. Layer sturdy greens, such as frisée, arugula, escarole, or romaine with warm new potatoes or any small young potatoes. Add something salty like bacon, ham, pancetta or any leftover meat you can find in the fridge. For crunch, add nuts, seeds or croutons. Last and, more importantly, top the salad with eggs. Whatever diets or culinary direction you are following, eggs seem to play a crucial role (except for vegans) on any dish.

I’m particular with eggs. Here is my routine. I sous vide them (with an immersion circulator) in a constant-temperature water bath, half a dozen at a time, at 149°F for 90 minutes. (Half a dozen of eggs don’t last long in my kitchen.) At that temperature, the egg yolks are fully set but malleable and the whites are barely firm. With sous vide, there is no guess work. It’d never be the fastest method. But you get the exact texture you want consistently–every time with every egg.

You can crack the egg open, like you’d with raw eggs, in one swift dramatic motion. What comes oozing out is something more or less like a poached egg—with the yolk that melts in your mouth. Phenomenal!

The creamy goodness of eggs does it for me. In a simple salad, atop a bowl of noodle or, think yummy and sweet, in ice cream!

 

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10 Comments

  • Reply
    Mardi (eat. live. travel. write.)
    May 5, 2017 at 11:25 am

    Your eggs look good but I don’t know I could wait 90 minutes! The beauty of this salad for me is how fast it comes together because when I think about it, I want it THEN! (as in, I’ve been craving this all morning reading everyone’s posts!)

    • Reply
      Shirley @ everopensauce
      May 5, 2017 at 12:10 pm

      Sous vide is widely used in a professional kitchen. If you have to make hundreds of eggs precisely. Sous vide won’t fail you. If I have to serve this salad to a crowd, I’d certainly use the immersion circulator.

  • Reply
    MARY H HIRSCH
    May 5, 2017 at 7:10 pm

    What I first have to say about this post is, WOW. It’s so well done and informative, as usual. I have never tried sous vide cooking but Betsy’s husband, Howard, and a former professional chef-friend both swear by the method. I had to google “immersion circulator” to even know what it was. I have to decide if I would enjoy fooling around with this method. Jury still out. For my hard-boiled eggs, I had to go by the guess and by-golly method and they turned out a bit more cooked than I wanted (I like the French version of “raw”). Poached eggs, no problem, I use Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s method and they always are perfect. Like you, I will make this salad again but will probably stay with going strictly French, no crunch. The Lyonnaise version is such a happy memory for me. (I was even offended by David’s suggestion of cheese.) Your new design is so simple and clean. I haven’t done much searching on your blog but am curious about your choice of a title for it. Any backstory to that? Nice post, as I said. Now I am going to look at your recipe for creamy coffee creme brulee. A friend and I split it for a dessert after a long hike this week and are trying to re-create the recipe.

    • Reply
      shirley @ everopensauce
      May 6, 2017 at 3:03 am

      The title is a play on open source. I like pushing the boundaries. Improvising and adapting recipes to make them better and healthier and cleaner. No backstories, Mary. But you might find I often write about places, people and past experiences that relate to my food stories. I was attracted to sous vide since I was comfortable in working in a science lab setting in my earlier years. Well, there is not enough space to write about all that. But they will come out somehow. I’m glad you ask.

  • Reply
    MARY H HIRSCH
    May 5, 2017 at 7:13 pm

    Okay, I feel like an idiot. I completely blanked (that’s what being on-the-road does to you) that the Coffee crème brûlée was from David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen for Cook the Book Fridays. Catch-up time.

    • Reply
      shirley @ everopensauce
      May 6, 2017 at 3:08 am

      We know you’ve been busy on the road. It’s a good thing. I often wonder how you get the time to cook when you are away from your home base and kitchen. I’ll be very lost.

  • Reply
    Emily
    May 6, 2017 at 4:05 am

    90 mins for home booked eggs would be too long for me too! But cooking for a party, it would be a life saver, that Sous vide apparatus! I think, other than the garlic toast, this would be a great stand in for a meal on the Whole30 program!

  • Reply
    betsy
    May 7, 2017 at 8:57 pm

    I like your new design, Shirley. Did I already tell you that?
    This salad is the perfect template for summer meals. Mary’s right. My husband Howard is super into sous-vide cooking. We have 3 different devices and sometimes he has multiple things going at once. Delicious! It must stem from working in labs. He used to too. I’ll have to have him sous-vide the eggs some time when I make this salad again.

    • Reply
      Shirley @ everopensauce
      May 7, 2017 at 11:09 pm

      You don’t need to know much about cooking to make good food using the sous vide setup. I had that machine before i really started cooking.

  • Reply
    Double-Stuffed Deviled Eggs with Crab | Everyday Dorie - Ever Open Sauce
    April 8, 2022 at 9:54 am

    […] I want the eggs with a certain texture, sous-vide (cooking in a constant-temperature water bath) tends to deliver the best and consistent results. […]

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