Frisee Salad with Poached Eggs and Lardons
There is nothing quite as wonderful as the combination of a cold and hot, rich and light and salty-yet-acidic salad. Poached farm-fresh eggs compliment this frisée salad and made more delicious with the addition of lardons; pork belly fat. Your local butcher is well stocked with this ingredient. You may substitute with bacon cubes or pancetta.
If you are lucky, you may find baby frisée; small heads of lettuce. The beauty of these is that they become individual portions, otherwise you will need to tear a large one apart.
Wash and dry the frisée well to ensure leaves have no water on them. Then place in a serving platter with tomato wedges nestled in.
To make the dressing add a light drizzle of olive oil in a skillet and heat on medium-high heat. Add the lardons (bacon/pancetta) and cook for 2 minutes; remove from heat and let them cool down from hot to warm. Then add shallots, sherry wine vinegar and the olive oil and mix well. Taste and add sea salt if needed.
For poaching add water to a pot to the height of 3 inches from the base. Then add the white vinegar and bring water to an active simmer so that you’re able to see tiny bubbles.
Crack an egg into a shallow bowl, and then actively stir the water to create a small whirlpool and immediately slide the egg into the center. Use a spoon to ensure the egg whites begin to form around the yolk. Then do the second, and third, etc… The eggs should stay in for approximately 2 minutes, and an extra minute if you like the eggs firm.
Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon to remove all water and place directly over the bed of frisée lettuce.
Right before serving prick the egg yolks, sprinkle some cracked black pepper on top, then the dressing with the lardons.
Rony Zibara
Editor-In-Chief and the gourmand-gourmet behind Poetry of Food; a food memoir which has been in preparation since he was a child. His earliest memories are in the kitchen with his mother cooking French and Lebanese dishes, and with his South American grandmother making Spanish dishes as the cook prepared a repertoire of salsas and sauces. Having grown up in Beirut and lived between Paris, Toronto and now New York, Rony’s food and travel experiences have always been part of his personal cuisine. An avid storyteller, he believes it’s not about the size of the catch, but about the day. It’s the experience, the setting, the people, and most importantly, the ingredients that turn the meal and the flavors into a memory. While not a professionally trained chef, Rony is a cook by all counts; his life revolves around the culinary joys of food, searching out new ingredients, new recipes, and new cultures. And while he loves the restaurant scene, he is not an obsessed follower. Rony’s food passions lie in the poetry of the everyday meal and not in the pursuit of the absolute ‘best’ or perfect meal. His extensive career in innovating and branding new products and experiences has been a great support and backdrop for his passions in food culture and is evident in the overall design and presentation of this food memoir.