france classic 1314 v1 | Page 14

Monday tips

This salad is all about preparation in advance. Get the lardons cooked, the eggs poached, the croutons made. Make sure the dressing is made and tastes good. If all of these things are in place ahead of time then putting the salad together is easy. The guests will be blown away by this hot salad. week one dietary requirements:

vegetarian: NO, omit lardons

vegan: NO, see alternative vegan recipes

dairy Free: OK

nut free: NO, omit walnuts

gluten free: NO, omit croutons

v menu Salad Lyonnaise

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Baked vanilla cheesecake with toffee sauce star ter

Classic Lyonnaise salad

Serves 4 Cooked: at oven temp 375F / 190C

4 handfuls of small leaf salad 1 slice thick bread cut into cubes olive oil 1 teaspoon of garlic granules 100g smoked lardons 50g walnuts, chopped 4 eggs

Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 10 minutes

for the dressing: 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard few drops maggi seasoning 1 tablespoon wine or sherry vinegar salt and pepper lots of chopped parsley to serve

1. To poach the eggs, fill a medium-sized saucepan 2 / 3 full with water, and bring to the boil. 2. Crack an egg into a teacup( or similar). Reduce the heat so the water is simmering and stir the water so that it is definitely swirling but hasn ' t created a vortex. Pour the egg into the centre of the pan and poach for 3-3½ minutes. 3. Then remove the egg from the water with a slotted spoon and put into a medium-sized bowl of very cold water until ready to serve. 4. To re-heat the eggs, re-boil the water and add all the eggs for about 1 minute before draining and drying. These can be cooked up to 1 hour in advance( see tips). 5. Fry the lardons in a little of the oil. Remove with a slotted spoon and put on a baking sheet to re-heat. Reserve the oil for the dressing. 6. Put the cubes of bread into the oven drizzled with some olive oil for 5 minutes or until browned. Once cooked, sprinkle them with garlic granules and season with salt and pepper. Drain well on a paper towel. These can be made up to three days in advance. 7. Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together including the oil from the lardons. 8. 10 minutes before serving bring a pan of water to the boil for the eggs. Just before serving put the croutons back into the oven with the lardons, put the eggs into the water and dress the salad by tossing the leaves in the dressing in a bowl.

To serve: divide the salad onto plates, sprinkle over the bacon and croutons. Sprinkle over the walnuts and using a slotted spoon and a paper towel to drain underneath place a poached egg on the top. Decorate with lots of fresh parsley.

notes

This salad is a classic, the essence is the warm soft poached egg on the top. Hard boiled eggs are not a substitute. Poaching eggs is a knack and you will soon get the hang of it. Cooking them in advance is easy and means that you have done all the individual cooking of the eggs before hand and you know you have perfect eggs to serve.