Saturday, May 28, 2011

ffwd - bacon and eggs and asparagus salad

This is the second time I've made this. The reality is that I think I like the idea better than the result, and individual parts better than the sum. This is a beautiful salad though, and it's fun to make. This time, I decided to try Dorie's method for the ruffly eggs - that was fun, and they turn out kind of cute. I think that would be an easy way to make "poached" eggs ahead of time for something else.
we had some red-leaf lettuce in the garden
I used that along with some baby spinach to balance the flavors

as noted, I decided to try the ruffly poached eggs
my "poaching" cups provided an easy container to use to assemble the pouches

ready to drop into the pan of simmering water
I'm actually not sure if they are cute or creepy at this point...

once cooked, the eggs are ready to do a little turn in the bacon grease

the assembled salad as an indivicual portion
(my picture of the platter didn't turn out)
So, here are my thoughts: the dressing needed to have a bit more punch - either more dijon, use only walnut oil (since I was using walnuts in the salad), or something. We liked it, because we like all of the flavors, but it really was missing something in the flavor department. Also, I think these eggs would really look great with a bit of a sauce or dressing with some color drizzled over - to show off the ruffles - they did get a bit lost on this salad, but it was a fun process to try.

Since this is the second time I've made this, and really had the same result, I'll probably choose something different next time - to tweak each of the parts, since I like them all. (hmmmm... the next recipe in Dorie's book - the deconstructed BLT - sounds pretty good ... !)

3 comments:

  1. Your ruffly eggs actually look quite cute! Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for posting a picture of the ruffly eggs in the 'before' stage. That's super helpful. I really liked the salad but had to play around with the dressing because I didn't have walnut oil. I ended up mixing grapeseed with a couple of drops of sesame oil. Sesame oil is strong and I thought it went surprisingly well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Creepy eggs - ha, that's funny.
    Thank you for reminding me about that technique - I have never poached an egg before & it is good to know there are options, since we have to do it for the pot au feu (although The Dude claims to be a master egg poacher - maybe I should just let him take over... NAH)
    One the dressing side - I thought the right balance of salt & using additional spicy mustard brought the punch it needed.

    ReplyDelete