Dorie Greenspan's Bacon and Eggs and Asparagus Recipe
divides her time between an apartment in Paris and
one in New York. She is best known for
her baking books, which won her the Beard award. But once she had a Parisian kitchen to cook
in, she soon expanded her repertoire beyond butter cookies and chocolate
éclairs. Julia Child paid Ms. Greenspan
the compliment of saying “You write recipes the way I do.”. That is to say, Ms. Greenspan, like Ms.
Child, leaves nothing out. Famously, Ms.
Child’s recipe for French bread in Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume
II ran to 22 pages! Ms. Greenspan’s
recipe for today’s Bacon and Eggs and Asparagus Salad ran only to three after a
two-page introduction to Asparagus itself.
But it so complete, it’s impossible to screw it up.
Not that this is in any way a salad that’s
thrown together in five minutes.
Instead, Ms. Greenspan introduces us, or me at least, to a new way of
- cooking eggs. Boiled till they are just
- set, then carefully peeled and finally rewarmed by rolling them around in bacon
- fat, they were something Ms. Greenspan observed at a café in Paris and then translated for
- the home cook. You’ll
- notice that our pictures show two eggs per plate. This is because I was terrified that I would
- not be able to de-shell the eggs without breaking them. In fact, it wasn’t that hard at all and I
- ended up with two a plate. I made this
- dish using slab bacon cut into two ¼ inch thick slices. Ms. Greenspan called for 6 strips of bacon—no
- word on thickness. I’d highly recommend
- this as a brunch or lunch dish but it would make a super dinner salad. Here is the recipe:
- Recipe for Dorie Greenspan’s Bacon and Egg and Asparagus
- Salad Serve 4. Takes about 40 minutes to
- make.
- 1/4 teaspoon Dijon
- mustard
- 1
- tablespoon Sherry vinegar
- 1
- tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1
- tablespoon hazelnut or walnut oil
- Salt
- and freshly-ground black pepper
- 4
- large eggs, cold, extremely fresh
- 20
- asparagus spears, preferably thick, trimmed and peeled
- 6
- slices Applewood Smoked Bacon
- 3
- handfuls mesclun or other mixed salad greens, rinsed and dried
- 1/3
- cup hazelnuts or walnuts, chopped
- First, make the
- vinaigrette:
- Put
- all the ingredients in a small jar, cover, and shake to blend; or use a small
- bowl and a whisk. Set aside, and shake
- (or whisk) again before using. (You can make the vinaigrette up to a week in
- advance and keep it in the fridge.)
- 1. Bring
- a medium saucepan of heavily salted water to a boil. One by one, put the cold
- eggs on a spoon and slowly and gently lower them into the water (saying a
- little don’t-let-my-egg-break prayer on the way down). Allow the eggs to boil
- for exactly 6 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat, lift the eggs into a
- strainer, and run them under cold water to cool them quickly. Fill the pan with
- cold water and leave the eggs in the water until needed.
- 2. Bring
- a large skillet of salted water to a boil. Slip the asparagus into the pan and
- cook for 4 minutes, or until you can pierce the spears with the tip of a paring
- knife. The asparagus should be cooked through but not at all mushy. Carefully
- transfer the spears to a plate lined with a double thickness of paper towels
- and pat them dry.
- 3. Pour out the salted
- water, rinse the skillet to cool it, dry it, and lay the strips of bacon in the
- pan. Cook over medium-low heat, turning as needed, until the bacon is golden
- and crisp on both sides. Remove the strips and put them between a double
- thickness of paper towels; when the bacon is cool, cut it into narrow strips or
- chop it into bits. Leave 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat in the skillet — you’ll
- use it for the eggs.
- 4.When
- you’re ready to serve, very, very carefully shell the eggs. It’s a fussy job,
- because the eggs are so soft, and you might not get the shells off cleanly, but
- unless you break into the yolks, it will be fine. Rinse the eggs to remove any
- bits of shell and pat them dry. Warm the bacon fat over medium heat.
- 5. While the bacon
- fat is heating, assemble the salad. You can put it together on a platter or
- arrange it on individual plates. Either way, season the mesclun with salt and
- pepper, then toss it with about three quarters of the vinaigrette, and arrange
- in the center of the platter or your plates. Toss the asparagus with the
remaining vinaigrette (I do this with my fingers) and lay the spears over the
greens.
6. Now return to the
skillet. When the fat is warm, gingerly slip the eggs into the skillet and roll
them around in the fat for a minute or two, just to coat them with fat, heat
them slightly, and color them a little.
7. Lift
the eggs out of the skillet and place them on top of the asparagus. Scatter the
bacon bits and toasted nuts over the salad and serve immediately.
Dorie
Greenspan’s Tips:A great starter for a
spring or summer dinner, the salad can also be the main event at a warm-weather
lunch. If you serve it for lunch, think about serving a hunk of cheese (or a
small platter of cheeses) as well. Nutty cheeses like Comté, Gruyère, or
Parmesan go particularly well with asparagus.
You can make the
vinaigrette days ahead, and it’s okay to cook the asparagus, bacon, and eggs a
couple of hours ahead, but the eggs’ final swirlaround in the bacon fat and the
salad’s assembly need to be last-minute.