Salad Lyonnais (or Salade aux Lardons)

Ubiquitous throughout Lyon‘s bouchons, bistros and mères, this is a great main course salad. Placing a poached egg on top of the salad is simply old school genius. No wonder Lyon claims to be the gastronomic capital of Europe.

Fresh eggs, one per person
Thick cut bacon (2 pieces per person) or lardons-- slab bacon, if you can get it
Frisee, or curly endive lettuce for as many portions as desired
Lemon dressing (see below)
Fresh cracked black pepper

1) Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Place an egg in a soup spoon and carefully lower it into the water, continue until all eggs are in the water. Bring back to a strong simmer, but not a boil, and cook for 4 minutes (this must be timed). When done, remove from water immediately. This will produce a runny yolk, which is crucial for this salad.

2) While the eggs are poaching, cut the bacon or lardons into ½ inch pieces and fry until cooked to your liking. Drain on paper towels.

3) Dress the frisee and arrange on plates. Scatter cooked bacon. Very carefully, peel the eggs and place one on top of each salad. As the egg is cut open the yolk will ooze down into the salad (yum!). Crack pepper on top. Serve immediately.

I was cheeky enough to place a ’BBQ Salmon Burger’ sans bbq sauce (find the recipe under Seafood on this site) on top of this salad, with the poached egg balanced on top of the salmon. It was sublime…