Salade Lyonnaise, the perfect Summer salad

Nothing says summer is here like the NYC heat hanging low and hot while mosquitos buzz past your ears as you try to sleep at night. Everything is sticky and everything is in bloom and my plants outside wilt faster than I can remember to water them. Yesterday we took a lunch time walk to the park and I collected the wilting buds of day-lilies drooping from their receptacles along the way. These flowers have already bloomed and the sun has done most of the preserving work; when you pick them shriveled, the plant can redirect its energy to future blooms and we get to jar a bunch of their old flowers for clay pot rice in the Winter. It's a win-win for both nature and human. 

Already drying on the plant, these day lilies are asking to be collected

We sat by the water and made the decision to buy kayaks this year as our anniversary gifts. At first I thought I might surprise G and buy them myself but realized I am the least experienced of the two of us when it comes to water-related recreation. While our relationship has been far from perfect these last few months, we outlasted lockdown, quarantine and we're still here during this on-going pandemic and political trash fire. We're figuring out what it's like to choose each other every day and we deserve a little treat. Also, 'little' actually applies because these kayaks are foldable! We'll be able to throw them in the car when we go camping or store them easily under our couch. It'll sure be something wild to glide through the Buttermilk channel into the New York Bay. Not something every New Yorker will do in their time here.

We will actually get to be out on the water we've looked at every day since we moved to Red Hook!

We walked home, a little sweaty from the mid afternoon sun, and G bravely mounted his bike for a ride to the park and back. He's very good at wanting to exercise. I'm very good at wanting to satisfy my cravings. Something about the first days of summer make me think of a salad we'd eat when I was younger; an easy meal for my mother to make and a great way of getting us to eat our greens. This salad hails from Lyon but we just called it salade aux lardons, which means 'salad with bacon'. That really helped sell it to our dad. 

The ingredients are simple and well-calculated; The frisée/escarole bringing a sharp bitterness, while the bacon or lardons bring the salty and savory fat needed to cut the acidity of the garlic-dijon vinaigrette.  The runny egg on top adds a buttery richness as well as substance and color. I made the unorthodox decision to throw in some cherry tomatoes, for sweetness, and now I'll always include them. The addition of an allium, in my case: garlic scapes since they're at the end of their season, provides the perfect bond between the bacon and the tomatoes. G cleaned the pollen off our little backyard table and we enjoyed our first taste of summer together with the bugs.

Ingredients for 2:

• 1 head of frisée/curly endive/escarole
• 1 5oz package of pancetta or rough equivalent cut into small chunks

• small leek/chives/garlic scapes sliced into bite sized pieces

• 1 pt of cherry tomatoes
• 2 eggs

Vinaigrette:

• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 c olive oil
• 1/4 c white wine vinegar
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

 

Steps:

1. Wash your salad greens, tomatoes and whatever allium you picked, then set them aside to dry.
2. Heat a cast iron pan until it's ripping hot, then add your pancetta to render the fat. 
3. While this is happening, cut your salad greens into pieces and add to your serving bowl.
4. When all the white fat of the pancetta has melted into liquid, add your allium of choice and your tomatoes. Add ground pepper to your taste and let them cook, uncovered. (use a paper towel if the oil is splashing)
5. While that cooks, make your vinaigrette in a small bowl.
6. When your allium is golden and the tomatoes soft and on the verge of bursting, use a slotted spoon (You want some of the oil from the pan but not all of it) to remove them from the pan and onto the salad greens in the serving bowl.
7. Whisk your vinaigrette well and pour it on top of everything in your serving bowl. Then toss and serve on two plates.
8. Fry two eggs in the remaining oil in the pan. You can cook them how you like but ideally they have some kind of runny yolk.
9. Place an egg on each bed of salad and enjoy while tomatoes are still slightly warm.