French Food Friday...Roquefort salad with warm croutons & lardons

 

photo and recipe from here

Bonjour mes belles,

After a morning of rushing around, I managed to fit in a quick visit to the bibliothèque this afternoon where I found a Jamie Oliver cook book. 

 

It is fabulous and full of recipes from Morocco, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Greece and France.

 

Not only is it full of fabulous recipes but the photos taken in each country are stunning so even if you do not like cooking, you will love looking at the photos.

 

 

 Roquefort salad with warm croutons & lardons

 

 

 

Serves 4

• olive oil
• 250 g piece higher-welfare smoked bacon, rind removed
• 2 thick slices sourdough bread, cut into 1cm pieces
• 4 large handfuls lamb's lettuce, watercress or rocket, washed and spun dry
• 2 large handfuls radicchio, washed and spun dry
• 1 large handful shelled walnut halves, sliced
• 1 bunch fresh chives, finely chopped
• 100 g Roquefort cheese

• For the dressing

• 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

 

Put a large frying pan on a high heat, and once hot, add a good couple of lugs of olive oil. Cut your bacon into thick 1cm lardons (have a look at the picture – that's roughly the size your croutons and bacon should be), and add to the pan. Fry, stirring occasionally, for around 3 minutes, or until you've got a good bit of colour on the bacon and a lot of the fat has rendered out. Turn the heat down a little and add your bread to the pan, making sure you spread the croutons out so they take on some colour. Fry for another 3 minutes, or until they've sucked up all the wonderful flavour and are lovely, crisp and golden.



Put the extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and a good pinch of salt and pepper into a clean jam jar. Put the lid on and give it a shake, then have a taste and make sure you've got the balance right. You want it to be slightly too acidic at this stage, as you'll get quite a bit of saltiness from the bacon and French dressings tend to be quite sharp.



Once your dressing is made, get everyone around the table so they're ready to tuck in as soon as the salad is ready. Put your salad leaves on a big platter, tear in the radicchio, then pour over that wonderful, thick dressing. Scatter over most of your walnuts and chives and all the croutons and lardons. Quickly mix it all up with your clean hands so that every single leaf is coated.



Use the tip of a knife to crumble off little nuggets of Roquefort and let them fall straight on to your salad. Finish by scattering over the rest of the walnuts and chives from a height, and tuck in.

 

bon appetit à tous, Leeann x