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This is a time-honored classic, and there is a little bit of a variability in how it is made. Like all old recipes, there are a few different interpretations, but on the other hand, this dressing is really only good with spinach, or perhaps with some other green that’s very much like spinach, like young Swiss chard. We use brown sugar, but I’ve seen recipes which use the same quantity of honey or white sugar - anything sweet will work. The bacon pieces, in the warm sour-sweet dressing made from the bacon grease and vinegar create a lovely harmony with the raw mushrooms and boiled eggs. It is not recommended to leave out any of these essential elements.
The bacon will take 20 minutes or so to render over medium-low heat. This method will produce a lovely crispy bacon which still has enough substance to be nice in the salad. The bacon might be rendered in advance, since we sweat the shallot in the grease before adding it to the dressing. For those who really enjoy onion, thinly sliced red onion might be added to the greens without sweating, in which case the grease would need to be warmed on its own before mixing into the dressing.
The spinach and mushrooms should be ready before the dressing is finished, and then it should be poured over the greens so they can be tossed in the warm dressing, and possibly wilt a little bit. Garnish the plated salad with sliced boiled egg to avoid breaking the egg up messily. Don’t try to save any leftovers.
Makes enough for 2-3 people.
Equipment:
large salad bowl
glass measuring cup if bowl is metal
egg-slicer (optional but recommended)
Ingredients:
8-10 oz spinach leaves clean and dry
2-3 ea eggs boiled hard or medium-soft; one per person
4 strips bacon render and reserve grease
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
3-4 ea large mushrooms
1 ea shallot or 1-2 Tbsp red onion
Procedure:
1. Ensure spinach is clean and will be dry by the time it is dressed.
2. Boil the eggs to your taste, whether hard-boiled or with their yolks left a bit jammy.
3. Render the bacon over medium-low heat, taking about 10 minutes per side or perhaps a bit longer, until the strips are crispy but not overly dark.
4. Prepare the base of the dressing in a non-reactive salad bowl or a glass measuring cup by whisking together the vinegar, sugar and mustard. (Don’t let the vinegar mixture sit in a metal vessel for an extended period.)
5. Once it is time to dress the salad, warm up 3 Tbsp of bacon grease and use it to sweat the shallot without getting any color on it.
6. Crumble the bacon, slice the mushrooms and peel the boiled eggs.
7. Pour the hot grease and shallots into the dressing-base and whisk together, then immediately use it to dress the spinach leaves and sliced mushrooms.
8. Season the salad with salt and pepper and toss it with the bacon pieces.
9. Arrange the salad on two or three plates, and then garnish with sliced boiled egg; if the eggs are left especially runny then it may make more sense to cut them into quarters.
Music: www.bensound.co...
22 май 2024
