French Fridays with Dorie: Bacon Egg and Asparagus Salad

I dig the photo.  I didn't dig the salad as much as the photo.  To be fair, I did not execute this recipe as written by Dorie Greenspan.  It was sort of close.  Ok, not really.  I made a lot of substitutions based on what I had in the house. I used red wine vinegar and olive oil in the dressing instead of champagne vinegar and walnut oil.  I used romaine lettuce instead of mesclun or baby greens.  And lastly, I used croutons instead of toasted hazelnuts (not because I wanted to, but because I burned the hazelnuts beyond recognition in the oven).  But the star ingredients in this salad were prepared (mostly) as directed....the bacon, egg and asparagus.  The asparagus is a bright and refreshing addition to the salad and the bacon....is just delicious. 

The thing I was most on fence about was the egg....I love me a nice fried egg every once in a while where the runny rich yolk spills out over the plate to be sopped up with bites of bacon and toast.  The egg in this salad was only mildly runny, but I wasn't really digging it on my salad.  Honestly, I should have known better.  My husband is keen to remind that when we visited Paris several years ago, I got the brilliant idea I would order a pizza with a sunnyside egg on top.  Not good and I ended up feeling sick (which I blamed on the jet lag, insisting the egg was fine).  With 2 egg dinner mishaps, I think I'll limit my runny egg intake strictly to breakfast.

Overall the salad was just fine, but I'm pretty sure my substitutions robbed this salad of it's true potential.  I'm curious to see how the other French Fridays with Dorie guys and gals liked this recipe.  Head over the FFwD website to see their results.     

Even though this recipe wasn't a home run for me, I can say I have had great success with a number of recipes from Dorie's cookbook, Around My French Table, and think this is a cookbook everyone should have in their arsenal.

Bacon and Egg Pie

You have to REALLY use your imagination on this one because I completely forgot to snap a photo when this beauty came out of the oven last Thursday. But it's so delicious I wanted to post about it sans photo. This was another home cooked meal in my recent girls getaway trip in Las Vegas. This is one of the recipes I've made several times (when I say several I mean about 4) and it always delivers! You can see a small picture by going to the recipe link on Martha Stewart's website, but really it doesn't do this yummy creation justice.

So you're going to have to trust me on this one....Bacon and Egg Pie (there's no crust on this pie) is the perfect dish for a brunch or special breakfast. What makes this so much more special than other egg bakes I've tried is the addition of heavy cream and deliciously creamy goat cheese. The egg batter is light and airy and puffs up beautifully in the oven with a gorgeous golden brown exterior. Inside you will find sauteed mushrooms and peppers, fresh herbs, crisp bacon, soft goat cheese and parmesan. It's sooooooo stinkin good! Take a leap of faith and try this mouthwatering recipe!

Bacon and Egg Pie
Recipe adapted from marthastewart.com

Serves 6

Ingredients:
Unsalted butter, for pie plate
1/2 pound thick-sliced bacon (I used about 1/3 of pound)
1/4 pound small mushrooms, quartered (Cremini's are my favorite)
1 red, yellow, or orange bell pepper, diced
3 ounces soft goat cheese (One ounce worked out nicely, Montrachet is a great brand)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (I sub chives or green onions in place of thyme)
5 large eggs
1 1/2 cups heavy cream (1 cup of heavy cream is plenty!)
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Have ready a generously buttered 10-inch glass pie plate. Cook bacon in a large skillet until very crisp. Remove; drain on paper towels. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons fat from skillet.
2. Return skillet to medium-high heat; add mushrooms. Cook until well browned, about 4minutes. Remove from skillet; spread mushrooms in prepared pie plate. Crumble bacon; arrange over mushrooms, along with pepper, cheeses, and thyme.
3. Beat eggs and cream in a large bowl, and season with salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture over bacon-vegetable mixture. Bake until egg pie is set and deep golden brown, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven, and place on wire rack for 10 minutes. Slice into wedges, and serve.

It's delicious served with fresh salsa and sour cream. A few slices of avocado would also be nice pairing.

Check out other indulgences from our girl's week....Croque Monsieurs, Shrimp Baked with Tomatoes and Feta, and Zucchini Parmesan. Two more girls getaway recipes to go...check back to see Chicken Marsala and Cookies and Cream Cupcakes.