I’m stuck here all alone in the house today. The clothes washer decided to break last night and the kindly repair man has given us a 5 hour window for him to show up today. As of now I am in the tail in of the 4th hour. Care to give me odds?
When my baby niece grows up I’m going to tell her all about the “olden days” – things like how we used to stay home and watch TV because you could not record shows or download them later, about how we used to use Liquid Paper to correct the term papers we typed out on machines, and about the days when repair men used to give 3 hour windows.
5 hours?! By the time my niece is of age she will have to take the month off of work should any appliance in her house break.
To make the best of it and because I was hungry ( and because I had some heirloom tomatoes) I whipped up this salad. Also, I was feeling a bit left out this morning when I made the rounds of the French Friday’s with Dorie crew.
So here is my interpretation:
BLT Salads – ”Deconstructed”
Of noted departure from the book version, I chopped up my sundried tomatoes and added them to they mayo along with a few pinches of dried tarragon. Instead of cherry tomatoes I used the thick slices of juicy heirlooms I had on hand from my picturesque stroll through the farmer’s market this morning. These wanted to be eaten plain but after some prodding were good enough to give their consent to allowed a salad to be constructed around them and serve as their stage.
Yeah, I get the irony of having to construct a deconstructed salad. (Did Dorie?)
Lastly, the egg was poached, it was runny, and it was deliciously rich! I used these silicone poaching pods which were sent to me in some sort of prize giveaway several months ago; I do like them.
(Note to self: remember to tell my niece about how we never used to have silicone cooking tools and actually had to poach eggs by actually dropping them in simmering water. She’ll never believe that one.)
The runny egg yolk seeped into the salad and its dressing gooping up the dish nicely. Next time, for brunch, with Champagne.
This is what you will need:
- Four slices bacon
- 2 slices bread
- 4 T mayo
- 1 heirloom tomato
- 4 sun-dried tomatoes (either packed in oil or dried reconstituted in hot water) then minced.
- 1/4 T dried tarragon
- 4 cups arugula lettuce
- 1/4 cup fresh vinaigrette.
- 2 eggs
This is how you make it:
- Fry the bacon to barely crispy in medium pan then set aside onto paper towels to dry.
- Cut up bread into small squares and fry in the residual bacon fat until golden brown.
- Season with salt and pepper half way through ‘toasting’. Set aside when done.
- In a small bowl or ramekin mix up the mayo, dried tarragon and minced sun-dried tomatoes.
- Set aside.
- Toss arugula with desired amount of of vinaigrette.
- Poach egg to desired doneness.
- A soft boiled 4 minute egg would be good too.
- Construct the deconstructed salad!
- Divide the arugula between two plates and top each with slices of the heirloom tomato.
- Put a dollop of the mayo mixture on each slice and top each plate with two slices of bacon.
- Assemble croutons around the plate. This would be a good place to assemble to before you poach the eggs.
- Poach the eggs for 4-5 minutes.
- And top each salad with the poach egg.
- Lightly salt and pepper the salad and serve.
Construct/deconstruct? A rose by any other name……its a SALAD! A good salad. Wish I’d poached or fried the egg. I think we would have felt it was something a bit more…more.
runny yolk is the world’s best dressing. sorry, vegans.
I think I’ll try poaching the egg next time I make this. I so hate waiting around for fix-it people, or cable installers, or bug guys. If only everything could break at the same time so that I don’t have to schedule away weeks of my life with waiting. At least you get to wait at home. My next thing will be waiting at the garage for the car, or the DMV!
I like the runny egg idea. I still poach eggs by dropping them in water, but those silicone things look interesting. Did you like how it worked or would just as easily have done it olden times way?
That’s so true about repair men these days – maybe sometime soon, everything can be fixed electronically and we won’t need to take off work for half a day. I considered poaching my eggs, but went with soft-boiled, just for the heck of it. I always have to change up something in Dorie’s recipes just because I can 😉 Nicely done!
Eeeeeyup … I should’ve poached the eggs. I dream of runny egg yolks. (Did I just type that out loud?)
Isn’t it nice to have a good cooking project to make and eat while wasting your day waiting for others. In between office paperwork I get lots of cooking done…while I’m waiting for someone to return a call, etc. Since I have a home office, it works. But on the days when I do go into the “real” office, I can’t believe the time I waste waiting on other people…usually when I go it is to meet someone or to work with an employee….and they never seem to be ready for me, and meeting repair men is the worst…can’t tell you how many good baking days have passed me by just waiting for them. Oh well, seems to be part of life. I do have issues with runny eggs…you probably like “rare” meats too???
I like the heirloom tomatoes – juicy tomato slices make a salad. Tradespeople are in short supply, so they have us over a barrel, I think.
Well at least you put your time to good use 🙂 This looks like a lovely departure from the original.
Love the liberties you took with the mayo and the eggs. I love a poached egg and cannot wait to try them on this salad.
Sorry – I am not on team “runny yolk” or team “mayo”, but I can appreciate the visual appeal.
And you poor niece – all of the “service” will have long departed the service industry by the time she grows up.
That loks delicious. Please tell your little niece about how I had to WALK to school when I was little and there was no such thing as drink boxes. I will wait for the repair man every day if someone would make me this salad as a thank you!
Love those little poaching pouches- I have much better luck with them than just poaching in water. This salad looks great. The nice runny egg is calling to me. 🙂
Beautiful deconstructed salad! That runny yolk all over my salad would have made my wait time far more tolerable! I may eat my words, but if my washer or dryer goes on the blink in the near future…I’m going back to washboards and clothes lines!
Poached eggs and tarragon in the mayo. Yummy adaptations!
Constructed or deconstructed….it looks delicious! I hope the washer repair goes quickly and with minimum expense!
wondered about those poaching cups. might be the only silicone thing I don’t own. the salad looks great – glad you jumped on board while waiting. Remind your niece about the days where you had to call people on the phone from not only your own home, but in a specific room where the phone was. I don’t think I had a private conversation with anyone on the phone until I was 30. but i guess these days private phone calls are passe when you can listen to strangers talking on the phone at the grocery. 🙂
I do hate that, a couple of months ago our internet went out and we had to call a repair guy. He told us that he would be there between 9am and 1pm, and then he showed up at 3! So annoying.
And your poached eggs look just perfect. I considered doing soft boiled eggs for this salad but then though I would stick with the recipe the first time around. But a little runny yolk would have been perfect here.
Egg yolks? Mayo? Bacon?
I don’t think this salad is rich enough. Wrap it in a prosciutto purse and deep fry it. The get back to me.
-bg
I had 12 oven repairs before they finally gave me a new one…sad when the repairman knows my pet and children’s names! So many wasted hours (that I couldn’t spend baking!). LOVE your salad interpretation…I’d definitely have used mayo if I’d have been creative enough to add sun dried tomatoes. Still not sure about that runny egg, though 😉
Those heirloom tomatoes, they’re such divas, always demanding center stage! But I agree, the poached egg stole the show!
I don’t know if you have Comcast Cable where you are. They are known for having crappy customer service. They are running an ad campaign to improve their image, which includes a commercial where they claim if their technician is late they will give you a credit on your account. What they don’t mention is their technician is also given a five hour window. I should hope someone could make it to my house on time within five hours!
I love the idea of an egg with a BLT.
Your salad looks fantastic, and a great use of heirloom tomatoes!
I hope the repairman was good looking at least after that waiting. I love your action shot of the runny egg, perfecto. Better than the Dorie version, methinks!
I think eggs like that are just sex on food! Its tasty and just enriches anything you put it on! 🙂 I liked ths salad, fr the vinaigrette and enjoy a regular constructed BLT on its own for those flavors.
I have those cups too. Great idea, but something is just not right about them for me. I still prefer dropping my eggs in simmering water. The whole outside cooks evenly, leaving a runny center. But with the cups the bottom, where the yolk settles gets cooked faster than the top that sits out of the water. ‘Course I am a picky bastard, so that explains a lot. GREG
Greg you picky bastard. you can see I didn’t have that problem with these cups. I had a nice even cook as the poach was in a saucepan and covered for 4 minutes. I would definitely use them again as they required so little attention…unlike poached the old fashioned, picky bastard way.