Tonight for Dinner: Burgandy Salad with Poached Egg!

Tonight for dinner I made a (rather) impromptu dish that I thought I would share. It was easy, new (to me in method and in taste), and really healthy and fun.

I wanted to learn to poach eggs so I thought I would incorporate this into a salad with some of the ingredients we had lying around the house. I googled "poached egg salads" and one of the results rendered was the Burgandy Salad with Poached Egg. I also made a sweet potato mash as a side dish. As seen here:

First I boiled water with a little white vinegar and then brought it down to a simmer. Then I cracked an egg in a ramekin (a small bowl would work). I gently poured the egg into the simmering water where I left it for just about two minutes. Then a fished out the egg gently with one of those wire strainers that are on a handle. I then gently put my poached egg in ice water (since I was making 6 of them and since dinner wouldn't be served for another hour).

Here are the rest of the ingredients for this yummy (and did I mention healthy?) salad:

Mustard Vinaigrette (see recipe below)

7 ounces smoked bacon

Diced 10 to 12 ounces mushrooms, washed, dried, and sliced

10 ounces of mixed greens

1 small finely chopped red onion

4 medium-size tomatoes, sliced

Okay, well I realize now I didn't use onion. I'll have to try that next time. Also I just used Romaine lettuce since that's what we had. We also had some leftover cooked bacon so I just put it on a cookie sheet so it crisped up a bit more and crumbled it after that.

The dressing was SUPER easy and really makes the salad. It wouldn't have been the same with bottled vinaigrette:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

A little hot water

Coarse salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/4 cup chopped parsley leaves

Just put all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.

I also did a sweet potato mash. A lot of people think you have to add brown sugar or a ton of butter to sweet potatoes, NOT TRUE! I just baked four sweet potatoes on a rack in the oven at 450 degrees for about 40 minutes. I pulled them out of the oven, let them sit for a couple of minutes and then slit them open. They just fell out of their skins when I opened them up into a bowl. After mashing them all together in a casserole dish I added a little over 1 tablespoon of butter and about 1/4 cup of skim milk. Since I was waiting for the rest of the family to show up I just threw the casserole dish back in the oven (now turned off) to keep warm.

I had plated everything else except for the mushrooms and the poached egg. This is because I wasn't sure when everyone would arrive and also because cold mushrooms and cold eggs are GROSS.

Once my party was together I just pulled the mushrooms off the very light heat I had had them over and then gently put the poached eggs back in simmering water.

I let the eggs warm up in the simmering water for about a minute and a half. I picked them up with my strainer on a handle thingy (what DO you call those?) and placed them on top of a paper towel. I then plated the poached eggs and drizzled on a little dressing.

I pulled the sweet potatoes out of the oven, plated those as well and voila! It was a beautiful dinner that didn't really take much effort and was fun to make since it involved a new method and a new recipe.

Has anyone else tried any new cooking styles recently? I would LOVE to hear about it :)

Á la votre!
amanda