Salad frisée with quail’s eggs and lardons recipe

A version of one of those all-time great French classics and dead easy to execute. If you have bread that needs using up, make some croutons to throw over the salad, and you can easily swap boiled quail’s eggs for poached hen’s eggs if you prefer. Add black pudding, mushrooms and sausage to turn this into a brunch dish.

Timings

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes

Serves

4

Ingredients

• 12 quail’s eggs
• 160g bacon lardons
• 1 small or ½ medium head of frisée lettuce (curly endive), leaves separated
• fresh chives, to serve
• For the dressing
• 1 tbsp white-wine or cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp vegetable or corn oil
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Method

1. Add the quail’s eggs to a pan of boiling water and boil for 2 minutes, then drain and refresh them in cold water.
2. Meanwhile, cook the bacon lardons in a frying pan over a medium heat for 4-5 minutes, turning them as they are cooking, until golden-brown and crisp. 
3. Peel the quail’s eggs, rinse in cold water and slice each one in half.
4. Whisk all of the ingredients together for the dressing and season. 
5. Toss the frisée leaves in the dressing and arrange on serving plates, topped with the bacon lardons and quail’s eggs. Scatter with chives to serve.