Salad Soup Recipe 455

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
• Cut leeks in half lengthwise and slice into 1/2-inch pieces. Place leeks in a colander. Separate sliced leeks under cold running water and clean them. Drain well.
• Heat a medium soup pot over medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, bay leaf and leeks. Season with salt and pepper. Peel potatoes and thinly slice them, adding them to soup pot as you go. Season potatoes with a little salt, add chicken stock to soup pot. Cover soup and bring to a boil. Uncover and simmer 12 to 15 minutes, until potatoes are very tender. Break up potatoes to slightly thicken soup. Remove bay leaf.
• While soup simmers, rub the inside of a large mixing bowl with the cracked garlic. Slice the bread into small cubes. Add the bread to the bowl, drizzle generously with olive oil, and season well with salt and pepper. Toss the bread in the bowl to completely coat with oil, and pour onto a baking sheet in 1 layer. Place in the oven and toast until golden, about 6 or 8 minutes.
• Fill a medium skillet with warm water and bring to a gentle simmer over medium low heat.
• Meanwhile, cut slab bacon into 1/4-inch slices, making fat matchstick shapes. Cook bacon in small nonstick pan over medium high heat. Remove rendered bacon to paper towels. Return pan to heat and cook the shallots in the bacon dripping 3 to 5 minutes, until just tender, over medium heat. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of vinegar and Dijon until well combined. While whisking, slowly drizzle in the 1/4 cup olive oil until combined. Season with salt and pepper.
• Pour the remaining tablespoon of vinegar into the simmering water. Crack an egg into a small bowl. Gently pour the egg into the simmering water. Repeat with the remaining 3 eggs. Cook eggs for about 2 minutes for runny yolks, or about 4 for solid yolks. Do not allow the water to boil! Carefully remove the eggs with a slotted spoon to a towel-lined plate to drain.
• Tear the chicory into bite-sized pieces, and julienne the endive. Put the greens in the same bowl you tossed the bread in. Add the dressing, and tarragon and toss well with tongs. Divide between 4 plates, and top each with a poached egg. Season salad with more salt and cracked pepper.
• To serve soup, ladle into bowls and top with bacon, croutons, chives and cracked pepper. Serve with crusty bread on the side.

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to boil over high heat. Add plenty of salt to taste of the sea.
• Add potatoes, and boil until the thin tip of a knife can pierce a potato as if going into soft wax, 8 to 9 minutes. Retrieve potatoes with a spider, and let cool and drain on a baker's rack set into a sheet pan nearby.
• Add green beans to still-boiling water, and boil until the color transforms from raw and dusty to saturated deep green, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove with a spider, and set out to drain and cool on the baker's rack.
• Add the eggs directly from the refrigerator into the boiling water, and boil for 8 minutes. Dump eggs and boiling water into the sink, letting the shells crackle as they land hard. Peel eggs while submerged under cold running water, which helps to stop the cooking and release the shells easily. Set peeled eggs to rest on the rack.
• While eggs boil, wash and spin-dry lettuce.
• Remove green leafy tops from radishes, and save for another use, if desired. Wash and carefully rinse radishes, taking care to remove any grit or sand.
• On a large rimmed platter, begin to assemble the salad by tearing the clean, dry lettuce and arranging it as the bed.
• Use a sharp paring knife to split the green beans in half crosswise. Scatter them artfully around the bed of lettuce.
• Split the potatoes in half and arrange artfully.
• Split artichokes, if whole, into quarters and arrange artfully.
• Repeat with cherry tomatoes, followed by radishes, split into quarters, then eggs, quartered into wedges.
• Remove tuna from the jar with a fork. Break it into chunks, and nestle it into the mound of salad. Drizzle the tuna oil over the salad.
• Finish with scattered red onion and split olives.
• Microplane the garlic into a small bowl. Add red-wine vinegar and 3 to 4 long glugs of olive oil (about 1/4 cup), and stir together briskly. Season with salt and a lot of freshly ground pepper.
• Just before dressing the salad, tear the basil leaves to release their fragrance. Scatter them around the whole salad.
• When ready to serve, drizzle dressing evenly and thoroughly over salad. When ready to eat, toss to dress, and don't worry about messing up the beauty.