Frisée Salad (2)

I shared a frisée salad a little over a year ago. That post featured a salad which has a few more ingredients than today's but they're pretty similar. So why am I sharing this one? I just wanted to redo it with some newer, prettier photos. It seems like I've been doing quite a few "redo" posts lately. It's hard not to! I've only had this new camera for about a year now so there are only about 200-ish posts (out of 550+) that were uploaded using good quality photos which means there are 350+ posts that could use a little makeover (minus the ones that I've already made over).

Anyway, I love frisée. I think it looks beautiful, has a great texture, and it's super mild so it's great for using with bold dressings and strong flavors - like bacon. Bacon is a strong (and delicious) flavor and it goes so well with frisée, but let's face it, bacon goes well with most things, doesn't it?

Ingredients:

1 head frisée

3 slices of bacon

1 tablespoon mustard

½ tablespoon pepper jelly

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

¼ teaspoon coarse black pepper

+ olive oil, if necessary

Start the bacon pieces off in a cold pan and turn the flame on to medium. Putting the bacon in a cold pan will draw out more of the fat, which will be used in the dressing so that's a good thing. Cook the bacon until it's crisp on both sides and then put the pieces onto a paper towel to drain. Oh! And don't discard the bacon fat!

Put the mustard, pepper jelly, red wine vinegar, and black pepper in a small bowl or container. Add in about 3 tablespoons of the rendered bacon fat (while it's still warm). Whisk until all of the ingredients come together. The mustard will help emulsify everything and you should end up with a smooth, thick dressing

Have all of the ingredients together and have them ready to assemble.

Tear up the frisée into a bowl and then crumble in the bacon. I love when bacon is so crisp that all you have to do is give it a squeeze and it's immediately pulverized. Pour the dressing over the greens and then toss just before you're ready to serve.

And all that's left to do is enjoy! It's a perfect salad to serve alongside a lovely steak, mashed potatoes, and roasted brussels sprouts. Frisée is such a delicate green with a nice texture. It's somehow soft and crunchy at the same time and the smokiness of the bacon, the sweetness of the pepper jelly, and the spice of the mustard and black pepper are perfect flavors to compliment them. Plus, look at how pretty and fancy it looks. Oh, you fancy, huh?

Here's the recipe page: