Fergusalice Salad

by William

My favorite salads always seem to require a steak knife. Discovering the consumer’s agency at the market, and more specifically, the butcher counter has changed the way in which I consume Bacon. However, there is a learning curve, and I am still learning to articulate bacon width requests. So far, double wide and as thick as the machine allows have yielded excellent results. I am still building up the courage to ask Bi-Rite to slice the slab bacon “thickah than a snickah” — stay tuned. The Fergusalice house salad is essentials bacon & croutons hardly in disguise.

~ingredients~

Good Bread ~ Cubed or torn
Slab bacon ~ 1 very thick cut per person
Sautéed onions ~ More is better
Greens ~ Dealer’s choice
Duck fat, butter or olive oil ~ better yet just use the bacon fat
Gravlax Sauce ~ Mustard vinaigrette w/ dill
Salt & Pepper

Homemade Croutons have also helped transform my personal perception of salads from a nutritional play to a daydream. The key is a charred crisp exterior safeguarding the tenderness within. All you need is a super hot cast iron pan, day old levain bread, and a little bit of liquid magic to coat the pan. Olive Oil, Butter, or in this case, Bacon Fat, all work swimmingly. The unsung hero, but perhaps my favorite inclusion has to be the pan fried Onion & Wilted Romaine.

The aforementioned ingredients piling up are far from a blank canvas. This salad is certainly no Grande Odalisque by Ingres, and thus it must be dressed in Roquefort crumbles and my Gravlax Sauce (much more on that another time). And finally, believe it or not, there is a bed of Arugula beneath it all to catch the coveted drippings.

Inspired by Restaurant Allard & Wolfgang’s Steakhouse