Bistro Greens

French bistro food suggests slow-cooked soups and stews or long-roasted poultry and meats. Certainly fast cooking doesn’t come to mind. But the classic bistro Salade Lyonnaise, paired with warm olive-garlic bread, provides the bistro dining experience in short order.

Serve this lunch or light supper outdoors with chilled white wine and pretend you’re in the French countryside.

Menu (30 MINUTES OR LESS)

Salade Lyonnaise

Olive-Garlic Bread

INGREDIENTS

STAPLES

Butter

Capers

Eggs

Garlic

Dijon mustard

Parmesan cheese

Parsley

Pepper

Salt

White wine vinegar

SHOPPING LIST

1/2 pound thick-sliced bacon

1 loaf French bread

3 to 4 heads frisee

1 (6-ounce) jar Kalamata or Nicoise olives

COUNTDOWN

30 minutes before: Bring water to boil for poached eggs. Arrange frisee on plates. Make olive-garlic butter.

15 minutes before: Cook bacon while poaching eggs. Spread bread with butter.

5 minutes before: Broil bread. Make salad dressing and compose salad.

SALADE LYONNAISE

4 eggs

3 to 4 heads frisee or 1 head curly endive

1/2 pound thick-sliced bacon, chopped

1/3 cup white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Salt, pepper

Bring 2 quarts water to boil in 3-quart sauce pan. Reduce heat so water is simmering rapidly. Break 1 egg into small dish then slide egg into simmering water. Cook 3 minutes or until white sets. Remove from water with slotted spoon and set aside. Repeat with remaining eggs.

Cut or tear frisee into bite-size pieces and divide among 4 plates. Set aside.

Cook bacon until crisp. Remove with slotted spoon. Add vinegar and mustard to bacon drippings in pan and cook over low heat 1 to 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour hot dressing over frisee on each plate. Top each with bacon and poached egg.

4 servings. Each serving:

316 calories; 483 mg sodium; 235 mg cholesterol; 25 grams fat; 18 grams carbohydrates; 10 grams protein; 0.39 gram fiber.

OLIVE-GARLIC BREAD

1/4 cup Kalamata or Nicoise olives, pitted

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon capers

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1 loaf French bread

Mince olives, garlic and capers in food processor. Add butter, cheese and parsley and process again until well mixed.

Cut bread in half lengthwise and spread with butter mixture. Broil until butter melts and bread is lightly browned, about 2 minutes.

4 servings. Each serving:

567 calories; 1,154 mg sodium; 68 mg cholesterol; 29 grams fat; 64 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams protein; 0.47 gram fiber.

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Kitchen Tips

*If poaching eggs is too intimidating, soft-boil them instead.

*Frisee or curly endive is part of the chicory-endive family that includes radicchio, Belgian endive and escarole. Escarole is a good substitute for frisee. Arugula works well too. You want something to match the slightly bitter flavor of the frisee.

*

Takahashi plate from Windows, Pasadena