Name: Salade de Gesiers
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 300 g confit duck gizzards, drained and sliced; 150 g smoked bacon lardons; 1 shallot, finely chopped; 2 tbsp red wine vinegar; 1 tsp Dijon mustard; 200 g frisée or curly endive; 4 eggs; 1 tbsp white vinegar, for poaching; ¼ tsp black pepper

Salade de Gesiers

Warm salad of crisp duck gizzards and bacon on frisée, with a hot shallot and vinegar dressing and a poached egg, ready in 40 minutes.

40 min total Serves 4 servings Medium

The Method for Salade de Gesiers

Tap a step to highlight it, or turn on Cook Mode for large type and step-by-step focus.

Cook the bacon in a frying pan for 6 minutes until crisp. Lift out, leaving the fat.
Fry the gizzards in the bacon fat for 5 minutes until the edges are crisp. Lift out with the bacon.
Add the shallot to the pan for 1 minute, then the red wine vinegar and mustard. Boil for 30 seconds.
Poach the eggs in barely simmering water with the white vinegar for 3 minutes.
Toss the leaves with the gizzards, bacon and hot dressing in a bowl. Divide between plates, top with an egg and add the pepper.

Things to Watch For

Use confited gizzards and skip any extra salt.
Pour the dressing over hot so the leaves just wilt.
Poach the eggs just before serving.

The Short Version

Eat it warm, and dress it hot. That is the rule of this salad: crisp bacon and tender duck gizzards are tipped onto bitter leaves along with a sizzling dressing, so the leaves wilt just slightly and the flavours join in the bowl.

Gizzards are the duck's muscular stomach, and they are cheap and full of flavour, but they must be cooked gently to turn tender. Most shops sell them already confited in jars or tins, which makes this a dish for a weeknight. Slice them and fry them in a hot pan for 5 minutes until the edges crisp. Do not salt them in advance, because confit is already seasoned and the bacon adds more.

The dressing is made in the pan: shallot softened in the fat, red wine vinegar added until it sizzles, then mustard whisked in. Pour it over the leaves at once. Top each plate with a poached egg, whose yolk melts into the dressing, and serve with bread. Frisée has the right bite; a mix of bitter leaves works if you cannot find it.

What to Serve It With

Crusty bread · Red wine · Dry white wine

Storing Leftovers

Eat at once. The cooked gizzards keep for 2 days in the fridge.