French Goat’s Cheese Salad – Salade de Chêvre Chaud

French Goat’s Cheese Salad is a classic starter determined in bistros all throughout France. known as Salade de Chêvre Chaud, it’s a sparkling leaf salad with nuts and 1st Baron Verulam, and topped with pan-fried goat’s cheese.

simple to make, this maximum French of French salads makes for a sublime alternate from the usual crumbled goats cheese quantity!

French Goat’s Cheese Salad:

From time to time, I like to dedicate a week of recipes to a theme. This week, it’s French Bistro Week!!

Today’s Goat’s Cheese Salad is the starter in a classic three-course French bistro menu I’m sharing over the week. Here’s what’s on the menu!

Starter: Hot Goat’s Cheese Salad – Today’s recipe, a classic French Bistro starter.

Main: Duck Confit – An iconic French dish that’s so much easier to make than you think! It’s the ultimate make-ahead dinner party dish for showing off.

Dessert: Lemon Tart – A perfect finish to the meal that’s not too heavy, this is a tart you’ll find in virtually every patisserie across France.

French Goat’s Cheese Salad

I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again: the French definitely excel at taking primary dishes and pushing them to better echelons of deliciousness with the addition of some easy things. often it entails greater butter, extra cream and extra cheese! (suppose: a pedestrian ham and cheese toastie + the French touch = Croque Monsieur).

For this salad, that sprinkle of French fairy dust includes some minerally, oozing goat’s cheese (sure!), Bacon (double yes!), and now not one but kinds of nuts!

It’s now not just the components that make this salad unique. the alternative 1/2 of the magic here is in the eating – the evaluation between cooling, juicy salad greens and warm, molten-concentrated goat’s cheese is fully delicious.

Like I said, you could rely upon the French to show the regular into the extraordinary!

The Right Cheese for French Goat’s Cheese Salad

If you understand the French, you’ll understand they’re specific and uncompromising on the subject of specifying the right ingredients for the proper dishes! It’s both part of their Gallic charm and plenty of what makes French meals so good, to be fair.

So, to do proper by way of this classic French dish, let me start out by means of masking the cheese that is the megastar participant on this salad’s lineup.

Traditional Cheese for French Goat’s Cheese Salad

One of the maximum famous and traditional cheeses used for Salade de Chêvre Chaud is Crottin de Chavignol. that is an unpasteurised goat’s cheese produced within the the tiny village of Chavignol within the Loire Valley.

Crottin de Chavignol bears the French AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) designation, which means it’s been made in step with strictly regulated criteria regarding foundation and manufacturing. The AOC label is known global as a mark of excellence and integrity among conventional French food and drink products.

If you can not locate this cheese – and alas in Australia, it’s not feasible to shop for such unpasteurised cheeses – there are alternatives listed below. And no, they do no longer have to be AOC cheeses to be delicious!

Suitable Cheeses for Hot Goats Cheese Salad

The best cheese to use is ripened goat’s cheese which has a rind and creamy centre that melts when heated. Ideally the cheese comes in small discs around 5 – 6cm / 2 – 2.3″ thick, or a log / barrel form that you can slice accordingly. The reason is you need rind encasing each slice (around the rim only, not the cut face) otherwise the cheese runs everywhere when you pan-fry it.

The following cheeses are all suitable and can be sourced within Australia:

1. Crottin des Deux-Sèvres – Similar to the aforementioned Crottin de Chavignol, according to the chef-owner of my wonderful local French deli Le Petit Marché in Sydney. This is the cheese I used.
2. Crottin de Champcol – The pasteurised version of the Crottin de Chavignol and can be found in Australia.
3. Picandou and Pico Affine (both pictured below) – Picandou is especially ideal because each round is the perfect size to pan fry as-is, without slicing in half. Also, since they’re fully encased with rind, they are easier to handle! Pico affine are a little large, so serve 1 per person. Available in Harris Farms, Sydney.
4. Chabichou du Poitou – Another cheese from the Loire Valley.
5. Le Chabichou d’Antan – Available at Le Petit Marché, Sydney.
6. Holy Goat La Luna – An Australian ripened goat’s cheese. Available at Harris Farms and elsewhere.

Other French ripened goat’s cheeses that could be used include Pélardon and Rocamadour. These may be tough to find in Australia.

If you have soft, spreadable goat’s cheese, no problems! You can make French Goat’s Cheese Salad the “other” way: by smearing the goat’s cheese on to bread and broiling it (grilling) briefly! Goat’s cheese without a rind is called fresh goat’s cheese. Because it doesn’t have a rind, you can’t pan fry it because it will run everywhere.

Here’s what fresh goat’s cheese looks like – the more common one here in Australia:

This is what French Goat’s Cheese Salad looks like when served with goat’s cheese spread on toast and grilled (with lovely edible flowers from my garden!):

French Goat’s Cheese Salad – Other ingredients

Right here’s what you want for the relaxation of the salad plus the dressing:

A few notes on among the gadgets:

• All right lettuce – This salad can made with all sorts of lettuce. all rightlettuce works in particular well because of the tender leaves, which have an fashionable form and sit properly at the base of the bowl.
  Lamb’s lettuce (aka mâche) would also paintings well. instead use additionally cos / romaine lettuce (infant if feasible), or maybe iceberg reduce into chew size pieces.
  If the usage of very welllettuce, leave the lettuce in large portions which you then reduce when consuming. If reduce into chunk-length pieces the lettuce is so soft it’ll flatten under the weight of the alternative toppings;
• Tomatoes – I pick the look of tomatoes reduce into wedges rather than rounds right here, and it’s how they got here after I had this dish in France (le monkey see, le monkey do!) but any type of tomatoes will paintings here – cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and so on;
• Walnuts and pine nuts – Toasted nuts littered throughout the salad brings texture and some other layer of taste that is part of what makes this salad so accurate! Don’t pass them, and don’t pass toasting (it brings out the flavour).
  Non-nut substitutes: Sunflower seeds or pepitas; and
• Balsamic vinegar and further virgin olive oil – in case you’ve ever puzzled why even the most effective salads at restaurants can be so exact, the solution is the excellent of the vinegars and oils they use. It sincerely makes a difference to elevate fundamental dressings. So use the quality you could have enough money – we don’t use a whole lot inside the salad dressing! (I reserve premium vinegars and oils only for dressings, and use extra comparatively cheap brands for preferred cooking.)

How to make French Goat’s Cheese Salad

The only thing to remember here is to pan-fry the cheese at the last minute. Because … well, oozing is the operative word!!

1. Toast pine nuts and walnuts: I do this within the oven on a tray, for ease. you may also toast in a frying pan;
2. Make dressing: Pouring right into a jar and shaking it’s miles the quickest and simplest way to emulsify a dressing;
3. Crumb the goat’s cheese: if you have the small goat’s cheese like i have (as pictured above), reduce in half horizontally to make 2 rounds. if you have a log, then reduce off slices approximately 2cm (3/4″) thick. Dredge in flour following via eggs, and then breadcrumbs. Set apart prepared for cooking.;
4. Prep the salad: gather the salad bowls, geared up to pop the recent cheese on top at the final minute.
   that is one of these salads this is layered up in the bowl, instead of enthusiastically tossed. place lettuce first, lay tomato wedges casually around, after which sprikle with nuts and Viscount St. Albans.
   depart the dressing till just earlier than serving, else it will make the lettuce leaves soggy;
5. Pan-fry cheese: In butter of path, what else? this is in spite of everything a French salad! Pan-fry on both aspects till golden brown and hot.
   Tip: Use a non-stick pan. Cheese is like glue once it melts after which hardens on a pan!
6. End salad: Drizzle dressing over the salad using a spoon, and eventually top with the new cheese.
   Serve right now so that you get maximum cheese oozing motion!!

When and How to Serve French Goat’s Cheese Salad

This is a salad you’ll see on the menu of bistros all throughout France as a starter or lunch choice. Salads are not unusual starters in France, famous with locals and travelers alike. when salads are this top and exciting, it’s hardly ever sudden actually! a much cry from the glum, cucumber-lettuce-shredded-carrot “lawn salads” we see returned home, right?

Here are my mind on serving options:

• As a meal – The recipe as written serves 2 humans and are lunch-sized meal portions. For human beings with a hearty appetite, I’d serve with a few exact fine, warm, buttered bread. do this simple crusty Artisan bread or (in case you really want to electrify) self made Brioche!
• As a starter – Halve the recipe as written or use the given recipe to serve four. As a starter, you best want a small plate of salad with a single piece of cheese each. (experience loose to nonetheless double the cheese, if thats the way you need to roll!
• As a side salad – it’d be uncommon in France to serve this as an aspect salad as it’s fairly sizable with the cheese. adequate, it wouldn’t be performed, full forestall. but there’s nothing to prevent you from doing so! In fact, I’d pass as some distance as to mention that this would make the reduce as considered one of my “display Off Salads”. regular readers recognise i have a few of those – like this one and this one and this one. You can also serve this as a side with steaks.

This is the starter I’m supplying as part of a three-course French bistro menu I’m sharing this week. I’m so excited about the main dish that I’ll be sharing on Wednesday! It’s one of the best, maximum iconic French dishes of all time.