Salade Chèvre Chaud

Warm goat cheese salad. It was our favorite thing to eat at the Café Bosquet in Paris during our honeymoon. We’ve made this before, but we revisited it tonight and OH. EM. GEE. I won’t lie, it turned out even better. And tasted even better. So I thought it might be nice to re-post the recipe with the changes we made!

I think we nailed it this time. The minute I tasted it, it was like I was back in the 7th district, as cheesy as that might sound (no pun intended).

So we changed up the recipe and here’s what you will need:
•2 whole rounds of goal cheese, cut in half length wise (you’ll end up with 4 pieces)
•4 pieces of French loaf, cut into squares
•Spring salad mix
•5 tablespoons honey (total)
•Light drizzle olive oil
For the salad dressing:
•1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
•1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
•1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
•2 tablespoons freshly squeeze lemon juice
•S&P to taste
•3 tablespoons olive oil
– this will make a lot of dressing. You won’t use all of it, but it’s better to have more than not enough ;) –

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

Slice a French loaf and cut the long pieces into squares. You’ll need to use the goat cheese to know how big the bread should be. We used a French loaf, but you could probably use sourdough or something similar. I think sourdough might be too…well…sour with the goat cheese and dressing.

So I bought these two big rounds of goat cheese. You could use a smaller round, what ever works. These were big, so we cut them each in half, length-wise. Be careful and try not to crack it. We didn’t succeed as you can see, but it still worked out.

Toast the bread. Ours was able to fit into the toaster, which definitely helped. Don’t let it get too dark though since it will continue to brown and toast in the oven when it bakes with the goat cheese.

Next make your dressing!

In a Pyrex measuring cup, combine the mustard, apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Then whisk in the olive oil and mix until it’s smooth. Dress your salad mix lightly, toss and set aside.

Drizzle each piece of toast with a little olive oil and use 1 tablespoon of honey total to drizzle between all the pieces of bread. Then place one piece of goat cheese on each slice of bread. Once you’ve done that, top each piece of goat cheese with 1 tablespoon of honey and spread it out.

Bake in the oven, on the bottom rack. This is important because on the top rack, it’ll get to hot and just fall apart. This way, the heat is still there, but it’s not direct. Place on the bottom rack, close the oven and bake for 5 minutes. After that, turn the broiler on, and leave the oven door slightly open (most oven doors can do this) and let it broil for 2-3 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it won’t burn and/or melt too much! What you’ll see is pure magic: the honey starts to harden and turn golden and the goat cheese firms up but still melts. The toast gets a bit darker too.

The whole thing is done when the goat cheese is golden on top. Place the piece of toast and cheese on your salad and serve! We had ours with a dry, chilled Sauvignon Blanc with hints of citrus. It tasted really good with the salad! I’m a bit “wine-pairing” person, but I could tell the wine made the dish a little sweet which was delicious.

Oh and for fun, this shows what we made versus what we had in Paris:

Not bad, huh? You can tell the French clearly used a cook’s blowtorch, but I think we did what we were trying to achieve. I keep telling REB we need to buy a place on the Rue Cler and just move there. I’m sure he thinks I’m being silly, but I’m being totally serious :)

So what about you?
Have you ever re-visited a recipe you’ve made in the past?
Did it turn out better or worse than the first time you made it?
What things did you learn?

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