Bacon Jam

Two words that are not usually put together in the same phrase: bacon and jam. It has definitely become a hot and happening condiment. Everything is better with bacon, right?

While this relish seems to be new to the culinary scene, it’s actually a riff on an Austrian dish called Verhackert. That dish, however, traditionally takes about two months of aging, only includes bacon, garlic, and salt, and is usually minced down to a fine consistency.

This recipe chops the bacon, cooks it down, and adds brown sugar and two kinds of vinegars. Honestly, with a base of bacon and onions, you can pretty much add a bunch of different ingredients. Maple syrup. Bourbon. Honey instead of brown sugar. Rosemary or sage instead of thyme. You could even whizz it in the food processor if you like it more spreadable. Get creative!

Here’s the recipe:

1 ½ lbs. bacon chopped

2 tsp. butter

3 lg. yellow onions, minced

1 tsp. salt

¼ c. brown sugar

¼ c. sherry vinegar

1 ½ tsp. Herbes de Provence

1 tsp. ground black pepper

1 pinch cayenne

½ c. water

2 tsp. balsamic vinegar

2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil

Place chopped bacon in large saucepan over medium heat until bacon is crisp and fat is rendered. Remove bacon and pour out majority of bacon fat, leaving a little left in the bottom of the pan. Add butter and then sweat onions with salt.

Next, throw in your brown sugar, sherry vinegar, pepper, cayenne, and Herbes de Provence. (You can substitute with fresh herbs, if you like.) Stir in water and cook down until mixture has a jammy consistency. Remove from heat and stir in the balsamic and the olive oil.

Enjoy with crackers, baguettes, or just hunks of cheese. A nice IPA, a rich Cabernet, or even a glass of champagne would be perfectly acceptable pairings.

Awesome Sauce

Here’s a little gift idea: vanilla-spiked caramel bourbon sauce. Yes, I used all those luscious words in one sentence. This is the kind of condiment you have on hand for those quick-o desserts. Drizzle over ice cream, waffles, and pancakes. Dip in fluffy Madeleines. Or, just call it a day with you, the jar, and a spoon. Bet it would be pretty nifty in your morning coffee, too. And, it freezes pretty easily so you can always have it around.

Here’s the recipe:

4 c. granulated sugar

5 ½ c. heavy cream

1 TB vanilla extract (or beans from one vanilla pod)

1 ½ tsp. salt

6-8 TB bourbon

In a large saucepan, melt the sugar until it’s a deep amber color, about 20-25 minutes. Add the cream and just keep stirring. The hardened caramel will melt again. Once it is in total liquid form, stir in the other ingredients.

Let the mixture cool. Pour into half pint ball jars. Et voilà! Instant homemade gift!

Note: With the bourbon, make sure it’s a good grade. Anything cheap will probably taste cheap. And, watch the amount. Whiskeys can overpower your palette, so you may want to err on fewer tablespoons rather than more. However, if you’re hoping to drown out your mother-in-law after dinner, add as much bourbon as you like.

Make Meatloaf Great Again

Meatloaf has a long history. It was first noted in the fourth or fifth century A.D. in the Roman cookbook Apicius. Since then, a host of different minced and ground meat dishes arose. The advent of the meat grinder in the 19th century made the dish much easier. But cooks around the world have added wine, dried fruits and nuts, herbs, and even baked hard-boiled eggs inside.

I must admit meatloaf is usually the last dinner option on my mind. Growing up, my dad was the cook in our family. He occasionally made this staple offering and it was, frankly, drier than a North African sandstorm. I grew to hate it, even though I knew plenty of people who craved it. It’s the ultimate comfort food. Yet, other people had fond memories of moist meat and not a hockey puck posing as a meal.

So, it was my mission to find a recipe that did just that: make meatloaf great again. I first started with a classic 1950s, straightforward approach to it. It’s meat, fresh breadcrumbs soaked in milk, shredded carrots and minced onions, eggs, salt and pepper. (There is the addition of grated cheese. In this case, it’s cheddar. But, you could easily replace it with Parmesan or Pecorino Romano.) Plop it in a pan, stick it in the oven, and wait for the goodness.

This recipe also added a glaze made from ketchup, yellow mustard, and brown sugar. Anytime the same condiments used on a hot dog are called for, that’s when you know it’s old school.

Just a side note: I lined the pan with parchment paper. It just makes getting the loaf out easier with less mess.

Here are the ingredients:

3 slices of bread, crumbled

½ c. carrot, grated

⅔ c. onion, grated

1 c. cheddar, grated

2 eggs

⅔ c. milk

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

2 lbs. lean ground beef

Glaze:

½ c. ketchup

½ c. brown sugar

2 TB. yellow mustard

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Soak the breadcrumbs in milk until saturated. Whisk eggs and add the remaining ingredients to the mixture. Add the soaked breadcrumbs, mixing thoroughly, before adding the beef. Place all mixed ingredients into an ungreased standard loaf pan lined with parchment paper. Press down to make sure ingredients are evenly spread throughout the pan. Bake 45 minutes with loaf pan on a baking sheet for any overrun.

In a small bowl, combine the glaze ingredients. Remove the meatloaf and coat the top.  Bake for another 30-45 minutes. (I took it out at 30 and let it rest. But if you like you’re meat more well done, you may want to bake it the full time.)

Enjoy this classic meal with mashed potatoes and buttered petite peas. Yum!

Funky Veg

Courtesy of Bon Appétit

There were a couple of dishes I wanted to try out for the holidays. One was a riff on an Asian dish and the other Italian. Both were just a touch different because it treated the vegetables like main courses. (Certainly, if you’re a vegetarian, then they are a main course. Alas for me, they are merely fabulous side dishes.)

Brussels sprouts are awesome roasted in olive oil with salt and pepper. (And yes, they are Brussels not Brussel sprouts. Native to the Mediterranean and cultivated in the 13th century in Belgium—hence the capital’s name—they are in the same family as the cabbage, kale, and broccoli.)

Adding maple syrup and bacon makes it a winter staple. I could eat them by the carload. But this time, I came across a recipe in Bon Appétit that took the standard maple goodness and made it brown sugar, chili sauce goodness.

Kung Pao Brussels sprouts. Just saying it makes me think I can split bricks with my left hand. It’s got a little crunch, a bit of spice, and a smidgen of zing. Better yet, it takes only about a half hour to make them.

Courtesy of Food Network

Then, there was the spaghetti squash. When winter rolls around, I usually resort to butternut. I love making soup out of it (as seen in a previous post). But this time, the spaghetti won out. Food Network had a great recipe that called for pricking the sides of the squash and then roasting it. Shred the insides, add salt and pepper, and a ton of grated Parmesan cheese. (OK, maybe the recipe didn’t call for a ton. I just used that much. What’s a little extra cheese between friends?)

Let’s start with the sprouts:

2 lbs. Brussels sprouts, halved

5 TB vegetable oil

1 tsp cornstarch

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 TB fresh ginger, minced

2 TB sambal oelek

6 dried chiles de arból, crushed

½ c. soy sauce

3 TB brown sugar

2 tsp rice wine vinegar

1/3 c roasted, unsalted peanuts

Kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss Brussels sprouts and 4 TB of the oil in a rimmed baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper. Roast, tossing once, until softened and browned, 20-25 minutes. Set aside.

Meanwhile, mix cornstarch and 1 TB water in a small bowl until smooth. Heat remaining 1 TB of oil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Add garlic and ginger. Cook, stirring often, until garlic is golden brown, about 2 minutes. Add chili paste and cook, stirring, until darkened, about 2 minutes. Add chiles, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, and ½ cup of water. Bring to a boil. Stir in cornstarch slurry. Simmer, stirring, until sauce coasts a spoon, about 2 minutes. Let cook slightly. Toss Brussels sprouts with sauce and serve topped with peanuts.

Note: the recipe is just fine with the sambal if you don’t have or can’t find the chiles. And make sure the peanuts are chopped so they are bite-sized. No point in choking on a good dish.

Now for the spaghetti squash. (This one’s a cinch!)

1 medium spaghetti squash

½ c. grated Parmesan cheese

½ stick of butter

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use a paring knife to prick squash all over. Place in a baking dish and bake 1 hour or until soft. Cut squash in half. Scoop out and discard seeds. Using a fork, scrape flesh in strings into a serving bowl. Toss with Parmesan (a little or a lot, up to you) and butter and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Coq au vin blanc

Julia Child made this dish popular in the 1960s with her French Chef series on PBS. But this rustic dish has been made regionally in France for generations. Typically, the “coq,” or rooster, was used. As a sinewy meat base, braising in liquid was required to make it a more succulent recipe. These days, most cooks can’t get their hands on a rooster so any package of chicken will suffice. In this case, I used thighs and legs. But, breasts could easily be replaced with perfectly nice results.

The dish calls for a red wine—Bordeaux, Beaujolais, or even a Chianti. Because it’s a peasant dish, any wine you have on hand can be used including white wine (in which case the recipe is known as coq au vin blanc). Riesling is often used, as is Chardonnay, which is what I put in. You could even get a little fancy and pour in some leftover champagne. (But really, who has leftover champagne?)

I used Julia’s recipe in her Master the Art of French Cooking. She acknowledged that any wine can be used for the recipe, but red is more characteristic. Please note she uses Cognac, too. I have found that she frequently pairs wine and brandy in many of her recipes.

The basic line-up is chicken, bacon, onions, and mushrooms. I used chopped onions, but you could easily substitute pearl onions. I got funky with the mushrooms this time using shitake, Portobello, and oyster. Little white button mushrooms are also just fine.

In France, coq au vin is often paired with buttered peas and parsley potatoes. I have served it with polenta and even mashed potatoes. You could even decide to throw it over buttered egg noodles, especially if you decided to go with a Riesling. It gives it a little more of an Alsace-Lorraine spin on it.

Here is the recipe:

4 oz. bacon, chopped

4 TB butter

3 lbs. chicken

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

¼ c. Cognac

3 c. wine

1 c. chicken stock

½ TB tomato paste

2 cloves garlic, mashed

¼ tsp. thyme

1 bay leaf

1 onion, chopped

½ lb. sautéed mushrooms

3 TB all-purpose flour

Fresh parsley as garnish

Use 2TB of the butter to melt in a Dutch oven. Add chopped bacon and cook on medium heat until lightly browned. Remove bacon, reserving fat. Fry off chicken in fat and reserve. Add onions and sauté. Add Cognac. In a separate pan, sauté mushrooms to run off excess liquid then add to onions. Then, tomato paste, garlic and herbs. Deglaze with wine. Return chicken and bacon to the pot. Simmer until liquid has reduced by half. In a separate pan, make a roux with the other 2TB butter and the flour. Remove chicken parts to serving platter and then add the roux to the sauce to thicken. Pour over chicken, shoot the parsley on top, and serve.