Winter Vegetables Roasted in Bacon Grease

Yesterday was Groundhog Day and the reports are that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and we're in for 6 more weeks of winter, although our local groundhog in Stone Mountain Georgia did not see his shadow so here in the Southeast we might be heading for an early Spring.  Whatever the weather, the markets and CSA boxes right now are boasting a bounty of earthy, bulbous roots:  humble, starchy, a bit odd in name and appearance (rutabagas and parsnips), but worth exploring in satisfying hearty main dishes and savory sides, such as this dish, Winter Vegetables Roasted in Bacon Grease.

Bacon has an important role in my kitchen.  Although I rarely eat a whole piece of bacon on its own, I use bacon for accents in many dishes, such as my favorite salad, and my favorite sauteed greens, and my favorite chicken curry.  When I cook bacon, in full slices or cut into lardons, I save the grease in a container in the fridge or freezer.  This comes in handy when it's time for greasing the pan for cooking eggs, or greens, and, as it turns out, roasting vegetables in the oven.

n.o.e.'s notes:

-  The recipe for these roast vegetables came from the kitchn, and you can find it here.

-  For the roots, I used red and golden beets and turnip, and instead of cauliflower, I used broccoli.  I've made this other times and varied the roots, but I always keep the broccoli.

-  [edited to add: These vegetables would also be delicious roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper]

the verdict:

As they roasted, the root vegetables got good and caramelized, and tender and a bit smoky in flavor from the bacon.  The broccoli got a bit crispy, which was a fantastic contribution to taste of the root veggies.  This dish is simple to put together and delivers a big flavor dividend; it's become a standby of my cool-weather cooking.

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Shallots

If Christmas can be said to have a vegetable, I think the honor would go to brussels sprouts. They are a fabulous winter accompaniment to a hearty meal, but they rarely get to play a memorable role. This recipe for Skillet-Braised Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Shallots, from the The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, just might change that. With bacon and bits of caramelized shallots, brussels sprouts get gussied up for the holiday (but they're just as comfortable at a weekday family meal.)


n.o.e.'s notes:

- The recipe, which I've included below, is pretty simple:

- I used Benton's bacon, and because it is so strong in smoky flavor, I used a little less than the recipe specified.

- I found that my sprouts cooked a bit quicker than the recipe advises, so my advice is to watch them carefully - the first time I made this, they were almost overcooked. Since I like a little more crispness to the sprouts, I've reduced the cooking time.

the verdict:

I'm glad to find such an easy and delicious way to prepare brussels sprouts. There was enough bacon to lend the sprouts great flavor but not so much that it overpowered the goodness of the sprouts. This has definitely become my regular brussels sprouts recipe, but it's also my company-worthy brussels sprouts recipe!

the recipe:

Skillet Braised Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Shallots

4 oz bacon (4 slices) sliced about 1/4 in wide
2 shallots, sliced
1 lb brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved through stem
1/2 c water
salt
1 T unsalted butter
1 T red wine vinegar

1. Cook bacon and shallots together in skillet over medium heat about 10 min. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

2. Add brussels sprouts, water and 1/2 tsp salt to skillet, cover and simmer over medium-high heat until brussels sprouts are bright green, about 9 minutes or less.

3. Uncover skillet and cook until the liquid has evaporated and sprouts are tender, about 5 minutes or less.

4. Remove from heat, and stir in bacon and shallots, butter and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

Avocado Mango Salad with Goat Cheese and Bacon

My extended family has gotten in the tradition of eating a simple Mexican meal on Christmas Eve, centered on a chicken soup that my sister-in-law orders from our favorite local Mexican restaurant, Taqueria del Sol's catering department. I offered to bring salad because I was dying to make Rick Bayless' Avocado Mango Salad from his book, Mexican Everyday. (I highly recommend this cookbook)

Although I first tried this recipe on Christmas Eve, the good news is that it is not wintry at all, making it a perfect salad for any time of the year. I've made it a half dozen times since December, and I'm always thrilled to have the ingredients on hand in my fridge.

notes:
- You can find the recipe online here or here.

- To make this a quicker, you can use bagged butter lettuce, and even pre-sliced fresh mango. Frozen mango is a bit too watery when it thaws, I found. If you cook bacon lardons ahead of time, you can keep them in the freezer and pull them out to sprinkle on the salad as needed.

- For a vegetarian version, you can replace the bacon with caramelized onions.

- You might want to taste the jalapeno before using it; the ones from the market seem to vary greatly in heat. After tasting, you can decide how much or how little to use to suit your tastes. I've made the dressing with milder and hotter peppers, and it's good both ways, although I prefer when it has a bit of a kick to it.

- The dressing is a tiny bit of work, because you brown the whole garlic cloves and whole pepper in the oil before tossing it in a blender it with the rest of the ingredients. But if you make a double batch of the dressing, you can keep it in the fridge for salads all week!

- If you have an immersion blender, it works well for the dressing, and saves on the cleanup over using a full blender.

- Rather than the cheese mentioned in the recipe, I always use goat cheese in the salad, sometimes a local goat cheese from my farm box that's coated with hot Southwestern spices.

the verdict:

This is my new favorite salad! I love the way that the savory, creamy, salty, and sweet flavors combine, all tied together with the smoky, slightly spicy dressing. The salad is not aggressively "Mexican," so it's versatile enough to accompany any kind of main course. I've even eaten it as leftovers (already dressed) 2 days later, and still enjoyed it.

Roasted "Airline" Chicken Breasts

For the past few months my freezer has been holding a carefully wrapped package of 4 boneless "airline" chicken breasts (boneless breasts with the bottom wing joint attached) that I purchased at a specialty market, figuring I'd find a good recipe for them. When I saw this Tyler Florence recipe for Roasted Airline Chicken Breast I decided to try it. It took a couple of weeks to get to the actual cooking, and during that time, the anticipation built. The recipe sounded so good; I was intrigued by the combination of black eyed peas, bacon, rice and chicken.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I've cooked (mostly) low fat for around 20 years. Using large quantities of things like butter and cream tends to give me the willies, though I'll make an exception for special occasions. But when I'm trying new recipes regularly and they call for significant amounts of bacon fat, butter, or cream - or in this case, all three - I'm just going to have to cut fat. So I trimmed back the ingredients in this recipe where I could, but there was still plenty of the rich stuff.

- I used about half the bacon amount - the Benton's bacon that I use has quite a strong flavor. Tyler's directions call for cooking the bacon in olive oil. He's done this in other recipes, and I'm guessing this step is meant to built flavor layers (it's not like bacon is lacking in fat or anything!) I used about half the olive oil. Note: bacon does not get "crispy" in 3-4 minutes of "slow" cooking.

- My first instincts were to halve the the rice part of the recipe, and I should have listened to that little voice. There was way too much risotto for 4 pieces of chicken - the amount was more like 8 servings of rice. I ended up giving some to my neighbors; and they really liked it.

- I'm never very confident in my risotto technique, and in fact, I'm not so sure I'm even temperamentally suited to making risotto.

- Tyler's recipe uses butter, parmesan and heavy cream to finish the rice. I skipped the butter, reduced the cheese, and used 1/4 cup half-and-half instead of 1 cup of cream. Even so, the rice was plenty creamy.

This chicken smelled amazing while it was browning!

the verdict:

I had been eagerly anticipating this recipe and the bottom line is that I was disappointed. It wasn't a total bust; this was a tasty chicken + rice dish. We enjoyed it the first night and we enjoyed the leftovers all week (lots of rice!). But it wasn't spectacular, especially given the two major strikes against it: (1) it's exceptionally heart and waist unfriendly - tons of butter in the chicken, and bacon/cream/butter/cheese in the rice, and (2) it's unusually labor-intensive for my style of cooking. Without huge payoffs in the taste department I'm not likely to take the trouble of cooking it again.

On the positive side, I loved the taste of the fresh thyme + black pepper compound butter, so I might play around with those flavors in a simplified olive-oil based chicken dish.

I'm sending this off to Tyler Florence Fridays, a weekly roundup of blog posts that feature Tyler's recipes - check it out to see what everyone's cooking up!

CI's Coq Au Vin

This was another joint cooking effort with my husband on a Sunday afternoon. A few days earlier he had been paging through my impulse-buy Cook's Illustrated Winter 2009 Soups and Stews issue and stopped at page 46. "I love Coq au Vin," he said, "Let's make this recipe." When Sunday rolled around, that's just what we did.
[general recipe at end of this post]

n.o.e.'s notes:

- Here's what this recipe claims:

"Put together and on the table far faster than I would have thought (in about one hour, give or take), this coq au vin proves that classic French, cooking can fit into any schedule."

A word to the wise: don't rely on this promise. You can immediately disprove it by reading through the recipe, at which point you will see that the the times specified for the individual steps add up to nearly 2 hours, without even counting time for chopping and prep. This recipe took us 2.5 - 3 hours, start to eating (one step, reducing the sauce, took us double the estimated time).

- This is a classic braised dish: brown chicken and set aside, saute vegetables in the same pan, add liquid and simmer chicken + vegetables until chicken is tender. Then reduce/thicken the sauce before serving all together.

- We used just over 4 lbs chicken - 2 large breasts and 6 small thighs.

- I had just 7 oz of mushrooms, so we were a bit short.

- 2 cups of pearl onions weighed 8 oz or more, not the 5 oz. the recipe says. We used the 8 oz. This would have been too many onions if we'd had the proper amount of mushrooms.

- Because of the size of our chicken pieces, we put the light meat and dark meat in at the same time, and it was all cooked in about 35 minutes of simmering.

- Reducing the sauce took a really long time. I don't think I'd reduce the sauce quite so much next time - 2 cups of sauce for 8 pieces of chicken means just 1/4 cup per piece - not much to cover a piece of chicken and some noodles! It would also be nice to have less time standing at the stove!

- We served the chicken with Light 'n Fluffy Extra Wide Egg Noodles - which are the noodles that are the highest rated by the Cook's Illustrated tasters (along with Black Forest Girl brand).

- For once, I think the number of servings in the recipe was too low - this would serve 6 people rather than 4 (at 4 servings, that would be a pound of chicken per person).

the verdict:

The end result was well worth the time and effort! The sauce was rich and brown and the layers of flavors and aromas were fantastic. Even though the chicken was nice and tender my husband said he'd simmer the chicken longer next time so it would be falling off the bones. The thigh meat was far better than the breast - we would do all dark meat in the future.

Goodness knows I'm not one to shy away from bacon, but we actually thought the bacon garnish detracted from the other flavors. Next time I'd skip the bacon and just use some reserved bacon fat from my freezer for browning the chicken.

The noodles were great with this dish.

This recipe is a serious contender for being our favorite "Fairly Complicated Chicken Recipe." We spent a bit of time debating whether it was more delicious than the Country Captain that we made a few weeks ago, and then finally realized it was like trying to choose a favorite child! (note to our children: although you are very different, you are equally wonderful and we love you both the same!) OK, Coq au Vin when you need a special "chicken + noodles" dish and Country Captain when you need that wonderful "chicken + rice". . .

I'm sending this over to Ruth for this week's Presto Pasta Night roundup (#107). Head over there on Friday to see a wonderful variety of noodle-y dishes.

the recipe:

Coq au Vin
Here are the ingredients:

6 oz thick-cut bacon, chopped medium (I used 4 oz of Benton's bacon)
4 lb. bone-in skin-on chicken pieces (CI says to use at least half dark meat for maximum flavor)
10 oz. white mushrooms (I used 5 oz white + 2 oz wild mushrooms)
5 oz frozen pearl onions, thawed (c. 2 cups)
1 T. tomato paste
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
3 T. unbleached flour
1 bottle - 750 ml - red wine (medium body)
2.5 cups chicken broth
1 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves (1/4 tsp dried)
2 bay leaves
2 T. unsalted butter
2 T. minced fresh parsley leaves

... And summarized directions:

First cook the bacon, remove it, then brown the chicken pieces in two batches, removing them to a plate when cooked.

Pour off most of the fat. Brown the mushrooms and onions, then add garlic and tomato paste, cook briefly, then add the flour for a minute.

Add the wine, broth, thyme and bay leaves to the pot, then the chicken. Cover and simmered until the chicken is fully cooked and tender - about an hour for the dark meat. (White meat cooks faster, so should be added after the dark has cooked for a while. We judged this based on the size of our pieces of chicken.)

Remove the cooked chicken and let it rest while the sauce reduces to around 2 cups (the recipe says 20 minutes, but it was well over 40 minutes. I wouldn't reduce it so much - the extra sauce will not go to waste!) Then stir in the butter and season the sauce. Pour over the chicken pieces, garnish with bacon and parsley.

Voila!!

Kale and Collards Miniera

I found this recipe for greens in my big yellow Gourmet Cookbook. It is a Brazilian recipe, and is simple as can be (3 ingredients, including salt!) Gourmet says "this is a great way to work collards and other hearty greens into your weeknight culinary repertoire" and I agree!

Although the recipe's title is for collards, the intro says that in Brazil (where the recipe originated) it is used for kale. I had both kinds of greens in my fridge from a recent farm box order, so I used a mixture of kale and collards.

For this recipe, the greens are cut into very thin ribbons (Gourmet helpfully informs us that, "an old folktale says a woman isn't ready for marriage until she knows how to shred the greens just right.")

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I've found the easiest (and really fun) way to remove the center ribs from large leafy greens is to hold each leaf by the stem vertically in the air with one hand, and slice along each side of the stem with sweeping downward slashes of the knife.

- To get ribbons, the leaves are supposed to be rolled like a cigar and then sliced thinly crosswise. I've never actually rolled a cigar, so I just rolled as neatly as I could. The ribbons weren't that difficult to slice. But then again, I'm not trying to qualify as a Brazilian bride.

- I used a combination of Niman's Ranch bacon and Broadbent black pepper crusted bacon. These bacons are not as strong and smoky as Benton bacon, and I had them in the freezer.

the verdict:

This is a great easy recipe for greens. We really loved these, and as long as you don't mind a little bacon, this is a superb side dish. It's suited to the last minute (and doesn't take much more than that) but you could make it a bit earlier and let it rest in the pan, reheating it at serving time.

If you read all the comments about this recipe on Epicurious, you can see all kinds of things that people have added. I prepared this just as written in the cookbook (didn't even read the online version until I looked for the link for this post). I thought about adding garlic or red pepper flakes, but wanted to experience it just as it was. And it is an amazing recipe with just 3 ingredients: greens, bacon and salt!

Country Captain

There is a chicken thigh under all that wonderful sauce and garnish!

Over breakfast on Sunday, my husband reads the newspaper. Last week he paused in his perusal of the Times Magazine to share with me the featured recipe for Country Captain, a chicken dish. (The whole article accompanying the recipe is well written and well worth a read.) "Why don't we make this tonight?" Jim asked. And so we did.

I have heard of Country Captain, and frequently paged past recipes for the dish in many of my (regional) cookbooks. But it took the New York Times to make me pay attention to this quintessential Southern dish.

Cooking this recipe on a Sunday afternoon was a return to a practice we'd let fall by the wayside. About 15 years ago, my husband and I had a habit of cooking Sunday dinners together. Those afternoons of chopping and sauteing, along with weekly breakfasts at our local coffee shop, were valuable opportunities to stay in touch with each other amid the whirl of carpool, scouting, dance classes, work, and the million other distractions of a busy household. As a bonus, we developed a small but mighty arsenal of delicious recipes (with the Times frequently playing a contributing role).

Last week I realized anew what a wonderful job Jim does of chopping vegetables (and he remembered how relaxing he finds that to be). The recipe, while not a difficult one, takes some time to prepare. Working together didn't cut the prep time in half, really, but it more than doubled the fun of cooking. One of the perks of cooking with this man is that he cleans as he goes (whereas I, ahem, do not) and we end up with a cooked dinner and a clean kitchen to boot!

Check out those beautifully chopped veggies!

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I used around 3.5 lb chicken thighs with bone in and skin on, although I couldn't help myself from trimming some overhanging skin/fat from the thighs.

- When I ran out of dried thyme (seriously, how does one even do that?) I rounded out the teaspoon with Italian seasoning.

- Instead of cooking the bacon and then crumbling it, we cut 4 slices of bacon (Benton's) into lardons before cooking it to crispness. We poured off half the bacon grease (although the recipe contemplates using it all) before adding the vegetables.

- We used curry paste (Patak's hot curry paste which I have ordered online if I can't find it in the store) instead of curry powder. I love this stuff!

- The medium onion weighed around 200 grams (for future reference).

- We used diced san marzano tomatoes (rather than the chopped tomatoes the recipe specifies).

The chicken, just out of the oven and ready to be scarfed, er, served

the verdict

In the words of my husband:

"This recipe caught my eye in NYT mag over bagel and coffee this a.m. because it listed diced onions, celery and bell peppers - the Holy Trinity where I come from (land of Galatoires) - and minced garlic - the Pope. Also chicken thighs and bacon (which for us means only one thing, Benton's from Tennessee). Served over rice. First taste: The name 'Country Captain' is a shameful travesty. Instant field commission to 'InterGalactic Field Marshal'."

From what I can tell, this is probably my husband's new favorite chicken recipe. As for me: I'd put it on the top rung, at least. It's really delicious. The rice really worked to complement the flavors in this dish. The currants, bacon, and almonds were great additions, although we didn't need all of the bacon. Benton's is a very intense smoky bacon, and we only needed to sprinkle on a little bit or we'd have run the risk of the bacon overpowering the chicken and sauce. In the future, 3 slices would be fine.

Tyler's Slow Cooked Collard Greens

I've got a confession to make: I was an extremely picky eater as a child. On many evenings you could find me sitting at the dinner table long after everyone else had left, staring at a plate. A few cold, forlorn vegetables looked right back up at me. Eventually I'd choke down a couple of bites and be excused. Mostly this drama played out with green beans, but spinach also took its turn on the dinner plate. Luckily my mother never served brussels sprouts, or I might still be sitting there!

Well, children are resilient, thank goodness, and I've grown up to be an average eater. And my erstwhile arch-nemesis, green beans, are now among my favorite vegetables. I grew to like spinach in salads, then quiches and more. But I've been content to let the wider waters of "greens" remain pretty much unexplored, with only a little toe dip now and then.

On a trip to London in 2006 I discovered how much I (and apparently most of Great Britain's restaurants) love arugula ("rocket" over there). I had it in salads and on pasta and couldn't get enough of its peppery bite. It's become my favorite salad green. As far as cooked greens, I made a tasty crock pot chard lasagna last winter that I found delicious.

However, when it came to that most Southern of leafy greens, collards, this picky-eater Northerner remained totally unswayed. I could never bring myself to even try those olive green, slimy (looking) limp leaves that inevitably were seen in a cafeteria line, or at a meat+3 restaurant, swimming in a pool of 'pot likker.' So when my Southern-born husband wanted a taste of collards he has had to order them at a restaurant or heat up a can.

But I must say that food blogging has really opened me up to experimenting with tastes and new recipe sources. As I began to get more serious about cooking this past year, I signed up for a membership in Moore's Farm, which grows and/or sources regional produce, takes orders, and delivers the food to several locations in the Atlanta area, including a church in my neighborhood.

I ordered and prepared komatsuna, mustardy salad greens, and kale. And loved them. And my resistance weakened. I decided to order collards and cook them for my husband. Which brings me - finally - to the subject of this post!

The fresh collards on one of their three soaks in the sink

When the vegetable order came in I wondered if Tyler Florence had a good recipe for collards, because if he did I might, just might, even taste some. Sure enough, a quick search brought up Tyler's Slow Cooked Collard Greens, complete with nearly unanimous favorable reviews. Done!

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I made half a recipe, using 1 lb collards, 1 quart chicken stock, etc.

- Instead of a ham hock I used 1 1/2 slices of Benton bacon (cut into lardons, of course!). The first thing I did was to cook up the lardons. Then I added the onion and bay leaf to the bacon and continued to cook per the recipe instructions (I did not add any olive oil).

the verdict:

These were the first collard greens I've ever brought myself to taste, and they were quite tasty. And they were not slimy at all! They were tender but still a little crunchy. And the hint of smoky bacon - yum.

My husband was in heaven - he loved the greens. For his first serving, he ate them with only salt and pepper for additional seasoning. On the second plateful, he broke out the hot pepper sauce. For some reason, we haven't been able to find Bruce's at the grocery stores, so he made do with Texas Pete's (which comes from, guess where? Winston-Salem, North Carolina!) He actually preferred the greens without the pepper sauce, which has to be an all time first!

In honor of the occasion, my husband requested to post the following guest verdict:

Reflections upon first taste of Tyler Florence “Slow Cooked Collard Greens” - by Jim E.

"I am transfixed into thankfulness; Deepest appreciation to the following:
-Ben Franklin for electricity
-Robert Noyce for the microprocessor
-Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs for the Mac
-Vint Cerf for internet protocol
-Sir Tim Berners-Lee, CERN, Al Gore for the WWW
-Marc Andreesen for the browser
-J.D.E. for food blog awareness / enlightenment
-Tyler Florence for his genius
-Bentons for their Lardons
-Nancy for her culinary talent – anybody from the North who can do collards like these is truly omnipotent (but we knew that already)."

I'm submitting this to Tyler Florence Fridays. If you haven't checked out all the good food that the TFF bloggers cook up from Tyler's recipes, hop on over to the roundup each Friday and see!

{Simple Soup Supper} Union Square Black Bean Soup, two ways

Black bean soup is one of the signature dishes at the Union Square Cafe in New York. When I ate there a year ago, I ordered this soup. It was extraordinarily good. Imagine my joy when I discovered an online recipe for the soup! [edit to add the link for the soup recipe] And even greater joy when I was given a copy of the Union Square Cafe Cookbook.

So the week before last, with temperatures dipping into the single digits (yes, here in Georgia), I decided it was the perfect time to make this soup.

n.o.e. notes

- I was very tempted to brown the veggies and bacon for a bit, but the recipe says to throw it all in a pot with water and the black beans, then pop it in the oven for, oh, 4 hours or so. That's what I did.

- The recipe calls for a 3-quart pot. After reading the recipe, I was dubious about the size, but figured surely the cookbook knows how much it makes. I used my 3-quart le Creuset-wanna-be Lodge pot and sure enough there was no way 2 quarts of water were going to fit in that baby with all the other ingredients. 6 cups were the limit. I ended up adding a little bit more as the soup cooked down. Luckily, the soup didn't seem to need the full 8 cups.

- I used Benton's bacon (of course!) While the soup cooked, the smoky aroma of the bacon just filled the house.

- I loved the technique of baking this soup. It totally eliminates any question of soup sticking to the bottom of the pot. Just pop it in the oven and forget about it. I imagine this recipe could be made in a slow cooker.

- After the soup comes out of the oven the directive is to "puree the beans with their cooking liquid." What about the veggies? and the bacon??? do they get to come along for for a whirl in the blender? Pureeing boiled bacon sounded kind of weird to me. I shot off a quick email to the restaurant asking them about that pureeing step. And whether I should have sauteed the veggies and bacon in the beginning. And the restaurant actually emailed me back!!! How cool is that??? And here's the scoop: the recipe does mean for us to just throw everything into the pot in an uncooked condition, but in the actual restaurant the chefs "show a little love" by sauteeing everything first (well, not the black beans.) And yes, according to the chef, we are supposed to blend everything together at the end.

- I used my new immersion blender that Santa brought me for Christmas. Boy is that thing effective! As it turns out, after 4 hours in the oven, the bacon is so softened that it blends just as well as everything else.


- My husband Jim was there (with a spoon) when I took the pot out of the oven and he fell out over* the taste. He didn't want me to puree it, and suggested that we leave some unblended and compare it to the blended. A taste test! I'm all in.

the verdict:

This is a very nice black bean soup. The smokiness of the Benton's comes through as well as the flavors of all the veggies, complemented by the shot of sherry that gets added to the bowl at serving time. I served this with a salad and the Mesa Grill corn muffins. Ha, recipes from two NYC restaurants!

We both tasted the soup both ways - pureed and un-pureed. My husband preferred his un-pureed, saying, "the mastication process infuses the taste into my olfactory facilities," which in turn made it taste better. I kinda agree with him about the taste thing, but if I'm going to have black bean soup I just want it pureed. Easy as that.


* "fell out over" in common parlance means to disagree about something. My very Southern mother-in-law, however, always uses the phrase to mean "liked something very much."

Pasta + Bacon = Heaven on a plate

Food blogging has its positives and negatives. On the plus side, we're eating a whole lot more variety, as I either stumble across new recipes or research new ways to cook what I have on hand. The baking has been a challenge, because I just don't need that many sweets. So I've made a deal with myself: if I work out 4+ times in the preceding week, I can bake my TWD challenge. Then I can justify, somewhat, the extra sweets that creep my way.

I typically watch the Food Network when I'm at the gym. Actually I never watch it any other time. Anyway, one lucky Friday I managed to catch Guy's Big Bite (and the beginning of Tyler's Ultimate). It was the "Oak Town Squawk" episode, and Guy was making a chicken dish and a pasta side dish. Well, the chicken sounded pretty good, but that pasta really got my full attention. It had a tomato/bacon sauce. Now if that's not my idea of nirvana, I don't know what would be. It's the perfect type of main course for us, and it has bacon, so I immediately put it on the "urgent" list. Bacon gets to automatically cut to the beginning of the line.

cook's notes

- It's nice to watch the chef make the food and then check online for the recipe and read reviews of, oh, 39+ other people who have cooked this before me.

- I gave my husband the choice of pasta and he picked whole wheat linguine. The sauce has enough heft to hold its own with a whole grain pasta. Spinach pasta could also be good.

- I used 8 oz of Benton's bacon. It is a strong slowly-smoky-cured bacon , and I figured that would be enough (plus, that's all I had in the freezer). It would have been fine with a few more ounces, but a full pound would have totally overpowered the sauce. With regular bacon, I'd say 10-12 oz would be great.

- I drained my tomatoes, and reserved the juice in case I needed to add it back in later. As it turns out, the tomatoes were still really juicy. In fact when I added the red wine, there was nothing to "deglaze" = it just joined the tomato juice in the pan. I turned up the heat a bit and reduced it. Of course that also cooked the tomatoes a bit more than I'd have liked.

- If you're concerned about the red pepper flakes, what Guy did was keep them in one edge of the pan while everything was cooking. This infuses the oil with some of the heat of the peppers. Then you could remove them when you add the tomatoes or the wine. We like spicy food so I didn't worry about the pepper flakes.

- add the pasta to the sauce slowly, stopping when the right proportion of sauce/noodle is reached. Mine actually had more sauce than the pictures show.

the verdict:

- Guy Fieri is my new hero! This is possibly the best pasta I've ever put on the table. The funny thing is that it's very similar to sauces that I whip up all the time: garlic, onion, olive oil, wine, tomatoes. A quick saute, toss with basil and cheese, and there's dinner. But the BACON takes it to the veritable heights of pasta perfection.

- The red pepper flakes gave this some heat but they didn't stand out.

- My pictures don't begin to do this dish justice. It had a lot more sauce/pasta

- I served this with arugula salad, with freshly picked arugula from our garden!

Bacon and Tomato Pasta

Ingredients
2 tablespoons kosher salt
16 ounces spaghetti pasta I used whole wheat linguine
1 pound thick-cut bacon or pancetta, chopped (or less) - I used 8 oz Benton bacon lardons
3 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup red onion, diced
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
3 tablespoons garlic, minced
2 cups Roma tomatoes, diced, (he said more will make it saucier. I used 3 cups fresh slicing tomatoes, diced, and drained)
¼ cup red wine he used cab. sauv, I used shiraz
4 tablespoons basil, chiffonade
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan I used asiago
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
1. In a large stock pot, boil 3 quarts of water, when boiling add 2 tablespoons kosher salt and the pasta and cook until the pasta is al dente.
2. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, add bacon and sauté until bacon is crispy. Remove bacon to drain on a paper towel-lined plate and remove 3/4 of the bacon fat from the pan. Add extra-virgin olive oil, onions, and red chili flakes. Cook until onions are translucent, add garlic, cook for 2 minutes then add tomatoes. Sauté for 5 minutes, then deglaze with wine.
3. Drain pasta and add to the tomato mixture pan. Add basil and bacon. Toss with Parmesan, and add salt and pepper, to taste.

I know that Ambrosia is supposed to be THE food of the gods. But if I were in charge of the gods' menu, I'd make it something savory. And this recipe might just be what I'd feed them!

Here's another pasta + bacon recipe that I've wanted to try:
Pasta with Tomato Broth, Bacon, Peas and Ricotta, adapted from the Little Owl

{Cooking Light Night} Halibut with Bacon and Mushrooms

Isn't it funny that once you become obsessed with something, you tend to see it everywhere? Ever since my love affair with with Benton bacon lardons began, bacon recipes seem to jump out at me at every turn. (Not to mention the recipes where I say, "Hmm, that would be even better with a few lardons.")

This week I replenished my supply of lardons, so I was good to go when I spotted this recipe from Cooking Light in the Sept 2007 magazine. It always gives me a kick to make a "light" recipe that uses verboten ingredients like bacon and bacon drippings (thanks, Cathy, for the awesome vocabulary word!) And this recipe called for fresh thyme, so my little herb garden came into play.

I wasn't sure how the bacon/onion/mushroom thing would go with the halibut thing. A few of the online reviews thought the elements didn't mesh, but I was hoping my taste buds would disagree. As an aside, I love how the Cooking Light recipes are online, so no matter where I run across the recipe I can type it in and find lots of tips and feedback from the reviewers.

cook's notes:

- I used precooked bacon lardons, and drippings, both from the freezer - had no idea how much to use. It seemed weird that the recipe would use all of the drippings from 4 slices of bacon. I added about 1-2 T drippings to my pan, and estimated that 4 oz of cooked lardons would equal the 4 slices of bacon.

- At 3-4 minutes, the mushrooms gave off their liquid. I decided I wanted the mushrooms golden, so scraped out the onions and cooked until the liquid evaporated and the mushrooms were browned. In the future I'd cook the mushrooms with the thyme and add the onions towards the end.

- I skipped the rice and served the fish with salt potatoes and steamed green beans. Rice and fish just didn't sound that appealing to me.

- Although the recipe is in the "Superfast" "20 Minutes" section of the magazine, I didn't find it quick - there were several steps. Luckily only one pan. If I hadn't started with cooked bacon, it would have taken even longer. No way this was a 20 minute recipe.

the verdict:

Our reactions to this recipe were a bit mixed. My husband LOVED it, but I just was not bowled over. My fish got a bit tough simmering on the stovetop. The bacon was fine with the onions and mushrooms (although the lardons really didn't get a chance to shine), but I thought they were a bit jarring with the fish. Hubby didn't see that problem at all. He also said he would have liked this with rice. Unfortunately for him, I don't see myself making this recipe again, when I have these favorite ways to prepare halibut:

Roasted Halibut with a Walnut Crust
Panko Crusted Halibut with Chile Cilantro Aioli
Roasted Halibut with Sage

Macaroni and Cheese, Aged and Saged

If I can be said to have a "signature" dish, it would be my macaroni and cheese. I started with the basic Mueller's recipe and have altered it over the years. The resulting dish is cheesy near-perfection. I cook it for practically every family gathering, and it's loved by adults and children alike.

So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I decided to try a different pasta + cheese recipe. But my love affair with Benton bacon lardons, and my little patch of sage outside the front door made me sit up and take notice of two recipes:

1) Delia's Penne with Leeks and Bacon and
2) Classic Macaroni and Cheese with Smoked Bacon, Aged Cheddar, and Fresh Sage on the Food Network's site

After reading both recipes numerous times, I finally chose the Food Network one. Honestly, I should have just flipped a coin and saved myself some time. I made a few changes to the recipe and have a few more things that I'd change next time. My version of the recipe is at the end of this post.

I served the macaroni with steamed rattlesnake green beans from my weekly box o' produce.

cook's notes

I...

- used fully precooked Benton bacon lardons. 2.5 oz (cooked weight) was the perfect amount in this recipe. That should work for any strongly-flavored bacon. For more mild bacon, 4-5 oz cooked would be about right.

- sauteed the onion in a tiny bit of olive oil, and added the bacon with the garlic.

- used 1 can of evaporated skim milk + enough skim milk to make 4 c. total

- used two different cheddars (because I didn't have enough of one kind in my fridge.) Half was Palatine sharp cheddar, a local cheddar that I brought back from Central New York, and half Seaside Cheddar, an aged cheese from England that I bought at Whole Foods. These were both very flavorful sharp cheeses.

- liked the vidalias in this dish. If they are not available, use another sweet variety of onion (walla walla, etc.) or leeks.

- used deep-ish 2 qt casserole dish and didn't need all of the cheese that the recipe calls for on top.

recommendations for next time
There are some easy ways to further reduce the hefty fat content of this dish:

- First prepare the sauce and set it aside briefly while the pasta is cooking.

- Drain the pasta and put it directly into the sauce. This cuts down on the olive oil/greasiness of the finished finished dish.

- Reduce the cheese by 1/3:
- - Put 2/3 cup cheddar and 2/3 cup parmesan in the topping, (just enough for a thin layer across the top of a deep 2 qt casserole.) This recipe would also work with some bread crumbs on top.
- - For the sauce, use about 9-10 oz. of shredded cheddar

I'd also double the sage and eliminate the Italian parsley

the verdict
the flavor of this macaroni and cheese was perfect. Well, the onion, bacon, and cheese were perfect. I wasn't able to taste the sage as much as I'd like. The sauce was a tiny bit oily. The olive oil can be reduced significantly, which I've reflected in the notes and the recipe below. That should help a lot.

My husband liked this better than my regular mac n cheese! With the onion/sage/bacon flavors, I don't think this would be as kid-friendly, however.

Here's the recipe as I'd make it next time:

Classic Macaroni and Cheese with Smoked Bacon, Aged Cheddar and Fresh Sage
(Derek Wagner, edited by Nancy E)

Ingredients

• 2.5 ounces cooked chopped strongly flavored smoked bacon, or 4 ounces cooked regular bacon, chopped
• Salt
• 1 pound dried pasta (elbow macaroni, small shells or orecchiette)
  
• Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed
• 1 cup finely diced Vidalia onion
• 2 tablespoons fresh minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 can evaporated skim milk + skimmed milk to total 4 cups
  
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 9-10 ounces grated aged sharp Cheddar, and 3-4 ounces grated Parmesan
  
• 1 1/2 cups grated cheese: Cheddar and Parmesan (for topping)
  
• Kosher salt
• Cracked black pepper
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 3-4 tablespoons chopped fresh sage leaves, plus leaves for garnish
• 0-1 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, plus leaves for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 2 quart deep baking dish (or smaller individual dishes).

2. In a saucepan, on medium-high heat, saute onion with a light amount of olive oil until translucent.

3. Add the onion and cook until translucent then add the garlic and cooked bacon.

4. Dust with flour, whisk in milk, cream, nutmeg, and mustard powder. Bring to simmer stirring constantly for several minutes.

5. Whisk in 4 cups of Cheddar and half a cup of Parmesan. Stir until all the cheese is melted. Adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Reserve.

6. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook elbow macaroni until al dente, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain.

7. Fold the pasta, sage and parsley into the reserved cheese sauce.

8. Place into baking dish. Top with remaining cheeses, place dish on baking tray, and place in the oven.

9. Bake until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool about 5 minutes, garnish with parsley and sage leaves and serve!

{update: I'm posting my usual mac n cheese recipe below. It's not too different from the one above, but the sage, bacon, and onion of the other one makes it more 'grown up.' Also, one uses flour and the other cornstarch to thicken the sauce.}

Some of my favorite little people enjoying the mac n cheese at a party at our house several years ago.

Nancy's Macaroni and Cheese

16 oz small pasta shells, cooked al dente (approximately 10 minutes) or other pasta shape such as elbows
4 T. corn starch
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/8 tsp. ground white pepper
dash nutmeg
dash cayenne pepper
5 cups milk (combine 2% and evaporated skim milk)
4 T. butter
16 oz. (4 cups) shredded cheese (combine gruyere, sharp white cheddar, mild cheddar, jack)
1 oz. (1/4 c.) grated Parmesan cheese

1. In large saucepan, combine dry ingredients.

2. Stir in milk and whisk until smooth.

3. Add butter.

4. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly to avoid scorching.

5. Boil sauce 1 minute, then remove from heat.

6. Reserve ½ cup cheese for topping, and stir remaining cheese into sauce until melted.

7. Add shells to cheese sauce and turn into greased 3 quart casserole.

8. Sprinkle with reserved cheese and extra parmesan.

9. Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, or until hot and bubble with crust on top.

note: this recipe is wonderful to give away, as either a main dish or a side. At home we always serve it as a main with salad and a veggie.

Field Peas

I'm a Northern transplant (and a picky eater as a child) so "field peas" ("cowpeas," "Southern peas"), in all their wonderful variety (and here for a slideshow), are pretty much foreign territory to me. But my husband grew up eating all types of peas*, and really loves them. In the summer, I can often find them shelled, packed in a plastic container, all ready to cook, so I'll buy some for him. I usually simmer them with some olive oil for flavor, and he's always happy to see them on the plate. Field peas were traditionally cooked by simmering them with fatback.

With our discovery of Benton bacon, cut into lardons by our friendly meat purveyor at Star Provisions specialty market, field peas have reached new heights (albeit less healthy ones). The fantastic hickory smoke flavor from the bacon permeates the peas, ever so subtly. I've become a field pea convert! The zipper peas, cooking above, were worth a meal in themselves.

I also cooked up some tiny cream peas and some beautiful pink-eyed peas (top picture), which are destined for the freezer and future enjoyment. The method: bring to a boil with olive oil or fatback (or bacon lardons!), then simmer until tender.

Here's a link to a good article (by a prominent Atlanta chef) about enjoying field peas.

*All of these Southern peas are technically beans.

Lardon love

I mentioned earlier my discovery of Benton bacon cut into lardons. Although we eat very little pork, we've become mildly obsessed with these little bits of smoky goodness. Plus we love the word "lardons" - and look for any excuse to mention lardons (in as French an accent as we can muster).

It's become our Sunday ritual to come home from church and enjoy scrambled eggs with lardons, onions, hot peppers and cheese. When I'm feeling particularly virtuous, I'll scramble one egg white for every whole egg, to cut the fat and cholesterol. And I cook as much fat as I can out of the bacon. The best part: my splatter guard has lingering remants of a great smoky smell now that I enjoy every time I open the pots and pans drawer.


Sunday. My favorite breakfast of the week.

{update: Basically, lardons are bacon that's been cut in little pieces. And very much related to "lard" unfortunately... Wikipedia says "lardons are frequently used in French cuisine to flavor salads, stews, quiches, potatoes, omelettes and other dishes" Stay tuned for further lardon postings, as I work through the lardon stash that's in my freezer.}

Summer Dinner Party, part 1: Creamed Corn with Bacon and Leeks

This recipe from Cooking Light called my name from the minute I saw it on my computer screen. I knew it would go well with our favorite chicken (luckily my electric spice mill came in the mail, so making that was easy!)

I doubled the recipe, using the dozen ears of corn from my trip to Central New York.


I wanted the bacon to be really distinctive, so I stopped at Star Provisions specialty market for advice. The fellow behind the meat counter was incredibly helpful, and set me up with Benton bacon cut into lardons. This stuff had the most amazing hickory smell. I fried it slowly and rendered off the fat. It cooked to a beautiful brown color and tasted salty, smoky and chewy - perfect for my recipe!


Making creamed corn produces a total mess - the cutting and the scraping makes corn bits fly all over. Also, I forgot that when making creamed corn, I shouldn't cut all the way to the bottom of the kernels, so I had less "milk" and pulp when I scraped the cobs, and probably too much kernel.

At any rate, something went wrong in the proportions of ingredients, so I ended up with way too much liquid. I poured some liquid off. I added more corn kernels. Then I sifted more cornstarch into the skillet and simmered it for a while until it thickened. Finally it reached an acceptable consistency.


With the bacon on top it was beautiful and I served it right out of the skillet. It looked just as wonderful as the picture on the Cooking Light website. (I didn't photograph the food in front of my dinner guests, however!)

The Verdict:
We loved this corn. It tasted fresh and creamy and the bacon was the perfect complement.

I will make it again, but I have to figure out where I went wrong since it was very stressful to have to "rescue" the dish. That probably serves me right for trying new recipes on dinner guests!