3587. BACON HABANERO MOJITO

2 slices bacon cooked
1 habanero, thinly sliced
10 mint leaves
1 lime, cut in 6 wedges
4 tablespoons sugar
3 oz light rum
1 cup club soda
2 cups ice cubes

Squeeze 4 of the lime wedges and then add wedges to a large cup. Add sugar and mint leaves and use the back end of wooden spoon to mash the limes and mint with the sugar, releasing all the oils and flavor. Add rum and club soda and gently mix to combine.

Prepare 2 smaller glasses with ice and a lime wedge. Add half of the habanero to each glass and then equally pour mojito over each cup of ice.


bacon recipe source: Wendy O'Neal, Around My Family Table (@MyFamilyTable), August 2014

2687. CANDIED BACON MARTINI

makes four servings 


Candied bacon

8 slices smoked bacon
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, shiny side up. Dredge the bacon on both sides in the brown sugar and arrange the slices so they do not touch on the sheet. Bake until the bacon is richly caramelized, 15 to 25 minutes. Use a pair of tongs to transfer the bacon strips to a cooling rack and allow the excess fat to drain. Serve warm as candy or cool until hardened for the martinis.

Candied bacon martinis
6 ounces premium vodka
4 ounces Applejack brandy
2 ounces amaretto liqueur
2 ounces maple syrup, preferably grade "B"
4 thin slices tart apple, such as Granny Smith
2 slices candied bacon, halved crosswise

 

Chill 4 martini glasses. In a large cocktail shaker, combine the vodka, brandy, amaretto and maple syrup with ice. Shake until combined and chilled. Strain the cocktail into the 4 chilled glasses and garnish each with an apple slice and half a slice of candied bacon. Serve immediately.

 

 

bacon recipe courtesy of: Los Angeles Times, 2012; candied bacon recipe courtesy of: The Gift of Southern Cooking: Recipes and Revelations From Two Great American Cooks, by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock.

2466. BACON SOUR

1¼ parts bourbon
1 part St-Germain liqueur infused with applewood-smoked bacon (recipe below)
1 part freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice
1/2 part diluted maple syrup (1:1 ratio syrup to water)
1 dash bitters
1/4 part pasteurized egg white

Bacon Infused St-Germain
9 thick slices of spplewood-smoked bacon
2 750 ml bottle of St-Germain® liqueur

Cook bacon in the oven until it is crispy on the outsides but still chewy in the center. Place bacon on paper towel to remove some of the rendering. Place cooked bacon in a glass jar with two 750 ml bottles of St-Germain and allow it to infuse for 24 hours at room temperature. Remove bacon. Place liqueur in the freezer so renderings congeal and you can remove them. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and cheese cloth to remove as much rendering as possible. Repeat freezer step if needed and strain again. Refrigerate until ready for use. Combine bourbon, bacon-infused St-Germain, lemon juice, diluted maple syrup, bitters and egg white into a mixing glass and shake vigorously with ice. Strain over fresh ice into a double-old fashioned glass. Garnish with an orange slice and a piece of the St-Germain.


bacon recipe courtesy of: Patricia Richards, Las Vegas, Nevada, for Couturelite, New York, New York, June 2011

2455. MEZCALTINI with BACON

1 oz. mezcal
⅓ oz. scotch
⅓ oz. Campari
⅓ oz. pepper vodka
2 dashes orange bitters
A quarter-size piece of crispy bacon
1 jalapeno, halved, de-seeded, de-ribbed, and sliced long-wise

In an ice-filled shaker, pour the mezcal, scotch, Campari, vodka, and bitters and add the bacon. Shake thoroughly until the bacon is pulverized. Strain into a chilled martini glass, and garnish with the jalapeno sliver.


bacon recipe courtesy of: Grant Skokan-Guinn, formerly of Grady's Restaurant, Fort Worth, Texas | ElMezcal.org, August 11, 2011