3609. CLAMS with FRIED CILANTRO, GINGER, GARLIC and BACON

yields four servings


4 pounds live butter clams (or other hardshell clams, like littlenecks), washed
1 cup water
1 tablespoon sweet butter
4 garlic cloves, peeled, julienned
A 2-inch piece of ginger, peeled, julienned, cut into 1” lengths
1 small bunch cilantro, leaves only
10 shallots, peeled, julienned
4 slices of bacon, finely minced
2 cups safflower oil for frying
Olive oil

Steam the clams with the water and butter in a covered pan for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and keep covered. On a medium flame fry the garlic, ginger, cilantro, shallots, and bacon separately in the safflower oil. They will lightly brown in seconds so stand ready with a slotted spoon. The ginger takes the longest, but that means 10 seconds. The bacon is done in literally a blink of an eye. When the cilantro leaves turn dark green; it's done. Drain each on a paper towel.

Save the clam nectar to use later. Discard one shell from each clam. On a single platter or individual plates, place the clams on their half shells. Drizzle with olive oil. Scatter the fried garlic, ginger, cilantro, shallots and bacon over the clams. Serve warm and eat by hand.


bacon recipe source: David Latt, The New York Times / Cooking (@nytfood)

3208. FRIED GREEN TOMATOES with BACON REMOULADE

yields six servings


For the bacon rémoulade
1/2 pound bacon (about 6 thick slices)
1/2 pound pickled green tomatoes, finely chopped, plus pickling liquid
1 tablespoon minced fresh chives, plus more for serving
1 egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 cup neutral oil, like grapeseed, safflower or canola
1/4 cup olive oil

For the fried tomatoes
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 large unripe green tomatoes, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs, beaten with a splash of water
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
Hot sauce, for serving

Make the bacon rémoulade: In a large nonstick skillet over high heat, cook bacon until crisp, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Reserve the bacon grease in the skillet.

In a small bowl, combine pickled tomatoes and chives. Crumble in bacon. In a medium bowl, combine egg yolk, 1 tablespoon green tomato pickling liquid (or lemon juice), 1 teaspoon cold water and 1/4 teaspoon salt. While whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in neutral oil and olive oil until sauce begins to thicken into mayonnaise. Add more pickling liquid to taste.

Finely chop 1/2 cup of the pickled-tomato-and-bacon relish and mix it into mayonnaise to make rémoulade. Save remaining relish for serving.

Prepare the tomatoes: Sprinkle 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper over green tomatoes and set aside. Put flour in a shallow bowl, the eggs in another shallow bowl, and the cornmeal in a third. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Add tomatoes to flour one or two at a time. Coat all over, shake off any excess and transfer to eggs. Dip both sides in eggs, shake off any excess and transfer to cornmeal. Press tomatoes into cornmeal until well coated on both sides, and then transfer to baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tomatoes.

Heat the nonstick skillet with the bacon grease over medium heat. Line a rimmed baking sheet with paper towels or a paper bag. When grease is hot but not smoking, add tomatoes to pan in batches of 3 to 4. Cook 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until golden brown. Transfer to lined baking sheet and sprinkle with salt while still hot. Repeat with remaining tomatoes. Serve fried tomatoes with rémoulade, bacon and pickled green tomato relish and hot sauce.


bacon recipe courtesy of: Melissa Clark, in "To Every Vegetable’s Season, Another Season," The New York Times, August 7, 2013

2566. COLLARD GREENS and BACON EGG ROLLS

makes 10 egg rolls

1 16 ounce bag of frozen collard greens

8 ounces of chicken stock

1 teaspoon of granulated garlic, crushed red pepper, onion powder and kosher salt

1/2 medium onion chopped

2 strips of thick cut nitrate free bacon roughly chopped

safflower oil

egg roll wrappers

 

In a cast iron pot fry bacon until crispy. Remove from pan. Add onion; cook until translucent. Add greens and seasonings and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for about an hour until tender. Let cool drain and add salt and bacon. Taste greens for seasoning and salt adjustments.

 

In a 12 inch frying pan add enough oil to fill pan half way. Heat oil to about 315-325 degrees. Roll your egg rolls. Fry turning constantly until golden brown about 12 minutes. 

bacon recipe courtesy of: Piper L (member), for Chow.com, 235 Second Street, First Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105

2471. APPLE and CELERY ROOT SOUP with BACON and CHIVE OIL

serves 6-8 as a soup course


1/2 stick butter
4 cups celery root, peeled and diced (about 1 1/4 lb celery root)
3 cups (2 medium) empire apples, peeled, cored and cubed
1 large onion, diced
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup chives, chopped
1/3 cup safflower oil
Kosher salt to taste
Pepper to taste
3 slices thick cut bacon, cooked and finely crumbled

Melt butter in a heavy bottom pot over medium heat. Add onions, celery root and apples. Stir to combine. Cook until onions are soft and begin to become translucent. Do not brown. Add chicken broth and a pinch of kosher salt. Simmer covered for 45 minutes, or until celery root is soft, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove the pot from heat and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.

In small batches, puree soup in blender being careful to vent the top and allow steam to escape. Pulse the hot soup several times, increase to blend and then to liquify. Return soup to pot and add salt and pepper to taste.

Puree chives and oil in blender until smooth.

To serve: Pour soup into bowl. Drizzle or dot chive oil on top of soup (I use a cheap condiment container from the Dollar Store to place the chive oil on the soup). Add a small mound of bacon crumbles to the top and serve.


bacon recipe courtesy of: Ramona Padovano, for D.C. Foodies, November 12, 2007

1408. ROAST CHICKEN with BACON and LEEKS

serves four


2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
4 halves of boneless, skinless chicken breast
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of safflower oil
8 oz of bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces
3 large leeks, white part only; washed and sliced thin
1 cup of chicken stock
1 cup of half and half
1/2 pint of cherry tomatoes cut in half
2 tablespoons of minced, flat-leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large sauté pan heat the butter. Add the chicken smooth-side down and cook on medium high for a few minutes until it gets a nice brown crust. Season with salt and pepper while it's in the pan. Flip it over and cook two more minutes. Then transfer the chicken breasts to a 9 X 13 oven proof pan and put them in the oven to roast. Don't wash out the saute pan. You are going to roast the chicken 20 - 30 minutes until cooked through and no pink remains. (The traditional Irish version would have you making this all in the same pan and topping it with a lid to cook. I think the chicken gets tough this way so I separate the two processes).

Now add the bacon pieces and fry them on medium until a nice crispy brown. Remove the bacon bites and transfer them to a piece of paper towel to drain. Pour out all of the fat except a teaspoon or two. You can leave that in the bottom of the pan. Add the olive oil and the leeks. Cook them on medium until you have them loosened up and soft. Don't brown them. Just a couple of minutes.

Now add the chicken broth and the bacon bites. (I don't call these bacon bits. They are bigger. They are bites). Simmer on medium or low for 20 minutes or so; while the chicken is in the oven. Add the cherry tomatoes to the sauce and then when you remove the chicken from the oven, put the chicken back with the sauce. Add the cream and just cook 5 - 8 minutes more to heat the cream and combine the flavors.

Serve with the parsley sprinkled on top.


courtesy of: Zola Gorgon, ArcaMax Publishing, 729 Thimble Shoals Boulevard, Suite 1-B, Newport News, Virginia 23606

1352. RAMP UDON SOUP with BACON CONSOMME and ASPARAGUS TEMPURA

bacon consommé (recipe below)
udon (recipe below)
asparagus tempura (recipe below)
ramps
safflower oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Start making the bacon consommé (recipe below) at least a week in advance. Start making the udon (recipe below) about 4 hours in advance. Make tempura batter about 1/2 hour in advance. You can even saute the ramps in advance, if you like.

Clean the ramps and cut off and discard the root ends. Cut each ramp into three sections by first cutting the leaves from the stems/bulbs, then cutting the stems/bulbs in half.

Saute in a bit of safflower oil, adding salt and pepper to taste.

Mix with udon in a bowl. Pour bacon consommé over the udon and ramps. Serve with asparagus tempura.


Bacon Consommé
1 lb bacon
3 quarts or so of water
Gelatin

Start this process at least a week before you intend to serve this dish.

In a large pot, fry the bacon until delicious. Add the water and simmer for an hour or so. If the flavor isn't sufficiently infused at that point, blend the bacon and water together.

Strain through a fine mesh strainer. Reduce the resulting liquid to taste.

Measure the weight of the liquid you end up with, and measure out .7% gelatin by weight. Take a cup of the liquid and set it aside to cool a bit, then stir in the gelatin. Stir back into the rest of the liquid.

Put the liquid in a ziplock bag and freeze.

Once it is frozen, set it up in your fridge in a cheesecloth-lined strainer set over a bowl. As the block melts, bacon consommé will drip through the cheesecloth into the bowl below. The gelatin that remains acts as a strainer so that the dripping liquid is perfectly clear.

You can make this in advance and freeze it until it is needed.


Udon
1 cup lukewarm water
5 teaspoons salt
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Dissolve the salt in about 1 tbsp of the water, then add the rest of the water. Set aside.

In your Kitchenaid, combine the two flours and salt. Pour in the water. With the dough hook attachment, knead on the lowest speed until it is combined and ceases to adhere to the hook. If it stays as too ragged, sprinkle in a bit more water.

Once it ceases to adhere to the hook, remove the dough from the Kitchenaid and continue to knead by hand as hard as you can for about 10 minutes on a floured surface. If it's too sticky, you can add in a bit more bread flour. (This is highly unlikely.)

The dough is incredibly stiff and hard to knead, so after about 10 minutes, just give up! Wrap the dough in a very sturdy plastic bag - or, better yet, several layers of sturdy plastic bags. On top of the plastic bag layer(s), wrap a large kitchen towel. Put the wrapped dough on the ground and stand on it.

Knead the dough with your feet by walking back and forth across on it for a minute or so.

Then unwrap the dough, give it a double fold, put it back in the bag, wrap it back in the towel and walk on it some more. Repeat this process about 4 times. Then, leaving the dough in the bag, let it rest for 3 hours in a warm place.

After 3 hours have passed, take the dough out and form it into a ball. Wrap it back up and walk on it one more time, trying to spread the dough out as much as possible with your feet.

Unwrap the dough and roll it out on a floured surface until it is a square about 1/8 inch thick. This is tough, but you can do it. If necessary, Cook & Eat suggests cutting the dough into 4 pieces and run it through the thickest setting of a pasta machine, giving them a good dusting of flour, but we didn't actually try that ourselves.

Once the dough is rolled out thin enough, fold it in half, and then in half again. Then, with one of the long edges facing you, slice the dough in 1/8 inch wide pieces. Dust the sliced pieces with a bit more flour as you go to prevent them from sticking.

Boil the noodles immediately, or cover with a towel while you are waiting for the water to come to a boil. The noodles will need to boil for about 7 minutes, stirred with a chopstick to prevent them form sticking together.


Asparagus Tempura
for the batter
1/2 cup ice water
1/2 cup vodka
1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
for the asparagus and the frying
asparagus
Oil for frying (peanut, safflower, or corn oil)

Stir the batter ingredients together with a fork. Don't spend too long on this, and leave the batter slightly lumpy. Stick it in the fridge to chill until cold, at least half an hour or so.

Clean and dry your asparagus, cutting off the woody ends. (I like to snap them off, then trim the ragged end nicely for serving.)

Heat up enough oil for deep-frying to 425 F.

Dip the asparagus in the tempura batter, one stalk at a time. With your fingers, scrape off any excess batter, such that the asparagus is only lightly covered. Fry just a few stalks at a time, such that the oil never goes below 375 F.

Deep-fry the asparagus until golden brown. This should happen very quickly, so don't walk away! Then remove the tempura with a slotted spoon and set it on a rack or paper towel covered plate to drain.

Wait for the oil to come back up to 425 F before adding in the next batch each time.

Serve immediately.


courtesy of: Gothamist, Prince Street Station, P.O. Box 510, New York, New York 10012