Bacon | The Wannabe Chef

Tag Archive: Bacon

Homemade Bacon Salt®

Written on January 10, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Uncategorized

Let me tell you about a little seasoning called Bacon Salt®. What is it? Well, it’s name pretty much says it all: It’s salt infused with bacon that adds a smoky brininess to dishes. When I saw a recipe for Bacon Salt® in the new issue of Food Network Magazine, I about jumped off the couch to make it. I know the holidays are over, but if you made this for your friends they would be delighted, and only slightly question your sanity.

Homemade Bacon Salt®

Ingredients:

6 slices of bacon
1/2 cup coarse sea salt
<3/4 teaspoon ground peppercorn

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Lay your bacon out in single strips over a cookie rack and put that in a baking tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the bacon is crisp and starting to blacken(It should look overcooked rather than how you’d normally eat bacon).

Once the bacon has cooled, use a paper towel to press out any excess oil.

Transfer the bacon to a food processor and process until there are only small chunks and a paste begins to form. Add in the sea salt and ground pepper(note: whole peppercorns will not break up in the food processor) and continue to process until the salt breaks up into smaller pieces and mixes with the bacon. Transfer to an airtight jar and keep in the refrigerator when not using.

Understandably, this isn’t for everyone. It’s not for vegetarians and it’s not kosher. But if you’re a carnivore, this is for you. Add it to baked potatoes, macaroni and cheese, seared steak—anything savory that needs a kiss of salt. Bacon truly does make it better.

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Bacon-Fried Quinoa

Written on December 23, 2010 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

I love leftovers. Even though they’re already cooked and flavored, they’re so easy to make into something new and flavorful. Some foods even get better on age. I made The Best Quinoa Stuffing to bring to a party on Sunday. First of all, you wouldn’t be able to imagine how much Italian grandmothers loved quinoa, even if they couldn’t spell it for their life. Soft, flavorful and easy to chew? It was bound to be a winner with my family. With the leftovers I wanted to do something a little different; I decided to cook it like I would leftover rice, except add bacon because bacon makes it better. Chinese restaurants should take a hint from me.

Bacon-Fried Quinoa

Ingredients:

4 slices of bacon, diced
1/2 cup leftover, prepared quinoa(I used The Best Quinoa Stuffing)
1 egg
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Heat a pan over low-medium heat. Add in the diced bacon and cook it until it’s pink and starting to crisp at the edges.

Add in the leftover quinoa, egg, and soy sauce. Constantly move the ingredients around in the pan over the heat until the egg has cooked and the fat has been absorbed. Be careful as the quinoa tends to pop when the pan is dry. Serve hot.

Just like fried rice, this isn’t the prettiest dish but boy does it taste good. Adding the soy sauce and bacon elevates the flavor of the quinoa a lot; I could hardly tell this was the same dish as the leftovers.

I served it with steamed brussel sprouts with a little soy sauce, because I just love brussel sprouts and bacon. You could add more vegetables to cook with the bacon and make this into a stir-fry. Or you could forget vegetables together and add more bacon. I’m not one to judge when it comes to loving bacon.

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Sweet Potato and Brussel Sprouts With Bacon

Written on December 18, 2010 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

As you could have guessed, I’ve been reuniting with a lot of things around here since I’ve been home, things like my own bed, Tivo, and bacon. Yes, bacon. I can’t believe it’s been over 4 months since I’ve cooked with bacon; I could feel Jessica’s heart breaking the whole time. The reason I didn’t buy bacon sooner is because I like to keep it in the freezer and my mini-fridge’s freezer was never that good. I learned from Food Network that if you keep bacon in the freezer, you can take it out, cut off the amount you need, and stick it back in and keep it like that for months! Genius, right? Because we all would like to believe that if we bought bacon we’d “eat 2 strips to satisfy the craving and then the rest would just go bad.” A likely story.

Now that I’ve gushed about bacon for too long, I’ll just say that, besides bacon, I love sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts, and combining them all in one pan is a recipe for comfort.

Sweet Potato and Brussel Sprouts With Bacon

Ingredients:

4 strips smoked bacon, diced*
1 small sweet potato, cooked and cubed
1/2 halved and cooked brussel sprouts
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

*You could make this recipe vegetarian by using a tempeh bacon or other bacon substitute. However, since those tend to be less fatty, add about a tablespoon of cooking oil in with the vegetables.

Heat a pan at medium over a burner. Add in the diced bacon once it has come to temperature and par-cook the bacon until it slightly browning but still flimsy.

Next, add in the brussel sprouts, sweet potato chunks, and soy sauce. You can cook these in the microwave or use them leftover from another meal(I steamed mine in a microwave).

Continue stirring the pan every few minutes until the fat has been absorbed and the edges start to brown/burn. Note: A little burning adds flavor into your dish. A lot of burning adds firemen into your kitchen. Serve hot.

There’s something great about eating a food you love. There’s something amazing about eating all the foods you love and their flavors come together. This is sweet, smoky, savory, and wholly comforting. Now someone please hide the bacon from me for the next month.

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