Praline Sauce

What could make bacon ice cream a little less stomach-churning?

Nothing, actually. But praline sauce was a good idea so I made it anyways. The brainstorm actually came from breakfast at Elizabeth's in New Orleans (see previous post, or, better yet, just go there). If their specialty is praline bacon, why not just cover bacon ice cream with praline sauce?

So we did. And thanks to the Junior League of New Orleans, whose excellent cookbook Jambalaya provided us with this most awesome praline sauce. Hint: this makes about a quart of sauce, so I recommend freezing it if you don't want to fall into a diabetic coma. It freezes fine, except for a slight crystallization of the sugars when thawed, which might be eliminated by reheating it gently.

Anyhow, back to the recipe:

3/4 cup white corn syrup
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar (though I used dark brown and it was still good)
4 tablespoons butter
1 (5 1/3 ounce) can evaporated milk---since we're in Metric Land and the supermarket does not sell evaporate milk in cans that size, just call it 2/3 cup and you're good.
3/4 cups chopped pecans

Combine syrup, sugar, and butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and cool. When lukewarm, stir in milk and pecans. Refrigerate. Yields 2 1/2 cups.

One thing not in the recipe, but for those who need to know: what you're basically making is a caramel, so under no circumstances stir the pot while the sugar is melting. Otherwise you might end up with a crystallized mess other than a delicious syrup-like consistency. (I have heard that corn syrup stabilizes things, but why take chances?) Feel free, however, to swirl the pot occasionally.

Good over ice cream and I'm tempted to coat some bacon with it. This may possibly lead to a Bacon Special Experiment.

Bacon Ice Cream

So yeah - Bacon Ice Cream.

While I fully support my crazy friends' efforts in general, I wasn't sure that this would actually be a worth-while contribution to the Bacon Saturdays project.

Proving there really is everything and anything on the internet, X found this recipe from otherwise fantastic ice cream recipe guru David Lebovitz. I own his The Perfect Scoop cookbook, which has delicious recipes and drool-inducing pictures. So, armed with a recipe that had to be as good as one can get, I started the preparations.

Step 1: Make candied bacon
Following the recipe, I laid out 5 slices of bacon on a cookie sheet and put brown sugar on top - trusting that my silicone baking mat (I serious just mistyped that and wrote "bacon mat") would protect my cookie tray. Unfortunately not, the bacon grease plus the brown sugar turned into some kind of crazy carbon space matter that is now permanently fused to my tray. Be warned. Despite this, the bacon actually turned out looking pretty, and certainly "candied".


Step 2: Chop bacon into tiny pieces
Harder than you think with it being so sticky. Being a fool, I used a paring knife which just wasn't cut out for the job (heh heh). Definitely use a chef knife if you are crazy enough to replicate this recipe. Put bitty pieces in container and put in freezer. Shake container to keep pieces separate.


Step 3: Give the poor dog crusty left over bits of bacon for being so good during this torturous process
How can you say no to this face!


Step 4: Make ice cream base (custard)
Again following the recipe, I made the custard for the ice cream. The only change I did was to mix in the dark rum, vanilla and cinnamon into the cup-or-so of half-and-half that was waiting for the hot custard. The custard took 40 freaking minutes to set, but I'm still timid with custard making, perhaps for a more advanced custardtier it would take less time. Anyhow, the ice cream base itself was fantastic. The brown sugar lent an almost smokey quality to the base, and the dark rum with vanilla and cinnamon was out of this world. Keep cold.

Step 5: Drive 1.5 hours to nearest little town and meet crazy friends
(optional)

Step 6: Plug in the ice cream machine and let it churn
I love my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker which, because I ordered it from Williams Sonoma, came with an extra freezing compartment (they take orders by phone and deliver by FedEx - excellent service). Poor only the ice cream base into the machine and let it do its thing for about 30-minutes. The churning was great as always, creating a nice thick and rich texture. It took a little longer than normal because the freezing compartment warmed up on my drive down. When the ice cream looks like its reached soft-serve thickness with a "grainy" appearance it is ready for the next step.


Step 7: Follow through
Add in the candied bacon. My brain did not compute the two aromas mixing together. Nevertheless, it wouldn't be bacon ice cream without the bacon. So go forth and be brave. I always freeze my "mix ins" so they don't affect the ice cream's temperature (and thus consistency) and don't clump together when being mixed in (my brain had much easier times throwing in frozen maraschino cherries into white chocolate ice cream, or frozen Cadbury Creme Egg pieces into dark chocolate ice cream). Let mix for another 5 minutes or so to distribute bacon evenly, stop machine, then scoop out into a sealable container. Let chill in freezer for at least 30 minutes to firm up.


Step 8: Eat?
Well... It smelled good - the dark rum/vanilla/cinnamon/brown sugar combo was fantastic, and technically the smokey, sweet bacon also smelled nice - but the fact that they were together was just odd. The flavour was also good, but bizarre. The chewy bits, which would normally be chocolate, nuts, or, at worse dried fruit, in ice cream were... pieces of meat. Troubling. Despite this, all 4 taste-testers finished their portions (aided, no doubt, by the delicious praline sauce we ladled onto our servings). No one went back for seconds.


Final verdict
Bacon Ice Cream was strange - and not something that will ever take off. It wasn't terrible, and the flavours were okay, but the meat in ice cream was just too mentally uncomfortable to move beyond. I would totally re-do that ice cream base with walnuts or, heck, even rum-soaked raisin in the future. Until then, there are lots of leftovers at X's...

Maple bacon lollipops.

Um... well, I know where part of my next paycheque is going...

Atonement

I had a BLT with cheddar on campus today. The toast was slightly burned, but overall it was pretty decent.

And, yes -- I have finally resorted to telling the internet what I had for lunch.

Yes, we have no bacon

Shockingly, there was no bacon this weekend, as Dr. D was away and Cin, the Kiwi and I were seeing Leonard Cohen in concert. It was an excellent concert, for all that it was lacking in pork products. Cohen had a phenomenal amount of energy; the man played for three and a half hours. I think his encore set was six or seven songs long.

Less enthused: the fidgety kid sitting next to me, who had clearly been dragged there by his mom. He might have been 15, and was clearly so over it by half an hour in. I mention him because his hot dog may have contained a certain amount of pork in it, so the closest I got to baconesque items might have been the mustard he dripped on the sleeve of my leather jacket.

Also, desperation forced us to McDonald's for dinner, but I simply could not bring myself to order a bacon double cheeseburger. My arteries seized at the very thought. Apparently my compatriots felt the same way.

So, in lieu of recipe, I offer you this tidbit just lifted from my television:

Axe is now making a bath puff for men. Except they've called it a "shower tool." And it's red and black.



Now that is manly.

Bacon Potato Scones

This was not an official Bacon Saturday, but Cinnilla and I were scrambling to get video clips edited for some conference presentations, so we really needed to... er, cook with bacon.

The original recipe was from Mr. Breakfast -- I tweaked it a bit, mostly due to the fact that I misread and added too much flour to mine, then had to compensate. The results were very tasty -- like a thick potato pancake.

BACON POTATO SCONES

1 1/2 C cooked plain mashed potatoes (no butter/milk)
8 pieces bacon, fried crispy and crumbled
Bacon drippings (leave in pan)
1 T butter
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 C flour
Optional garnish: sour cream, applesauce

Combine flour, pepper, salt, eggs, bacon bits, and mashed potatoes. Stir into a thick dough.

Add butter to hot bacon drippings in pan, and let melt. This is totally healthy. Add scones (large spoonful of batter each) and fry on medium heat until golden on both sides.





You could serve these quite nicely with maple syrup, we think; we used sour cream and applesauce, which were also very good. Veggie side dish provided by Cin -- very tasty, but your guess as to ingredients is as good as mine!

The Elvis

We have run into mention of this sandwich at several places, but I first remember hearing about it around 2006 when visiting the Peanut Butter & Co. restaurant in NYC. It is a grilled peanut butter sandwich with bananas, honey and bacon. We were skeptical but game.

PEANUT BUTTER BANANA BACON SANDWICH

A nice bread -- we used fresh multigrain Italian bread, cut thick.
Sliced bananas
Bacon (fried to crispy)
Honey
Peanut butter (we used smooth; crunchy should also be fine)



Slather peanut butter on bread, then add bananas and bacon. Drizzle honey lightly over top, then add second slice of bread (uh... "make a sandwich") and grill.





Simple and tasty. Also, good for any meal of the day, really -- probably more of a breakfast/lunch thing, but we had ours for dinner due to scheduling issues.



For dessert, there'd been a sale on fresh strawberries so I whipped up a strawberry shortcake and garnished it with bacon just for the hell of it. It was fine, as long as the bacon was eaten separately. We would not recommend the bacon/vanilla ice cream combo, which should prove interesting for our upcoming (wait for it!) attempt at bacon ice cream.

Grilled Arctic Char with Bacon

I am a few posts behind with our bacon recipes, and will do my best to get caught up this week. This recipe is from yesterday, however, and was born of the beautiful weather and my urge to turn on the barbecue. We had successfully combined bacon and salmon before, and I'd thought to do so again -- until I walked into the seafood store and saw the fresh char on display. You could easily use salmon for this as well.

GRILLED ARCTIC CHAR WITH BACON

1 lb Arctic char filet (with skin)
1 lemon, sliced
6 slices of bacon
seasoning salt

Since fish cooks faster than bacon does, pre-fry the bacon just enough so that it is still limp but there is no longer a danger of food poisoning. Reserve the drippings.



I picked up a fish grilling basket at the grocery store for $11. Professional looking, no?

Layer the bottom of the basket with lemon slices, then three bacon slices. Place the fish on top of the bacon, skin side down. Baste the filet with bacon drippings, then sprinkle with seasoning salt. On top, add another layer of bacon and then the remaining lemon slices. Grill, turning over occasionally, until fish is cooked through.





Separately, I made up two foil packets; one contained perogies, garlic butter and onions, and the other contained red and yellow peppers, sliced water chestnuts, and a lime soy sauce (no recipe for that -- I bought it at the store, hello laziness). I threw these on the grill with the fish. We also had some lovely homemade French bread, courtesy of Cinnilla.

The char was delicious -- it was infused with lemon and had a faint taste of bacon. The bacon itself had also become lemony; it's your choice whether you want to eat or discard the bacon. We tried eating it, and pronounced it good.

Praline Bacon

Alternate title: "The Louisiana diet will kill a man as surely as the sword." (King of the Hill)

This recipe requires slightly more dedication than our usual lazy options.

PRALINE BACON

First, fly to New Orleans.

Next, get a cab to take you to the corner of Chartres and Gallier, in the Bywater district.



There, you will find a restaurant called Elizabeth's. Make sure to arrive when breakfast is being served.

Order the praline bacon.



When the nice waitress brings it to you, consume it.

You might follow it up with sweet fried rice cakes, French toast (stuffed with strawberry cream cheese), or a giant waffle (with strawberries and whipped cream).

Then, walk half an hour to the French Quarter. You will need the exercise in order to prevent your arteries from immediately hardening with delicious, delicious goo.

Even Brussels Sprouts Can Be Delicious... With Bacon

[Cette recette est aussi disponible en français]

This is no April Fool's joke. This underappreciated vegetable can be made to be loved, provided one is willing to work just a little. One of the guests at the pot roast dinner exclaimed, seeing the little bag that contained the green balls: "You don't intend to make me eat Brussels sprouts?" My answer was that she was free to try, and that I may even change her perception of this miniature cabbage. And I did.

A few years ago, I discovered that there were other ways to cook Brussels sprouts than boiling the living heck out of them, which leaves them brownish, soggy, and entirely devoid of any nutritious value or appetising flavour. A cook once made me taste them taken apart, blanched, and then stir-fried in olive oil with fresh mint and basil. I still occasionally make that recipe.

Recently, I discovered another variation, based on bacon. I thus decided to try adapting it and serving it along with the pot roast.

• 15 (or so) fresh Brussels sprouts
  
• 100 gr bacon, cut into strips
  
• A quarter red pepper (I happened to have some on hand) diced
• A handful pine nuts
  

First, take the Brussels sprouts apart. This can be made easier by cutting the stems of the leaves while removing them one by one. Make compost with the hardened hearts. They can also be cut in halves or quarters, which is quicker to prepare but will require a bit longer cooking.

In a large skillet with a lid, cook the bacon, and when it is almost ready, add a handful of pine nuts. Warm and coat with the bacon fat. Deglazing the pan with a little cider vinegar adds a nice flavour.

Then add the Brussels sprout leaves and the red pepper and close the lid. Let steam over medium heat 2-3 minutes, until the sprouts start wilting. Serve warm.