Fish & Brewis

In my family Christmas morning breakfast has, for as long as I can remember, been a traditional fisherman's meal of Fish and Brewis (pronounced 'bruise') expertly prepared by my Dad.

It consists of flakey salt cod (readily available on the ships, salted for preservation), brewis (Purity brand hard tack, an extremely hard biscuit of flour and water that is soaked over night until it is roughly the consistency of boiled potatoes, another staple on the ships for its self-life– virtually indestructable and unspoilable) and...

scrunchions (salt pork belly that is diced and rendered down to crispy chunks of heavenly salty bacon).

Sounds questionable, but as the bf can attest it's "comfort seafood in breakfast form."

Served this year with the traditional partridgeberry jam and mixed melon and blueberries marinated in lime juice, mint and rum....like a mojito fruit salad.

A Very Bacon-y Christmas

St. John's, Newfoundland.

Sun pierces a stormy sky and a very bacon-y Christmas is had by all...

The bf traveled with me to visit my family on the Rock for Christmas. Christmas dinner was a feast of ridiculous proportions, as it usually is. Behold...

A twenty pound turkey with breakfast sausage artfully draped over top, surrounded by roasted baby potatoes.

The glorious sides from L to R: turnip with a crunchy breadcrumb top, cauliflower with cheese sauce, shredded brussel sprouts with proscuitto and pine nuts, and traditional dressing with peppercorn bacon, celery and Newfoundland savory.

Close up of the brussel sprouts.

Close up of the dressing (my favourite).

Refrigerator Pasta #2

To clear out the fridge before we head out for the Christmas holidays I made another refrigerator pasta, heavy on the bacon of course.

Ingredients:
the rest of a pound of bacon
the last onion
the last few garlic cloves
the end of a bottle of California Pinot Grigio
the second half of a can of tomato paste
most of a bottle of strained tomatoes
the rest of a container of arugula

Seasoned with s&p, red chili flakes and dried oregano and toped with crispy bacon and freshly grated parmesan.

Last minute bacon gifts

For those of you with a bacon lover on your list and an empty spot under the tree here's a list of 99 "Porky Presents for your most calorie-carnivorous friends."

Personally I'm loving the bacon and eggs scarf...delicious and practical for Canadian winter!

Pou-tig-ly

Poutini's House of Poutine has changed the way Torontonians eat late at night. Once restricted to pizza or a falafel, Poutini's has made the artery-clogging Quebecois special of french fries, gravy and squeaky cheese curds the go-to meal to preempt the hangover. Being the innovators that they are, they invented the Pou-tig-ly (traditional poutine as above plus crispy bacon on top) for folks like my bf to eat at 1:41am on a Saturday morning.

Bon Appetit.

What's your favorite way to eat poutine? I'd love to hear from you, let me know in the comments.

Smokey chorizo with butter beans

Well, though winter officially starts next week, it has most certainly arrived in the GTA. Temperatures are below seasonal averages, snow is falling, and the wind chill is whipping. Such meteorological horrors calls for long lazy Sundays inside with movies and cozy hearty meals. 

I spent this Sunday making my version of Donna Hay's Smokey Baked Beans, which is a misnomer because they're not baked at all, but slowly simmered on the stovetop. Not that it makes an ounce of difference.

I quickly browned a little bacon to up the smoke factor, then sauteed some onion and garlic, browned the halved (extra spicy) chorizo and deglazed with a little beef stock. Once reduced a little I added in fresh tomato sauce from the bf's mom, more beef stock, and the beans and let them go for about 20 minutes. 

Topped with some fresh italian parsley and served with Kozlick's Italian mustard and Roasted Red Pepper and Onion Fougasse to sop up the sauce.

Captain Canuck

On a rainy, cold and icy Sunday, Captain Canuck comes to the rescue.

The Lakeview's Captain Canuck: Peameal bacon with tomato and ancho chili garlic mayo on a sesame seed bun.

"Fancy a Pint of Bacon Beer?"

This is pretty much the perfect beverage for my household, bacon for me, beer for the bf.

The Guardian, out of the UK, ran an article in their Life & Style section on Friday about the world of unusual beers. With crazy combos like a Shellfish Stout and a Barley Tikka Vindaloo, you know that some inspired souls have gone the pig route and tried bacon-beer combinations. Whether imitated, or created with actual bacon right in the recipe, these brews sound good enough to eat...drink?

History has seen many different ingredients added to beer but more unusual ingredients are starting to find their way into brew pots and bottles around the world. Bacon beers have seen a strange increase in popularity in the US, some using smoked malt and others using actual bacon. Goose Island brewed Maple Bacon Stout with maple syrup and bacon and the appropriately named Uncommon Brewers in California have Bacon Brown which has a faintly smoky aroma and flavour which adds an interesting complexity to the beer.

Read the whole article here.

Bacon-wrapped Filet Mignon with wilted spinach and sweet potato fries

Tonight's meal was a quick throw together after a long week. I picked up two small but mighty little steaks and wrapped them a slice of smokey bacon to lend a little fat and a lot of flavour.

I feel like I'm not very creative when it comes to sides, I often forget about them, so they're usually an after thought consisting of whatever's in the fridge, or the first thing I think of while walking through the produce section. So tonight I decided to go waaaay far out of my comfort zone and go for two vegetables that are usually at the bottom of my list: spinach (I've explained my feelings on the matter here) and sweet potato.

The spinach turned out well, I sauteed some shallots and garlic in butter and quickly wilted the spinach down. It was flavourful and buttery, while still maintain its bright green colour, and, as I've recently discovered, all of its nutrients. That made me feel a little better about skipping the gym tonight in favour of bacon-wrapped beef.

Now I will say, while they tasted yummy with all the spices (cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, paprika and brown sugar) these fries didn't turn out as crispy as I would have liked. I did them in the oven because I don't have a deep fryer, plus I didn't actually want them fried to begin with. I'm not sure if they needed a little more time at a lower heat, or to be salted and rinsed before hand to get rid of some if their water...if anyone's got any tips I'd love to hear how you make your oven-fries crispy!

Bacon News - Holiday Edition

Some linkage from the world wide web...today in Bacon News:

Now this got me in the Holiday spirit...

And this little tidbit from The Fox Foodie's Gourmet Gift Guide made my mouth water, nothing beats the salty-sweet-boozey combo.

Bacon and chocolate is so 2010. Bacon and popcorn is so 2011.Chicago’s Salted Caramel’s Bacon Bourbon Caramel Corn is Cracker Jacks for grown-ups - salty popcorn, crunchy Bourbon caramel and bits of smoky bacon. 8 oz. $12. Follow with Imperial Stout Marshmallows chasers,$7. saltedcaramel.net.

Lazy Boeuf Bourguignon with roasted garlic smashed potatoes

A cozy Sunday meal for a cold wintery day.

Starting with some diced peppercorn-crusted bacon this delicious stew is my version of the classic French dish notably perfected my one Ms. Julia Child. I haven't the patience to go through all of the intricate French steps; separately braising the onions and browning the mushrooms in batches, so I browned the meat and tossed everything in my crock pot (stewing beef slowly braised in red wine, beef stock and tomato paste with carrots, mushrooms and pearl onions) to let the house fill with that beefy aroma while I sat back.

After many hours at last it was ready. The meat was fork tender and just soaked up that velvety gravy-like sauce.  Served with roasted garlic, scallion smashed potatoes and fresh crusty bread, a gut-warming hearty bowl of happiness to end the weekend just right.

Bacon is a Vegetable

A gift from a dear friend. Does this make me a Baconterian?

Spinach salad with warm bacon & shallot vinaigrette

In an effort to be semi health-conscious while blogging about bacon, tonight's post-gym meal was a big plate of spinach salad with warm bacon and shallot vinaigrette, topped with the traditional mushroom, red onion and hard boiled egg, plus some thinly sliced radish.

Spinach is probably one of my least favourite things to eat. I just don't get it. Texture is a big thing for me and quite frankly the texture of spinach oogs me out. Raw I find it spongy and squeaky against my teeth, cooked it feels like baby food, or like it's already been chewed for me, a la mama bird. Ew.

So to solve this problem, as not only does the bf love spinach, but I'm smart enough to know that I should eat it once in a while cause it's good for you (calcium, vitamins...yada yada) my solution is to pour warm bacon-y vinaigrette all over it!

After crisping the bacon, reserve a little fat and transfer to a clean pre-heated small pan, add finely chopped shallots and whisk in dijon, red wine vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper and some vegetable oil. Spoon over salad and eat up.

Gianni Ola

A beautiful pie from Pizzaiolo with dry cured pepperoni, mushrooms and of course, bacon, makes Mondays a little easier to swallow.

Happy Friendsgiving! – Slow-braised lamb shanks with pancetta pan sauce

This weekend was an annual Holiday dinner with my best friends. Each year around the big holidays we come together at someone's house and celebrate a "Friends" version. Mostly it's an excuse to all get together, pig out on ridiculously fantastic food and maybe drink a little too much wine.

This year's Friendsgiving (Friends-Thanksgiving) was hosted by the fabulous Ms. Dinning and held in conjunction with the American holiday. Cheese plates held us over until the main event. Two standout cheeses of the night: a smoked cheddar that honest-to-god tastes like bacon; and another that was creamy yet firms and involved caramelized onion.

And for the main event: Slow-braised lamb shanks with a pan gravy that flavoured was with some pancetta; creamy roasted garlic mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus.

And to cap off the night, two homemade pies: a traditional, yet insane, cung-ping pie (Pumpkin pie for those of you who don't speak "friendsgiving") and a beautiful cream cheese apple pie (pictured above), that was heavenly. If I concentrate hard I can still taste it; silky, tangy, sweet, cinnamon-y, with a crisp buttery crust...it was by far the hit of the night and a revelation as far as I'm concerned.

All in all, another legendary Friendsgiving for the books!

In the spirit of unabashed gluttony...

...and American Thanksgiving, a couple of bacon-ridiculous dishes that simultaneously activate my salivary glands, and make my arteries hurt. Enjoy.

The Bacon Explosion and the TurBaconEpic Thanksgiving...which also made national news on the Globe and Mail's Hot Button Blog.

Thanks friends for sending these in.
Please keep the links, ideas, suggestions, stories and videos comin!

Mussels in Beer Broth with Bacon

One of my purchases at the Food & Wine Expo was this beer for my brewer-wannabe bf. Lug Tread by Beau's All Natural Brewery, a new discovery for both of us.

Last night I used it as the base for a broth for steamed mussels, and it was pretty good! I have to say, I do prefer a more traditional white wine sauce, but I thought this would be fun and seasonally tummy warming.

Of course I began with the bacon...rendered that off, and used the fat to sweat shallots and garlic until translucent. Then added in about a cup and a half of beer, a handful of Italian flat leaf parsley and the mussels. They steamed with the lid on for about 5 to 6 minutes while I warmed delicious sesame flatbread in the oven. Once done, I tossed in the crispy bits of bacon, scooped the mussels into a pasta bowl with as much broth as could fit and garnished with some chopped chives for that fresh onion-y bite.

Gourmet Food & Wine Expo 2010

This weekend, after a delicious brunch at our old neighbourhood fave The Old York (I had Eggs Britney – essentially Eggs Benedict but with a red pepper salsa as well as the Hollandaise...) some girlfriends and I attended Toronto's Gourmet Food & Wine Expo at the Metro Convention Centre. Having never been before I was really excited to see what was in store.

Upon entering, we knew we were in for a good time, the tagline "The city's best cocktail party" was definitely accurate. Essentially they transformed a large conference room into a marketplace of delicious food and flowing booze. The room was more or less divided into Wine, Beer, and Food.

We (obviously) hit the wine section first, spending our sample tickets on Californian, Chilean, and Spanish wines. We later strolled over to the food section where my compadres wisely got a chorizo on a bun and a panini respectively, for some reason I thought it would be wise to opt not to eat...not so wise it turns out...

We ended the afternoon in the beer section, sampling delicious local craft brews (Mill St, still one of my favourite local micro-breweries, the Coffee Porter is deliciously strong and smooth and sweet) and specialty imports (Innis & Gunn is a fave of the bf, they age their brews in whisky and scotch barrels making a fragrant and flavourful brew that definitely packs a punch).

Spaghetti & Bacon-Beef Meatballs

It all started with a few slices of old-fashioned thick cut, naturally smoked bacon...

On the walk home from brunch, and after much debate, we settled on Spaghetti & Meatballs for dinner. Never one to pass up an opportunity to incorporate bacon into a meal, I diced up some of that gorgeous thick cut bacon and slowly rendered out the fat.

To make the meatballs I used one pound of freshly ground lean beef, 1 egg, a handful of bread crumbs, 2 cloves of minced garlic, sea salt & black pepper, chopped fresh sage and thyme and of course, the bacon bits (I meant to add parmesan cheese as well but totally forgot until I was about halfway done rolling the meatballs...oh well). I rolled little balls and browned them in shifts in the bacon fat and a little olive oil and set aside.

Using the same pan I sweated an onion and lots more garlic until translucent, then tossed in a few leftover sliced button mushroom. Sizzle, sizzle...deglazed with some white wine and reduced by half. Then I splashed in some chicken stock, a bottle of strained tomatoes, 2 bay leaves and brought the liquid to a simmer. I gingerly placed the meatballs in to finish cooking and let them get acquainted with the sauce for about an hour. And tossed in some sprigs of thyme in the last 10 minutes while the pasta boiled.

Served over whole wheat spaghettini with fresh shaved parm... Mmm. Hearty and comforting, the mushrooms add texture to the smooth, thick sauce, and the meatballs are meaty yet light with an herbacious quality and the bacon adds a nice depth of flavour without taking over.

The Riverside

Behold, the Riverside from BQM on Ossington.

Bacon, Mozzarella, Spicy BBQ Sauce (house-made), Crispy Onion Ring and Garlic Aioli all on a ground Angus patty. If you've never been to BQM, I strongly suggest you go.

Bacon Bookmarks

Today's internet wanderings led me to two new bookmarks for my computer. Behold a couple of crucial websites for the bacon fan:

bacontoday.com is "The Daily News on the World of Sweet, Sweet Bacon"...couldn't have said it better myself. I particularly enjoyed the Periodic Table BaCoN pillow, Want!

baconfreak.com is the hub for all your bacon gifting needs, they even have a Bacon of the Month club! Talk about the perfect gift for the Holidays...hint, hint...

Not quite bacon...

While I'm aware that proscuitto and bacon are not the same thing, I do consider them close cousins, so Chicken Saltimbocca stuffed with garlicky wilted spinach, and paper thin slices of salty proscuitto totally qualifies in my opinion.

For my spin on this Italian classic I first wilted a few handfuls of baby spinach in butter and oil with a little minced garlic. Once that was done I put it aside to cool while I pounded out my chicken and divided it into 4 "cutlets" (actually this is all from one chicken breast, the butcher at the top of my street in Little Portugal has the best, freshest meat for ridiculously good prices). Once the chicken was ready I layered the proscuitto and spinach over each cutlet and rolled from pointy end to wide end, securing with a toothpick.

I quickly tossed some potatoes and carrots in olive oil, sea salt, fresh ground pepper and fresh thyme and popped them in the oven with a couple of garlic cloves (maybe this blog should have been called Sarah Loves Garlic?). While those did their thing I browned the chicken rolls in a hot pan with a touch of olive oil, transfered to a plate and deglazed the pan with chicken stock and lemon juice and reduced by half.

Then I added the rolls back in, reduced to a simmer and covered for about 10 mins. While the rolls finished cooking I tossed some whole mushrooms in with the roasting veg and impatiently waited...

Once the rolls were done I reduced the pan sauce and added a little cornstarch to thicken.

Et voila! Served with roasted carrots, baby red potatoes and mushrooms. The perfect late fall cozy weeknight meal.

Bacon & Egg Cups

There's nothing better on a rainy Sunday morning than the smell of bacon in the air, and a hot cup of coffee in your hands. I had a friend over for brunch today so I decided to make bacon and egg cups (should be pancetta but there seems to be a shortage in the GTA this weekend...), adapted from Donna Hay's Pancetta Baked Eggs from No Time to Cook. 


Instead of whisking the ingredients together with the egg and creating an quiche-like filling, I simply cracked the eggs over the bacon-lined cups, layered some scallions, fresh ground pepper and topped with parmesan. 

Baked in a 400 degree oven for about 12-15 mins. Served with Chuck's Day Off's smashbrowns and freshly baked italian bread for dipping.

Bacon News

Clearly I'm not the only one with strong feelings about bacon.

Bacon-flavoured soda? Definitely delicous...

I can't believe I missed International Bacon Day! Next year I'm having a party in honour if this most special day.

Time for me to buy shares in Prairie Orchard... any company that can make healthy bacon gets my backing.

Never!

Am I the only one who finds this adorable?

Refrigerator Pasta & Caesar Salad

Last night's meal began as an effort to clean out our incredibly full fridge. Obviously there were a few slices of bacon hanging around, so I decided to make the most of them. With that I tossed the leftover half of an onion, garlic, cremini and oysters mushrooms in a saucepan, deglazed with the last splash of chicken stock, and topped it off with the end of a bottle of stewed tomatoes and the end of a bottle of vodka sauce. The sauce was then tossed with fresh whole wheat pasta and topped with sage and crispy bacon. Served with Caesar salad, spiced olives, marinated eggplant and garlic bread (not shown).

Here's the final product:

Refrigerator Pasta (a.k.a. Bacon Mushroom Pasta in a Tomato-Vodka sauce with Sage)

My Famous Caesar Salad