In the past, I've always thought that bacon was overrated. The stuff you get in national breakfast chains is generally just thin, salty, greasy, limp, and not particularly appetizing. We never really did bacon in my house growing up. We used to braise pork belly (soy sauce, sugar, star anise, etc.) and eat it with steamed buns, but we basically never did the bacon thing. I've played around a little bit with bacon the last few months, and have decided that I like bacon.
Basically, I saw bacon on sale, so I picked up a package, figuring that I'd do something cool with it, but I wasn't exactly sure what. With regards to the bacon itself, the one thing that figured out was that if you fry it up in the pan, and then right at the end, add on some sort of syrup, you create an extra crunchy, sweet coating on the bacon. Candied bacon, if you will. Incredible. I've had some sage syrup and some ginger syrup. Both work very will for this by adding something more than just sweet. This is sort of that sweet-salty thing that's been in vogue (think salted caramel).
I also figured out that you can make anything better by wrapping it up in bacon and frying it up. People have been wrapping scallops and shrimp forever. I discovered that hot dogs become much tastier once you wrap them up and fry them. Some grilled onions, cheddar cheese, and barbecue sauce finish off something that's really tasty and extra bad for you.
But the most interesting thing that I discovered was that it wasn't just the bacon that was of use. Bacon drippings were also there in abundance. And using the drippings effectively became one of my projects. If you remember from Top Chef a couple seasons ago, they marinated tofu in beef fat, to rave reviews.
I started with the idea of making an improved BLT. The bacon is still there, just like it should be. And you can drop the lettuce, which is just filler, anyway. But the tomato? A nice slice of raw tomato has it's merits. But what I think is even better is a quick sear on both sides, in the bacon drippings, with a quick grind of salt and pepper. You're still definitely eating tomato. But you get a little more flavor out of the tomato by cooking, and you also add on a little of that smoky bacon flavor. I also liked that idea of frying up eggs over easy in the bacon dripping, as well. The runny yolk thing is something that I've always like, and fits in nicely with the sandwich, giving the sandwich a sauce-like effect (in place of mayo). Finally, I added grilled onions, also done in the bacon drippings, with salt and pepper. Put it all between some nice bread (something soft and a little sweet like a brioche or a good bun). Result? Money sandwich.
The other sandwich that I was playing with was a grilled cheese with bacon and grilled onions. Same story as before, with the grilled onions. But the big thing? Using bacon dripping for grilling the sandwich. Finish with a little salt and pepper, and you get an added flavor to the bread that's definitely helped change my position on bacon.
The final verdict? Bacon is definitely not overrated, and figuring out what to do with the drippings makes bacon anything but ordinary.
-foodgeek
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Kitchen Happenings: Faux Sous-Vide
So, sous-vide cooking is basically vacuum sealing food, and then cooking it in a controlled, relatively low-temperature water bath. What this lets you do is to get food to exactly the right temperature, no matter how long it cooks. You can also seal in other ingredients to add flavor to the cooking process.
I buy a decent amount of frozen fish, and a lot of is is packaged in individually sealed, packages. Normally, I take it out, and then steam, bake, sautee, or do whatever to the fish, and it turns out alright. But, the other day, I took a look at the packaging and just thought, "boy, this is like they're taking the work out of sous-vide cooking."
This ended up being the easiest thing in the world. I filled a 2 qt. sauce pot halfway with water. Put it on my burner at high for a couple minutes, covered. Basically, as the water was getting hot (not to a boil, maybe to 180F), I put in the fish, still in the vacuum package. I assumed that the water dropped in temperature, maybe down to 150F, and I wanted to keep the water at that temperature. So, I put the burner to "warm," and then put the cover on the pot. A few minutes later, you see the fish turn opaque, and you're good to go.
Of course, you'll need to season the fish again, but I find that a simple seasoning (just salt and pepper, or maybe some soy sauce and ginger) works great. The fish is incredibly tender, and still has a great flavor to it.
I'd recommend using fish that are a little fatty (I've used halibut and flounder fillets, both of which were great). They tried to sous-vide salmon on Top Chef, which was disastrous, so I'll probably avoid that. But at some point, I'll give this technique a shot for whatever fish that I can find at the store, and see what works. I'm guessing that tilapia and other lean fish won't be so hot, but you never know.
Anyway, it's about to be grilling season, so I'll probably be moving away from this sous-vide thing for a while :-)
-foodgeek
I buy a decent amount of frozen fish, and a lot of is is packaged in individually sealed, packages. Normally, I take it out, and then steam, bake, sautee, or do whatever to the fish, and it turns out alright. But, the other day, I took a look at the packaging and just thought, "boy, this is like they're taking the work out of sous-vide cooking."
This ended up being the easiest thing in the world. I filled a 2 qt. sauce pot halfway with water. Put it on my burner at high for a couple minutes, covered. Basically, as the water was getting hot (not to a boil, maybe to 180F), I put in the fish, still in the vacuum package. I assumed that the water dropped in temperature, maybe down to 150F, and I wanted to keep the water at that temperature. So, I put the burner to "warm," and then put the cover on the pot. A few minutes later, you see the fish turn opaque, and you're good to go.
Of course, you'll need to season the fish again, but I find that a simple seasoning (just salt and pepper, or maybe some soy sauce and ginger) works great. The fish is incredibly tender, and still has a great flavor to it.
I'd recommend using fish that are a little fatty (I've used halibut and flounder fillets, both of which were great). They tried to sous-vide salmon on Top Chef, which was disastrous, so I'll probably avoid that. But at some point, I'll give this technique a shot for whatever fish that I can find at the store, and see what works. I'm guessing that tilapia and other lean fish won't be so hot, but you never know.
Anyway, it's about to be grilling season, so I'll probably be moving away from this sous-vide thing for a while :-)
-foodgeek
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Kitchen Happenings: Showing Some Skin
What's interesting is that a lot of folks avoid eating the skin on meat (think salmon or chicken). Salmon skin is absolutely awesome, as is chicken skin, if you get it to crisp up properly. Sushi restaurants make salmon skin rolls, and if done well, they are coveted by folks in the know. When I get the chance, I do my salmon and chicken skins in a pan. You want to season the skin, and cook it in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Some weights over the skins will keep them from curling, and make sure that they cook up evenly. You get this great, crispy skin that's got a great meat flavor. But what I'm writing about is a little different. Today, we're talking pig.
So I was wandering around the grocery store the other day, and I took a peek into the part of the store that contained the smoked animal parts. There was the usual assortment of smoked turkey wings and necks, smoked hog jowls and ham hocks, and all the like. I came across something that I hadn't seen before: smoked bacon skins. Basically, bacon is the pork belly. Whatever fat and meat that they can trim off can get sold at a decent price. The skin? Not so much. But I took one look, and realized that I had just hit the jackpot.
When you roast a pig, one of the best things to do is to take off a little bit of that crispy skin (some folks call them cracklin's), add a little hot sauce, and crunch away. These are like pork rinds you get in the store, only they're awesome, and not Styrofoam. You get a great solid crunch, a meaty flavor, and something that a lot of folks don't ever get to experience.
Now, one of the hard parts is to get the skin crispy , when there's a layer of fat attached to it. The outside dries out and crisps up, but the inside is still being basted by the fat that's melting. So, the skin just burns, before it can crisp. Now, if you can strip off the skin, you can get it to crisp up pretty easily, either in a pan or in the oven. But this is hard to do and sort of messy.
But, if it's already cleaned off for you, you can make cracklin's very easily. And since the bacon skin is smoked, you get a little extra flavor in there. One thing to note is that the skins will curl up on you, resulting in uneven cooking. To quote Alton Brown, "that is NOT good eats." You can either weight down the skins, but I don't have the hardware for that. Instead, I took a number of metal skewers, and wove them through the skin so that the skins would stay flat, with about 1.5" intervals. I put the skins onto a metal cooling rack, over a baking pan. The fat melts onto the bottom of the pan (which you can collect for other purposes, if you like), and the skins just crisp up. If there's still some fat left on the skin, so ahead and score the fat (cross-hatching, lik you would a duck breast). This will let the fat melt out a little more easily.
All of this goes into the oven (250F), until you see the skin start to get golden-brown. I start with the fat-side down, so that the fat melts out. Then, I flip everything, and let it keep baking. I'm guessing that you can go a little higher than 250F, but you want to make sure that the cracklin's don't burn. As I removed the metal skewers, the cracklin's broke into nice-sized pieces. After the cracklin's are ready, you can add a little salt (and whatever other dry spices you like). Splash some hot sauce on the cracklin's and much away.
Be careful. These things are addicting. And I'm guessing that they're not particularly good for you. But boy, they're tasty.
-foodgeek
So I was wandering around the grocery store the other day, and I took a peek into the part of the store that contained the smoked animal parts. There was the usual assortment of smoked turkey wings and necks, smoked hog jowls and ham hocks, and all the like. I came across something that I hadn't seen before: smoked bacon skins. Basically, bacon is the pork belly. Whatever fat and meat that they can trim off can get sold at a decent price. The skin? Not so much. But I took one look, and realized that I had just hit the jackpot.
When you roast a pig, one of the best things to do is to take off a little bit of that crispy skin (some folks call them cracklin's), add a little hot sauce, and crunch away. These are like pork rinds you get in the store, only they're awesome, and not Styrofoam. You get a great solid crunch, a meaty flavor, and something that a lot of folks don't ever get to experience.
Now, one of the hard parts is to get the skin crispy , when there's a layer of fat attached to it. The outside dries out and crisps up, but the inside is still being basted by the fat that's melting. So, the skin just burns, before it can crisp. Now, if you can strip off the skin, you can get it to crisp up pretty easily, either in a pan or in the oven. But this is hard to do and sort of messy.
But, if it's already cleaned off for you, you can make cracklin's very easily. And since the bacon skin is smoked, you get a little extra flavor in there. One thing to note is that the skins will curl up on you, resulting in uneven cooking. To quote Alton Brown, "that is NOT good eats." You can either weight down the skins, but I don't have the hardware for that. Instead, I took a number of metal skewers, and wove them through the skin so that the skins would stay flat, with about 1.5" intervals. I put the skins onto a metal cooling rack, over a baking pan. The fat melts onto the bottom of the pan (which you can collect for other purposes, if you like), and the skins just crisp up. If there's still some fat left on the skin, so ahead and score the fat (cross-hatching, lik you would a duck breast). This will let the fat melt out a little more easily.
All of this goes into the oven (250F), until you see the skin start to get golden-brown. I start with the fat-side down, so that the fat melts out. Then, I flip everything, and let it keep baking. I'm guessing that you can go a little higher than 250F, but you want to make sure that the cracklin's don't burn. As I removed the metal skewers, the cracklin's broke into nice-sized pieces. After the cracklin's are ready, you can add a little salt (and whatever other dry spices you like). Splash some hot sauce on the cracklin's and much away.
Be careful. These things are addicting. And I'm guessing that they're not particularly good for you. But boy, they're tasty.
-foodgeek
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