The Bacon Dinner

Inspired by this blog post http://www.endlesssimmer.com/2009/08/18/100-ways-to-use-a-stick-of-bacon/ which my net savvy and carnivore friend Kelster sent me, we decided to embark on a bacon themed dinner from start to end including dessert, yes dessert. I'm a fan of bacon but not in a very big way as others profess. I don't crave for it for breakfast and my burger or my pancakes can do without it. If combined with other nice ingredients like Thomas Keller's BLT sandwich http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV309JSSxM0, it can be wonderful. I'm a big fan of its flavor though and i use it extensively to flavor fabada, coq-au-vin, potato leek soup and clam chowder.

For this meal I used two brands of bacon. The slab and the slices were Earle's, which I purchased at the supermarket at Market Market located at the Fort, Taguig, which to my opinion is probably the most complete grocery in Manila. The other brand, I got is from Santi's because in the middle of preparing this meal, i was running out of bacon and had to make a quick run at Santi's nearby.

First up: Bacon Tempura. I remember reading about this recipe years ago in GQ or Esquire magazine. The first two sentences of the article stated: "What is better than bacon? Deep-fried bacon". To do this, the bacon needs to be fried first to a light crisp. The main ingredients for a tempura batter are: eggs and equal amounts of flour and carbonated water or beer. The bubbles in the beer or carbonated water leaves small holes for the air to come in making it lighter and more fluffy. To make the batter even more fluffy, separate the eggs and the egg whites. I beat the eggs until fluffy and i incorporate the beaten egg whites with the other ingredients.

Dip the cooked bacon into the batter and then fry in a medium to low heat. I serve the bacon tempura with Strawberry syrup to add a sweet bite. We Filipinos and Asians know very well that the combination of salty and sweet go very well together. Eating this reminded me of eating a Filipinized waffle with hotdog inside. You could also use maple syrup instead of strawberry syrup. I'm still experimenting on this dish and the next time I serve this, I will add some avocado and/or fresh strawberries.

Next course was just a simple ceasar's salad with bacon. The original idea was to use bacon cups as shown here: http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2008/02/27/bacon-cups/. There was a lot of time constraint so i scrapped the idea of the bacon cups entirely.

The main course was a bacon slab overload spaghetti bolognese. Earle's bacon slab was very flavorful and it stated it was double smoked with imported wood chips. I added the bacon to the simmering/reduction process of the sauce and its nice smoky flavor was rendered all over the sauce. This recipe of bolognese deserves its own post very soon.




...and dessert which for me was the highlight of the evening. Chocolate Chip Cookies three ways: 1. plain with bacon bits; 2. with caramel glaze and bacon bits and 3. shaped as a cup with a scoop of mantecado ice cream and a slice of bacon. Believe me when i say this; the combination of the bacon and the cookies was divine. It was surprisingly awesome! It actually makes sense; we eat our pancakes with maple syrup and bacon, so why can't sweet cookies go with bacon? It actually does, it rightly does and it naturally does. They are fantastic together. Dessert courtesy of Twinkle Legaspi of Dessert Barn http://dessertbarn.multiply.com, the one that made that fabulous chocolate cake last post.

Thank you Kelster for some of the nice photos.