Category — Pork + Bacon Recipes

My last couple posts have been kind of weird and gross! As individual posts, they are OK, as a gestalt, notsomuch. I’m pleased to say that things are looking up for everyone, as I have something that is decidedly NOT gross and in fact  SUPER delicious- a recipe for Pancake Ice Cream with Bacon Candy.

I put this beloved recipe up as a guest post on Thursday Night Smackdown, which is known for its witty proprietress Michelle, who swears like a stevedore. Ergo, don’t be surprised if I seem a little grittier over there. Or funnier. I think I tried harder to be funny because she’s really funny and I wanted to impress her, and you. Hopefully it worked. If not, just think about the bacon candy some more. Bacon. Plus candy. Bacon candy!

I have been really busy lately, but one of the bright spots of my recent days was making this cornbread and then eating it all.

Cornbread can be too sweet or too mealy or too dry or too boring, but this cornbread is none of those things. I’m guessing it’s largely because of the copious amounts of bacon and bacon grease that go into it, but there could be other reasons. I like it warm out of the oven or lightly toasted. With all the fat in it, even I don’t need to put butter on it… and that’s saying quite a lot since I like to put butter on EVERYTHING. But it’s not solely enhanced by the pig products- it’s rounded out with caramelized onions and a measure of parmesan cheese just for the heck of it. So swine up your cornbread- one bite and you will wonder why you have spent all these years eating stupid regular non-porked cornbread.

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My parents lived in Queretaro, Mexico for a couple of months 2 years ago- and ever since then my Dad has been OBSESSED with something he ate there ONE TIME. He does not stop talking about it! Using his descriptions, I did some detective work via my Diana Kennedy cookbook and figured out he probably ate Chiles En Nogada- a very interesting and admittedly somewhat challenging Mexican recipe. I’ve been promising him that I would make it, and when I finally did, it was really rather time-consuming and I wasn’t sure it would be worth it.

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I didn’t originally make this dish with the intention of post the recipe, since it was just something I threw together. In the end, it turned out pretty fabulously so I decided to share it. In fact, Ross said it was “one of my favorite things you’ve ever made, ever” and then stuffed his face with seconds. In fact, before bed he said “I want to eat more pasta.” In fact, when he woke up in the morning, he went straight to the fridge and finished it off. So I can’t promise that YOU will love it, but some people certainly do.

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I have no idea where this recipe came from, it’s scribbled on a scrap of paper- but I changed it a lot from the paper scrap version because it had what I perceived to be too much sugar and too many unnecessary steps. It is quick, easy, and colorful, and the figs and pork are a fantastic combination.

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In honor of July 4th, I give you… a German recipe! My paternal grandfather had a couple of specialty dishes and one was to make schnitzel. His family hailed from Germany and he had learned this from his mother. I hadn’t eaten it for years, but now that I’ve become reacquainted with it, I won’t make that mistake any longer! It’s easy to make and you can often cobble it together with things you already have in the house.

My mom said that with veal this is called wiener schnitzel but with pork my Grandpa called it jaeger schnitzel. I got to thinking that if jaeger means pork then Jaegermeister means pork master and that seems odd. So I looked it up and my Gramps was wrong. Jaeger means hunter so jaeger schnitzel is this recipe made with hunted meat, usually venison. Etymological mystery solved! Too bad, though, because it’s more fun to say jaeger schnitzel.

I was with my mom and my aunts and we were all cooking together, and we noticed that this is a lot faster and easier to make with 2 sets of hands- one person to do the breading and get their hands messy, and one to do the frying. There is no official recipe for this so I’ve explained the technique but not given specific amounts. In addition to pork, you could use chicken or veal cutlets. We used panko because it’s pre-crumbed, but my grandpa used crushed Ritz crackers, which add a buttery sweetness. You can use any kind of bread or cracker crumbs.

Pork Schnitzel

Ingredients:

• pork cutlets or tenderloin sliced thinly
• bread crumbs, panko, or cracker crumbs
• flour
• eggs
• salt and pepper
• butter-flavored crisco and butter (or oil and butter) for frying
• lemon wedges for serving

Method:

• Using a mallet, pound pork until very thin.
• Prepare three dishes, one with flour and salt and pepper, one with a couple beaten eggs mixed with a splash of water, and one with the crumbs.
• Heat a large skillet over medium high heat with about 2 teaspoons each of butter and crisco (or oil.)
• Dip pork in flour, then eggs, then crumbs and place in hot pan. Cook each side until golden brown and remove to platter. Serve with lemon wedges.
• Note: You will need to add more fat with each round or every other round. If you make a lot, at some point if there are too many burnt crumbs in the pan you should clean the pan out with a paper towel and start with fresh grease.

Adobo is one of my favorite easy recipes and one of the tastiest ways to enjoy pork. In this case, Adobo refers to a common Filipino dish that combines just 4 ingredients: soy sauce, vinegar, black pepper, and garlic, to create a spicy, tangy sauce. A lot of Adobo recipes are saucy to the point of being more like a stew, but I like this one because it produces a rich, reduced, almost caramelized coating over the pork.

What’s surprising about this combination is that once everything is cooked together it doesn’t taste how you would expect it to taste. To wit: the pepper is spicier than you expect, the garlic is mellower, the soy sauce isn’t as salty, and the vinegar isn’t as pungent. It all marries together in a sauce that is greater, and more complex, than the sum of its parts.

There are probably thousands of Adobo recipes out there, and as you may have guessed I’m totally not Filipino so I make no claims to authenticity. I will, however, make claims to deliciousness! I like to serve it over rice to neutralize the spice of the sauce.

Pork Adobo
serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 2 lb. boneless pork roast
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 2 cups white wine vinegar
• 2-3 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tblsp vegetable oil
• 12-15 cloves garlic, sliced as thinly as possible

Method:

• Trim the major fat off the pork roast and cut into 1/2 inch chunks.
• Put pork, soy sauce, vinegar, and pepper in a saucepan and bring to a boil, ensuring all pork is submerged in liquid. Lower heat to medium and boil 30-45 minutes.
• Heat oil in saute pan over medium high heat. Use a slotted spoon to transfer pork pieces to oil. Saute 10 minutes, stirring or flipping often, to brown on all sides.
• Add garlic to pan and cook 30 seconds, stirring. Add adobo sauce and cook about 10 more minutes, until sauce thickens.
• Serve over rice.

My friend Robert (of oatmeal cookie fame) also makes amazing homemade chilaquiles for a hearty weekend breakfast. He makes everything without measurements, which he refers to as doing it “Mexican style”, so it was a little tricky to pin down the measurements. After a few years of prodding and cajoling, he finally allowed me to shadow him in the kitchen and try to furiously transcribe his methods.

If you’ve never had chilaquiles before, it’s a traditional Mexican breakfast dish that consists of fried tortilla chips coated in a green or red sauce, layered with scrambled eggs and chorizo, and baked with cheese on top. While it makes it something of a royal pain in the butt, the key to this recipe’s tastiness lies in frying up the tortilla chips yourself. If you have an avid and patient kitchen helper (even one who lacks culinary skillz), this chip-frying task would be a good time to call on them.

Chilaquiles are also commonly lauded as a hangover cure. To that end, Robert always makes this on the Sunday of our yearly Spring wine-tasting weekend. To protect his precious family recipes, I have made some key changes in this version! Robert: you can sleep easy knowing that while now everyone can enjoy some delicious chilaquiles, they will never be exactly the same as the ones you make.

Robert’s Chilaquiles
serves 8

Ingredients:

• 1 pound fresh corn tortillas
• 2 – 29 oz cans tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 Tblsp chili powder
• 3 cloves crushed garlic
• 3 chicken bouillion cubes
• 1 Tblsp flour, shaken in a jar with 2 Tblsp water
• 1 pound fresh Mexican chorizo
• 12 eggs, beaten well
• 1/2 pound grated cheese (Monterey Jack, mild cheddar, or shredded Mexican blend)
• 1 cup queso fresco, crumbled
• salt and pepper to taste
• vegetable oil for frying

Method:

• Cut tortillas into chip-sized wedges. Heat about 1 inch of oil in a large saute pan. Fry chips in batches until golden on both sides, removing to drain on paper towels.
• Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine tomato sauce, cumin, chili powder, garlic, and bouillion. Heat over medium heat until bubbling. Lower heat and leave to simmer. Stir in flour/water mixture and salt and pepper. Taste and add more seasonings if you wish.
• Continue simmering over low heat for about 30 more minutes, stirring to make sure sauce doesn’t stick to pot.
• Preheat oven to 350.
• Combine half of chips and half of sauce, tossing to coat well. Lay in 9×13 pan. Bake for about 10-15 minutes, until chips have dried out a bit.
• While chips are baking, cook chorizo, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until browned. Add eggs, salt and pepper to taste, and cook until scrambled.
• Spread egg and chorizo mixture over chips. Mix remaining chips with remaining sauce and spread on top of eggs.
• Sprinkle grated cheese on top, then crumble queso fresco over the top.
• Bake for about 20 minutes, until cheese is melted. Serve with refried beans, Spanish rice, avocadoes, and sour cream.

This recession/depression business is really starting to get me down! In light of that I wanted to share a recipe with you that’s triply good for these dark, dank economic times. Why triply? First of all, people in the South traditionally eat Hoppin’ John on New Year’s to bring prosperity and good fortune. Second, the ingredients are really cheap, so it’s easy on the wallet. Third, it packs a nutritional wallop of protein, folates, carbs, and more, so you won’t have to eat again for awhile.

I was looking for recipes involving black-eyed peas, and Hoppin’ John is the one that most intrigued me. I’ll admit, it’s totally, completely, 100% because of the name.  All of the recipes I found involved crazy time-consuming things like soaking the peas overnight and procuring ham hocks and what have you, but I was like “I want my dinner NOW, dammit!” So this is the corner-cutting, lazy-ass version I came up with to maximize deliciousness and minimize time and effort.

As to the name, a bunch of people have different theories about the name that seem highly farfetched, so I’ve decided just to go with it and not wonder too much. Confusingly there’s talk of making the leftovers into pancakes and calling it called Skippin’ Jenny or some such nonsense but I can’t even get into that.

Lazy Man’s Hoppin’ John
This is good with a side of wilted kale or collards, and should be served with Frank’s Red Hot sauce on the side for those who like the extra heat. Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 5 slices smoky bacon, chopped in small pieces
• 1 small onion, chopped finely
• 1 small red pepper, chopped into 1/4 inch squares
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 1-15 ounce can black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire
• salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste

Method:

• Put bacon in medium-sized saucepan, and cook until crispy over medium het.
• Add onion, pepper, and garlic and cook 3-5 minutes, until vegetables are soft but still vibrant.
• Add rice, black-eyed peas, dry mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.
• Cook for 5 minutes, stirring to combine. Taste and add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste.
• Stir and cook another 10 minutes. Taste, adjust seasoning, and serve immediately.

The other day I threw out a status update asking what to make for dinner, and my friend Sarah from San Diego suggested that a chilly winter’s night merited a warm bowl of spaghetti carbonara. (I know what you’re thinking, chilly winter’s night in San Diego? But let’s move on.) I immediately glommed onto the idea and started trolling the internets for the skinny (fatty?) on the best carbonara recipes out there. I was thinking bacon, cream, eggs, you know, the basics. Figure out the best balance and method and get to some good eating.

As you know, the internets are MAGICAL and I was quite surprised to learn that carbonara has a lot of rules, and a fair number of people have intense and even acrimonious feelings about these rules. The number one rule is: YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE CREAM, not even one drop, how could you even THINK of ruining your carbonara with cream, do you have no sense at all YOU A**HOLE?!?!?! Now, I’m only type-shouting and degrading you to reflect the aggregate loathing of bloggers and commenters alike, who rally loudly against abuses of the term “carbonara” to describe these allegedly nefarious and horrifying excuses for a pasta recipe. Examples:

From tommy:eats: “Here in the states, you see a lot of “light cream sauce” when describing carbonara.  That’s not carbonara.  I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s not good.  I often say that can judge an Italian restaurant by its description of carbonara:  if I see “cream”, I know I don’t have to bother trying the place.”

From a commenter on Il Forno: “First and fore most – NO CREAM. If you like cream then go and cook yourself a TV dinner or something and don’t pretend to like Italian food.” (sic)

Wow. Harsh. I could go on, for days in fact, but you get the picture. So, well, there I am feeling pretty sheepish with my crazy ideas about cream in carbonara. And then come all of the other issues piling on, the more I keep reading. Like, no bacon, it has to be pancetta or better yet, guanciale (that would be, cured hog cheeks). No peas. No onions. No wine. No garlic. No pasta shapes other than spaghetti. If you make any of these egregious missteps then you had BETTER not be callin’ your nasty ol’ slop heap carbonara. (People are really serious about this.)

So I did what any curious, self-respecting, reasonably hungry person who doesn’t balk at eating two multi-thousand calorie meals in the span of 8 hours would do: I made a very authentic and “real” carbonara for lunch, and then I made my verions of fake, bastard, I’m-a-bad-person carbonara for dinner. Personally, I wouldn’t turn either of these dishes down, but I will agree that the purist version was more exciting and ultimately more satisfying, albeit a pretty hearty (heavy?) meal. As Ross described it, “it’s like eating a rich, salty, delicious bowl of pasta, and a pork chop, simultaneously.” Good enough for me.

Spaghetti Carbonara
makes 2 servings.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound spaghetti
• 4 oz. guanciale (use pancetta if you MUST)
• 2 whole eggs
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano

Method:

• Put pasta water on to boil. Meanwhile, chop guanciale into small pieces and cook in a large saucepan over medium high heat until brown and crisp. Turn off heat and leave on stovetop as is.
• Separate one egg and reserve yolk. Thoroughly whisk 1 whole egg and 1 egg white with a liberal amount of salt and pepper in a bowl. Add the parmigiano and whisk together.
• Add pasta to boiling water and cook until done. When the pasta has about a minute left on the timer, turn the guanciale pan back on high heat just until it starts sizzling again (which, conveniently, should take about a minute.)
• Using tongs, carefully transfer the spaghetti into the guanciale pan along with about 1/4 cup of the pasta water. (You could also drain the pasta and reserve some of the pasta water, but that would dirty out more dishes, so… I go with the tongs.) Turn off the heat and use the tongs to toss the pasta and guanciale.
• Slowly poor the egg/cheese mix in, tossing furiously with the tongs so the eggs don’t cook too much. When fully combined, add the yolk and mix thoroughly one more time.
• Remove to 2 (preferably warm) serving bowls, garnish with extra parmigiano, and consume immediately.

Not Carbonara: Pasta with Eggs, Pecorino, and Pancetta
I didn’t call it carbonara so please don’t beat me up. Serves 2.

Ingredients:

• 3 oz. pancetta, cut in 1/4 inch wide strips
• 1 small clove garlic, finely chopped
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 3 Tblsp white wine
• 1/3 cup cream
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 egg + 1 yolk
• 1/2 cup grated pecorino (can substitute grated parmigiano)

Method:

• Cook pancetta over medium heat until browned. Drain on paper towels. Remove all but about 1 Tblsp of the fat.
• Add the shallots and garlic and cook a few minutes, until translucent but not browned.
• Add the wine and swirl in the pan to deglaze 1-2 minutes. Add the cream, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat.
• Meanwhile, cook the pasta (I used something called campanelle, which look like bells and had lots of good sauce-holding ridges.)
• While waiting for the pasta to boil, crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk well to mix. Add the pecorino and mix. Set aside.
• Drain the pasta and set aside. Reheat cream just until it simmers. Turn off the heat. Whisk a little bit of the warm cream into the eggs, then a little more, then a little more. Combine all together in the pan (still with the heat off) and add the pasta and pancetta and mix furiously. If the sauce is too thin, turn the heat on medium low to reduce without letting it out and out boil.
• Serve immediately.
• If you wish, you can add frozen peas with the cream in the first section.