May 23, 2010: Onion Apple Jam

Onions, for some reason unknown to me, have been very expensive at over $1 per pound. I'm used to seeing onions at half that price.
I thought I'd be smart and buy a large 5 lbf bag of onions. The problem with buying a large bag is that you need to go through a lot of onions before they rot out. I was at that point trying to decide what to do with a mass of onions... Something I've always wanted to try - Onion Jam.

Onion jam isn't really a canned product, but more of a slow cooked oniony, favory, bacony, sweetish condiment.
Here's my go at Onion-Apple Jam

Onion Apple Jam
5 Onions, sliced (about 6 cups)
2 slices Bacon, chopped
1 Apple, chopped (I had Pink Lady)
1/2 C Chicken Broth
1 T Apple Cider Vinegar
1 t Brown Sugar
Couple pinches of Thyme
Few Grinds of Black Pepper
Couple pinches of Salt

Directions:
1) Brown the chopped bacon - render the oil, remove bacon and reserve.


2) While the bacon is cooking, slice the onions... not too fine unless you want them to melt when they cook down.


3) Add the onions, a couple pinches of salt, thyme and a few grinds of black pepper.
Stir to mix. Cover, lower heat to slowly cook the onions.


4) When the onions are soft, taste... I wanted just a touch more sweetness so I added 1 t of brown sugar. Add the vinegar, stock and apples.
Increase heat to medium to futher browning and reducing.


5) The finished Onion-Apple Jam... Ready to be used.

Sweet onion flavor, with a little tartness from the apple cider vinegar, texture and sweetness from the apple with a hint of smokiness.



Possible usage - as a condiment served with pork chops.
Brings new meaning to "pork chops and apple sauce." :-)

Sep 09: Potato Skins

I had some leftover baked potatoes so I made potato skins.
Potato skins? Don't potatoes come naturally with skins?

Yes, that's true, but the potato skins I'm referring to are hollowed out potatoes filled with cheese, green onions and bacon bits. This is the pub dish where I found out that potato skins were edible. :-)

The great thing about this dish is that you can add what you like, but I like the basic filling.

Potato Skins
Baked Potatoes
Melted Butter
Grated Cheddar Cheese (About 1 T per half a tater)
Green Onion (1 chopped)
Bacon Bits (about 1/2 slice per half)
Garlic Powder - a pinch per half
Salt - a pinch per half
Pepper - a pinch per half
Optional - Chili Powder or Seasoned salt

1. Slice the potato in half so the wide end is the base. Scoop out in inside, leaving as much as you like. I left about 1/4".


2. Since my oven is out, I used the broiler. Coat both sides with butter. The butter will help with the browning and help the seasonings adhere too.


3. Sprinkle the inside with salt, pepper, garlic powder and a little Cajun seasoning. If your potato wasn't seasoned on the outside, go ahead and season the outside too.

Heat under the broiler about 6 minutes - 3 minutes per side. I had the pan about 6" away from the element.


4. In a bowl, combine the cheese, green onion and bacon bits. Top the heated potato with the mixture. Return to the broiler and heat until melted and as brown as you like.


5. Serve with Ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing.


If more people come over, just slice them in half... lol

Enjoy! I sure did.

Jan 25: More Fun with Plantains

I'm currently fascinated with cooking plantains so I was looking-up recipes when I found Mofongo. Mo who what? Mo-fong-go. Actually more like Mo-fung-go. The interesting name caught my eye. Looking at Mark Bittman's Mofongo Recipe, the recipe seems straight forward and had few ingredients.

That's another thing I've been into lately - simple recipes with few ingredients.
The only downside is the deep frying. I try to avoid deep frying because of the mess and calories, but it's cold today so I can use the extra calories... lol!

As I've done previously, I've made a small batch to test out the recipe.

Mofongo
1 Green Plantain, cut into 1" thick rounds
1 clove of garlic
1 slice of bacon, cooked
1 T bacon drippings (This is my addition to boost the bacon flavor)
Salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro for garnish
Oil for deep frying

The ingredients: bacon, garlic and the plantain which is just starting to yellow.


1. Peel* and cut the plantain. The recipe calls for soaking in salted water. I skipped this step reasoning the soak is used to prevent oxidation browning... since I was going straight to the frying I didn't have to worry about browning.

*Note: My first time peeling a green plantain. It doesn't peel like a sweet Cavendish banana. With the plantain, you cut off the ends and use a knife to cut off the skin. The skin is very crisp like celery.


2. Deep fry (350F**) until golden. The oil I used was mainly bacon drippings. Canola oil was added to raise the oil level to 1". Fry 5 minutes, flip and fry another 5 minutes.
**Note: I didn't not measure the oil temp, I just started when the oil seemed hot enough.


3. While the plantain is frying, pulse together the bacon, garlic, a dash of salt and pepper.


4. Add the hot, fried plantain to the food processor.
The plantain had a crispy outer shell while soft on the inside.


Pulse until mashed.... Interesting result here. The crispy outer aren't breaking down to a mash. The texture is remains a little coarse.


5. Form into balls and garnish with cilantro to eat as is...


or serve in a soup.
Pictured is a simple chicken broth enriched with garlic, red pepper, green onion and tomatoes.


I was expecting my mofongo to have a soft mashed banana texture, but the results were more like brown rice balls. The flavor was nice. A hint of bacony goodness and the residual heat from the fried plantain cooked out the rawness out of the garlic.

Next time... I'll add a little more bacon and try soaking it see if the texture is softer (or not fry as long).

Jul 05: Bacon Gravy

When I was growing up, I ate a typical breakfast - bacon, eggs, toast or a biscuit, but I didn't discover the joys of sausage gravy until college. A few years after that, when I met Shawn, she introduced me to bacon gravy. The whole concept of gravy for breakfast was a delicious new adventure for me.

My quest for a good sausage gravy recipe continues. I believe good sausage gravy is dependent upon the sausage being used.

Bacon gravy on the other hand is very straight forward and consistent. Bacon pretty much taste the same from name brand to name brand - smoke, salt and a little sugar. However, supermarket house brands can be iffy since it seems the house brands (I've tried) are more akin to salt pork where the bacon is mainly salty and the smoke flavor is very faint to non-existent.

Bacon Gravy
3 T Bacon Grease (I know grease has a negative connotation, but used in conjunction with bacon the results are yummy!)
3 T Flour
2 C Milk (I used 2%)
Salt and pepper to taste

After you're finished cooking the bacon reserve some bacon grease.
Add the flour and blend in and cook over medium heat for a minute or two.

Usually I don't measure the flour, I add enough flour to form a slurry that's about the thickness of hot peanut butter on toast. I'm not trying to make a flour ball. In fact, sometimes I just add enough flour to absorb a majority of the bacon grease but mixture remains frothy as it cooks. Note the little bits of bacon fond adding to the flavor.


Slowly add 1/4 of the milk and blend together. As you continue to add the milk the "dough ball" will be transformed into gravy. Initially I used a wooden spoon to mix, but I found that a fork (or a whisk) works better at blending the milk and roux mixture.


As you continue adding the milk, the paste will transform into a gravy. Eventually, you can add all of the remaining milk. If you're serving immediately, I cook until a scrape across the bottom of the pan takes about a second or two to fill in, as shown below. Salt and pepper to taste. However, if you're not serving immediately, you can leave the gravy a little loose. Flour/roux based gravies will continue to thicken when taken off the heat.


Come to think of it... I've never tried dumping all of the milk in at once. I add the milk a little at a time to minimize lumps (floury dough balls). However, if I can add all the milk at once it will save some time in the long run. In theory, a roux is supposed to mix easily with the liquid without lumping/clumping. I should try adding all the milk at once the next time I make gravy.

The Dish
Bacon gravy over refrigerated Grands biscuits, scrambled, potatoes and bacon.

Delicious bacony goodness. :-)