Bacon club
Since I am lazy, today I got my friend Jonathan to write a post for me. The pictures are his as well. Basically this entire post is him and I am just lounging around doing nothing. Anyway, here you go.
My fridge is full of bacon. And ham. Not that I’m complaining; it’s more of a fact that anything. It’s overflowing with pig. It started with a simple idea for a Christmas gift after reading Peter Kaminsky’s ode to pork, Pig Perfect. In it, he writes about his first experience with a Newsom country ham. The ham, which aged dutifully in the cool swampy low grounds of Kentucky for months, develops in flavor as it ages. After reading about these simple country hams cured with only salt, sugar and hickory smoke I knew what I had to do: send 16 pounds of meat product to my sister.
And so, 5 days before Christmas, a package arrived at my sister’s door. I can only imagine the sheer joy and utter excitement on her face when she saw my most thoughtful of gifts. In appreciation (or perhaps retaliation), she quickly turned and returned the favor to me. She seeing my generous gift of pork-itude, she quickly ordered me the prestigious bacon of the month club – that’s two pounds of bacon up front and a pound each subsequent month. In addition she found a butcher to slice the Newsom ham and bequeath upon me approximately 4 pounds of ham.
Now, I love ham; and I love bacon, but normally I don’t have too much of it around. In fact, while I love bacon, I rarely find myself buying at the store. I just don’t cook with it that often. But because of my sister I found myself in the situation of having 3 pounds of bacon in the refrigerator and 4 pounds of ham.
For the last month, everything I’ve made has had some bacon or ham in it. At first I tried the classics (simple ham steak). I decided to pair the ham with cheesy bacon grits topped with crispy bacon and chives. The ham steak was fried just until the fat was clear and topped with a red-eye gravy (basically reduced coffee and hot sauce). The ham itself had an incredible rich savory taste with an intense saltiness that leaves its mark on your palate.
After a few meals of pure pig, my wife was feeling a bit pork intense and asked for a more veggie friendly meal. I agreed and said I’d prepare tofu the next night. Of course, I never said there wasn’t going to be bacon in it.
Bacon Stewed Tofu (serves 2-3)
- 12 oz Firm Tofu, cut evenly
- 8 oz Beef Broth
- 3 strips of Bacon, chopped to 1 cm squares
- 1 small onion, cut into strips
- *Optional – soy sauce, fish sauce, and bonito flakes
- In a medium saucepan fry tofu minimal oil. Salt to taste. When golden brown remove from heat and set aside.
- After removing tofu, begin to crisp bacon. As bacon fat begins to render, add onions.
- As the onions brown, place tofu back into the saucepan and cover with beef broth. (soy or fish sauce can be added to taste)
- Allow tofu to stew for ~15 minutes.
- Plate tofu and top with bonito flakes.
Posted by kiditamae on January 30, 2008 at 3:27 pm
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