Bacon Stuffed Trout

When I think of trout, I think of fishing trips at Lake Bridgeport with my dad and grandpa. There’s actually a lot you can do with trout. It’s a tasty and versatile fish which I think is highly under-rated. This dish is a delight treat! Steve, my guinea pig, licked his dish clean.

Ingredients

• 2 cleaned and butterflied trout
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1 stalk celery
• 4 medium crimini or white mushrooms
• 2 strips thick-cut bacon
• 2 tbsp corn meal
• 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp fresh oregano
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary
• salt
• pepper

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 400℉.

In a skillet, sweat the onion and celery with a little salt and olive oil. Add-in bacon, chopped mushrooms, and finely chopped rosemary and oregano. Sauteé the mixture. Remove from skillet by spooning into a bowl. Salt and pepper to taste.

Sprinkle corn meal on a plate and dredge the trout, skin-side, through the corn meal.

Add whatever corn meal is left into the sauteéd mixture and stir it up.

Open the trout and lay it in your skillet (heat off). Squeeze the lemon evenly over both sides of the meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Scoop the veggie/bacon mixture onto one side of the trout. Fold the other side over it to close it up.

Stick the skillet into the oven and bake at 400℉ for about 15 minutes.

Prep time: 15-20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Serves: 2

This Aint Yer Mama’s Curry Chicken Salad

This egg-less twist on chicken salad is anything but boring. Use left-over chicken and make sandwiches that will be more exciting than the original meal. This is a highly adaptable recipe so as long as you get the sauce right, you can mix in whatever you have in the fridge. Did I mention that it’s extremely easy?

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise—I prefer light mayo
• 1 good squirt of Sriracha Sauce, about 1tbsp or to taste
• 1 1/4 tbsp curry paste.
  For this recipe, I’d suggest Mae Ploy Masman. You can get it for about $3 at most Asian grocery stores
• 1/2 cup corn
• 2-3 cups shredded cooked chicken Hint: use leftovers!
• 1/2 cup finely diced red onion
• 2 stalks chopped celery
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• kosher or sea salt
• fresh ground pepper

Directions

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together mayo, curry paste, Sriracha Sauce, garlic powder, salt and pepper until mixture is consistent. Taste and make adjustments as needed. Add in everything else and stir until all ingredients are evenly coated with the sauce.

Make it a Sandwich!!

Ingredients

• 2-4 Bilillo torta rolls
• leaf lettuce
• 1 sliced tomato
• butter

Directions

Slice rolls in half, butter each side and toast. Scoop about 1 cup of curry chicken salad on the bottom slice of each roll. Add sliced tomatoes and salt them. Add a slice of lettuce and the top of the bread.

HEAVEN!

prep time: 15 min

cook time: none

Bacon Camp

How do you plan to spend your Saturday?

• Recover from a hangover
• Catch up on chores
• Hitting refresh on your twitter page
• None of the above
• Go to Bacon Camp!

If you answered anything but E, I’m seriously disappointed with you!

BaconCamp SF09

Who? You! and me and everyone else we know
What? The Bacon Event of the Decade
When? Sat Mar 21, 1-4pm
Where? 500 3rd St, Ste 510, San Francisco

What Else?
In the spirit of barcamp, we are organizing the first bay area BaconCamp.  Born from the desire to share in all things bacon, we bring you this community-driven baco-celebraion, and encourage your participation!

Over 25 baco-tastic dishes are scheduled to be presented. Check out what’s planned: http://baconcamp.pbwiki.com/Bringing-a-Dish.

Do you have a bacony bit of culinary accomplishment which you think the public must taste?  BaconCamp is still accepting entries and the prize is one of these coveted trophies which, if won, ensure you undisputed baco-bragging rights.  Just go to the wiki and enter your dish!

BaconCamp is free, but participants are encouraged to purchase tickets http://baconcampsf.eventbrite.com/ to raise funds for the American Heart Association.

Don’t cook, but love bacon? Techniques, poems, interpretive dance and any other baco-inspired expression is welcome! There will be Bacon Slam Poetry featuring your best baco-tweets, “One Hour in Bacon” and even Bacon Math Art.

Participate! Volunteers are needed to help run the event from 11am – 5pm. Sign up at http://baconcamp.org/SFBayArea_notes_03_21 with your name, email and available timeframe.

This is the event that even vegetarians can’t afford to miss!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I’m a judge!

With Love and Pork Fat!

Diva (Amy)
Bacon Fetishist and Mother of Bacon Man

P.S.
Feel free to re-post, cross-post and circulate as you will!

Bacon Camp, Bacon Man, Bacon Memes

We’re SO excited about Bacon Camp, San Francisco, on Mar 21. I get to be a judge. If you haven’t heard about this event, you’re in for an excitingly culinary treat. It’s produced by my dear friend Karen. Tickets are available here. So come out for the bacon and meet me and a host of other baco-celebs.

I’m also a little tickled that Steve’s and my creation, Bacon Man has a cameo in the Bacon Meme Video, a trailer for Bacon Camp!

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Aunt Amy’s Hash Browns with Bacon

This is a breakfast skillet favorite in my house. When my nephew visits, he always asks me to make them.

Ingredients

• 3-4 strips of bacon
• 1/2 yellow or red onion
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 med white rose potatoes
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1 cup apple juice
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika, preferably smoked paprika
• salt
• pepper

Special Tools

• med-large cast iron skillet
• mandolin or food processor

Prep

Using a mandolin, cut potatoes into small strips. If you don’t have a mandolin, a food processor will work too.

Finely chop your onion and cut the bell pepper into 1/4″ pieces.

Slice the strips of bacon into 1″ pieces.

Cooking

Heat your skillet and then drop in the bacon pieces. Let them cook for a couple of minutes and then add in the onions, garlic and bell peppers. Sauteé for a minute or two and then add in the potatoes. Add at least a tablespoon of salt. Saute&eacute for another minute or two, stirring frequently.

Add fresh ground pepper, basil and paprika. Then pour in the apple juice and cover.

Simmer over medium heat until the liquid is absorbed.

Uncover and saute&acute, stirring frequently, until the edges of the potatoes are slightly crispy.

Serve with a dollop of fresh salsa.

Servings: 3-4
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Level: easy

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Miso-Bourbon Chicken

Sorry I don’t have photos but this dish was so good, I’m sharing the recipe right away. This was a spicy fusion spin on miso chicken.

Ingredients

For the Chicken

• 1 lb chicken thighs (remove skin)
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• ground ginger powder
• garlic powder
• salt
• pepper

For the Sauce

• 4 tbsp red miso paste
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 tbsp dark molasses
• 2/3 cup soy sauce
• 1 bunch finely chopped scallions
• 2 tbsp grated chopped fresh ginger
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp Sriracha sauce (or to taste)
• 1 cup bourbon

Preparation

Heat oven to 350°F. Remove skin from chicken and cover each side with a generous sprinkling of salt, pepper, garlic powder and ground ginger. Heat the oil in a skillet, preferably cast iron. Brown the chicken on both sides. Place entire skillet into oven for about 45 minutes or until done in the middle (about 170°).

While chicken is baking, add all of the sauce ingredients except the bourbon to a bowl and whisk together until miso is completely dissolved.

When chicken is done, take the skillet out of the oven and move the chicken pieces to a plate. I placed them in the broiler with the heat off just to keep them warm. Deglaze the pan by placing it over high heat and then adding the whiskey. Lower it to medium and stir until all that lovely chicken juice begins to dissolve into the whiskey. Now stir in the rest of the sauce and simmer over medium for about ten minutes or until the scallions soften.

Plate the chicken and pour sauce over each piece. Garnish with a sprinkling of freshly grated ginger.

Cook time: about an hour

Prep time: about half an hour

Servings: four

White Sangria

Traditional Sangria Pitcher

Here’s a delicious twist on a summer classic. White Sangria is very sweet and delicious in hot weather. Try it with dessert like vanilla ice cream. This is extremely easy to make and a great beverage to take to a BBQ or summer birthday party.

• 2 bottles of inexpensive light white wine like Pinot Grigio, Viognier, Gewurtztraminer, or Sauvignon Blanc
• 1 to 1/2 cup sugar (to taste)
• 2 cans Hansen’s Mandarin Lime Soda
• Handful of green grapes, sliced in half
• 2 apricots chopped
• 2 nectarines chopped
• 1 peach chopped

Pour the wine and sugar into a 1-gallon pitcher. Chop all the fruit into pieces about 1/4″-1/2″ square and add to the mixture. (Grapes should be sliced in half.) Add the 2 cans of soda and fill in any remaining space in the pitcher with more fruit.

Stir until sugar is completely dissolved and refrigerate for an hour or more before serving so that the fruit flavors have time to infuse a little. Pour over plenty of ice in a pretty stem glass & serve with some of the fruit at the bottom of the glass.

Prep time: 15-20 min. Makes 1-gallon.

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Pasta Ranchera

Pasta Ranchera

My boyfriend wiped his bowl clean with a tortilla and commented that this was ‘Mexican Fusion’. Laughing, I informed him that it was really just made out of whatever I had lying around the house. Sometimes those become my very best recipes. Lemme tell ya, this turned out so great, I took an after-the-fact photo and I’m posting the recipe even without the other pictures.

So without further ado, here’s how to whip this one up:

• 2-4 cloves of garlic, sliced and chopped
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb skirt steak, flat meat, carne asada meat or other very thinly sliced steak – don’t buy it chopped up
• 5-6 mushrooms chopped into small pieces
• 1/2 red onion chopped
• 1/2 bell pepper chopped
• 1 jalapeño chopped
• 3 tomatoes chopped
• 2-3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 lime juiced
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 4 tbsp sour cream
• 1 lb pasta of your choice
• salt
• pepper
• cotija cheese grated

Heat the olive oil and toss in the chopped garlic. Salt & pepper both sides of the meat and sear it on all sides quickly. Remove from the heat immediately and set aside. Turn heat off. Chop all your veggies and toss them into the skillet (heat off) except for the tomatoes. Slice the meat into long 1″ strips going with the grain. Then slice it against the grain at 1/2″-1″ apart. Put the meat in with the veggies and the Worcestershire sauce. Cover and simmer over low heat. Now you can slice your tomatoes.

When meat is almost cooked, add the tomatoes and simmer for another couple minutes. Then add the chili powder, lime juice and cumin. Stir the sour cream into the sauce and simmer for another minute or so.

Scoop over the pasta into bowls and then grate a little cotija cheese over the top. Let set for a minute or two while you finish setting the table so the sauce can thicken. Dig in!

I recommend margaritas to go with it!

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Herb Encrusted Pork Tenderloin

Pork is just so incredibly under-rated. I love it. This is my recipe for Herb Encrusted Pork Tenderloin. This is a pretty easy main dish to put together and it’s mouth watering and tender. My fiancé just loves this! So without further ado, here’s the recipe.

Feeds: 4-6, Prep time: 15 min, Cook time: 45 min

• 1 center cut pork tenderloin
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh rosemary (pull out any woody stems)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh sage
• 1/2 cup grainy brown mustard (get the really good stuff!)
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 4 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 dash olive oil
• salt & pepper

Step 1: Sear the Meat

Heat about 4 tbsp olive oil in a skillet, non-stick is best. Salt and pepper the outside of the pork, all the way around. Just barely sear all sides of the meat for about 10-15 seconds per side. Then, take it out of the pan and set it in a baking dish away from the heat.

Step 2: Prepare the Sauce

Chop up all the herbs very finely. In a small mixing bowl, add the herbs, mustard, white wine, garlic, and whatever olive oil is left in the skillet. If there’s less than about 3 tbsp of oil, add a little more. Mix it all into a thick paste like in the photo (bottom left).

Step 3: Cover & Cook the Meat

Cover the pork on all sides with a very thick coating of the sauce. It’s OK to use your hands. Pour whatever is left around the sides. Cover with a piece of foil and cook at 300°F for about forty five minutes or until your meat thermometer says 150°.

Step 4: Serve

Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. Then serve it whole or slice it into medallions that are about 1/4-1/2″ thick. Add a little of that sauce over the top and serve it. I really think this goes well with steamed veggies and a little angel hair pasta with white sauce. With all the strong flavors in the sauce, be sure that your side dishes don’t compete with it!

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Tips for Working with Fresh Herbs

Tip 1: When work working with fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme, you should typically leave the stems or any woody parts out. I find that the easiest way to separate the leaves from the stem is to hold the sprig at the very end with one hand and then slide my fingers down towards the base, working opposite the direction the leaves grow. They’ll fall right off. See the photo to the left!

Tip 2: If you wind up with extra herbs, unless you plan to use them right away, don’t put them back in the fridge. They go mold or get slimy very quickly. Instead, tie a bunch together with a string and hang it from a hook or thumb tack in your kitchen to dry. They smell and look great and will come in useful some time if you don’t have anything fresh around.

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