Sausage "Pot Roast" with... Bacons

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Two Saturdays ago, after a busy day spent at the college listening to student papers, the Bacon Gang needed some comfort food. Here's a classic from French traditional cuisine. We like to refer to it as potée, which can loosely translate as «something cooked in a pot», hence my title of "pot roast", although there's no actual roasting involved. If anyone has a better name for the dish in English, I'm open to suggestions.

This is a bit of a project to prepare, but it's worth every pot that will require washing afterwards:

• 6 sausages (1-2 per person) (Toulouse sausage is my favourite, but it can be done with any sausage; I had to import mine all the way from Montréal on my last trip; they were frozen, which explain some of the slashes in them)
• 2-3 leeks (cut the whites in quarters and the greens in thin slices)
• 1-2 carrots, sliced
  
• 2-3 celery branches, diced
• 1 medium onion (better: one or two shallots) finely chopped
  
• 3-4 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced
  
• 200 gr bacon (thick if possible) and/or pancetta (Italian bacon)
  
• white wine (roughly a bottle)
  
• unsalted (or home-made) chicken broth
  
• fresh parsley, finely chopped
  
• herbes de Provence, salt and pepper
  

First, simmer the sausages in a mix of white wine and cold water until they are fully cooked (about twenty minutes from the point of boiling). Meanwhile, prepare vegetables and poach the bacon(s). This means to start them in cold water, bring it to a gentle boil and then turn off the heat. Drain on a plate with paper towels.

Slice the bacon in thin strips. Fry in a little bit of oil with the onion/shallot over medium heat until the onion becomes transparent (don't brown it). Add wine and bring to a gentle simmer. Lay a bed of leeks, and then put the cooked sausages on top.

On the sausages, add the rest of the vegetables and cover with broth. DO NOT STIR.

Cover and let the mixture simmer over medium-low heat for about 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Add parsley before serving and enjoy with fresh baguette. Use tongs to grasp sausages and veggies for serving. In the plate shown above, there were also red potatoes that had been boiled, had finely chopped onion added, and then doused with olive oil. There was also Brussels sprouts and bacon... the recipe for which will follow in a few days. Yes, Brussels sprouts can be yummy! And so can sausages.

Unnatural chocolate fondue

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Yes, this is bacon dipped in chocolate fondue. It happened at my place March 7 (and I've been late posting this ever-so-strange amalgam). Well, to be honest, the idea was not exclusively mine, but rather came to us collectively while we were enjoying the pizza the week before. This was the dessert to a delicious salmon dinner. Either we are daring food experimenters or we have no life; I'm going to leave it up to you, our reader.

Above, two fondue pots are visible. Both contained the same fondue base, made up of warmed up heavy (35%) cream in which chocolate was dissolved.

And then, to make life more interesting, we added seasonings. The red pot was laced with Bailey's Irish Cream...

And in the steel pot, finely chopped jalapeño was added; X's idea.

We also made two types of bacon: regular and maple-glazed. We also had fruit to dip in the fondue.

The profs that we are could not help ourselves grading the results. Glazed bacon in Bailey's chocolate was a winner; not so in the pimiento-laced chocolate. Regular bacon in Bailey's was decent, but was quite good in the spicy mix.

We also discovered that kiwi fruit in spiced chocolate was great, whereas pear in the same was not that great.

And why does it seem that it is always at my place that strange experiments mixing meat and chocolate happen? I don't know, but we're not alone... God help us!

Probably the most dangerous (non-bacon) recipe on the planet

This came into my *gasp!* work email box via Cinnilla... and I had to try it the instant I saw the recipe: instant cupcakes (in a cup/mug).

• 4 tbsp (60 ml) flour
• 4 tbsp (60 ml) sugar
• 2 tbsp (30 ml) cocoa powder [I actually had 3 tbsp (45 ml) sugar and 3 tbsp (45 ml) cocoa; I prefer chocolatey over sweet]
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp (45 ml) milk
• 3 tbsp (45 ml) vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp (45 ml) chocolate chips (potional) [As I did not have any on hand...]
• 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
• 1 large microwave-safe coffee mug [or, as I did, a 2-cup (500 ml) measuring cup.]

It is a good idea to oil the cup/mug in which the cake will be cooked; therefore, using a separate bowl or cup to mix the ingredients is advisable. Combine dry ingredients and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Put mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the [regular coffee] mug, but don't be alarmed! [Actually, as my measuring cup is tapered from bottom to top, the cake actually started ascending, leaving an empty space underneath it!]

Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. Then EAT! Sharing optional.

Surprisingly, the texture is quite moist, yet the centre is firm (and well cooked!). Don't let cool too long, because the outside becomes a bit rubbery (which is normal for any dough cooked in a microwave). Somehow, eating this only made sense with a glass of milk, even for me, a person who rarely drinks milk.

And why is this the most dangerous recipe on the planet? Well... all readers of this blog who have the necessary ingredients are now only 5 minutes from a home-made cupcake...

Bacon Herb Pasta

Seeking inspiration, I picked up a copy of Sara Perry's Everything Tastes Better With Bacon -- which does offer a nice variety of recipe ideas. I tweaked one a tiny bit for last weekend's dinner (added more olive oil, added the butter and tomatoes).



BACON HERB PASTA WITH WHITE BEANS

Zest of 1 large lemon
1 T fresh lemon juice (convenient, what with the zesting)
1 T minced garlic
2 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
6 thick slices of bacon, cut into pieces (I used some slab bacon I bought at a German grocery store in the big city)
Pasta of your choice
1 1/2 C chopped fresh parsley
1/4 C chopped sage
3 T chopped rosemary
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
Salt and pepper
Grated parmesan

In a small bowl, combine lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, beans and tomatoes. Set aside.

Cook the bacon pieces until crispy, reserving the drippings.

Cook pasta until al dente (whatever the directions are for your specific pasta). Combine pasta, beans, tomato, bacon and marinade.

Heat bacon drippings and add butter. Add sage, rosemary and parsley and saute for several seconds. Pour entire mixture into pasta, then toss.





Serve with parmesan, fresh pepper and coarse salt.

Spicy Bacon Pizza

Okay, so this was one of those experiments that didn't work out so well. It was actually quite a simple, non-controversial idea: we were going to make bacon calzones with a bacon-stuffed crust.

However, my attempt to make pizza crust just really did not work out -- the recipe I used was too dry, and in trying to get the dough to stay in a ball I over-kneaded it. We ended up with something that was -- after proper time was (with halfhearted hope) given to it to rise -- approximately the size and consistency of a small brick.

So an emergency call was put in to Dr. D, which went something along the lines of "Hi can you please stop at the supermarket on your way over and pick up a pre-made pizza crust no the crust isn't happening no trust me it is kind of disastrous."

Bacon Saturday continued regardless, and we settled for an easy but very tasty pizza.

SPICY BACON PIZZA

1 pizza crust (uh... pre-made *cough*)
1 can tomato sauce
1 small habanero pepper, finely diced
Rosemary, garlic, oregano, basil
6-8 slices bacon
1/4 large onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
Goat cheese, crumbled
Shredded mozzerella
(amount of cheese is to taste)

Heat tomato sauce, and simmer with spices and habanero pepper for about twenty minutes. Fry bacon and chop into pieces. Pre-heat oven to 425.

Add tomato sauce and pizza toppings to crust. Uh... add cheese. You know. To make a pizza.

Bake in oven until cheese is bubbly and browning.



I also added some dipping sauce: a tub of tzatziki with half a spoonful of minced garlic mixed in.

For the sake of completeness, here is the pizza crust recipe you should never, ever use:

BRICK RESEMBLING PIZZA CRUST

2 tsp active dry yeast
13 Tbsp lukewarm water
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 C flour
2 tsp salt

Combine yeast with warm water in a bowl. Leave for 10-15 minutes until frothy on surface. Stir in olive oil.

Sift flour and salt into bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in yeast (this is where it all went wrong).

Using hands or wooden spoon, mix together into dough. Knead until elastic (HA HA). Place in oiled plastic bag or large oiled bowl (covered), let rise (AH HA HA) for an hour. Then the recipe says to punch down the dough and press it out into pizza shape, but, um... if you have any luck with this, let me know!

Quick conversation with a friend

[Geeky Chat] X says, "Why is 'Martha Stewart's puppy dies in PA kennel blast' at the top of Yahoo News?"

[Geeky Chat] Catherine says, "It was a nationally important puppy."

[Geeky Chat] Catherine says, "When the Obama puppy arrives, it will be the next headline. ;)"

... she's totally right.

There are worse things than bacon

Today, the girl in front of me in the cafeteria lunch line was purchasing a chocolate cookie and a single deep-fried spring roll.