Emergency Bacon Stir Fry

Okay, everyone was busy this weekend and we weren't actually going to do the bacon thing. That was before my car got snowed into the back alley and I was unable to complete my errands, one of which was 'go to grocery store.' So I ended up throwing together a meal from random bits and scraps in my kitchen. It was based on the bacon herb pasta I made last year, but several ingredients were fudged from necessity.

EMERGENCY BACON STIR FRY

5 strips bacon (shredded in mid-sized pieces)
1/4 white onion (this was all the onion I had, people)
1/2 C frozen corn
1 can white kidney beans, drained
1/3 C brazil nuts
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
2 T butter
1 tsp crushed garlic
dash lemon juice
salt
pepper
lemon pepper
herbes de provence
1/4 C grated parmesan
pasta of your choice (I used peppercorn fettuccine)

Fry up bacon. Remove from pan, saving drippings. Add butter and garlic to drippings, then add kidney beans and brazil nuts. Season (salt, pepper, lemon pepper, herbes de provence, lemon juice) to taste. Add onions after a few minutes. Keep on fryin'. Reserve corn and tomato until a few minutes before you are finished cooking; add the bacon back in.



Turn off heat; add cooked pasta and parmesan, and stir everything together.



This was really surprisingly good.

Bacon Quesadillas

Take about 8 strips of bacon and cook them little darlings till they are like charcoal (hence the Italian “carbonaira”… but that is another dish for another day)… let cool and mush them up in a bowl. It should be like bacon bits… only real and your kitchen smells better.

THEN…

1 cup or as much corn as you like… to show off peel it off the cob… (guests feel special)
2 Avacados… soft but not brown… got to be mushable
1 red onion… chop up as much as you need but make it tiny
As much FRESH lime as you like…
1 tablespoon ground cumin… don’t overdo this…
Chop up a bunch of coriander nice and fine like…
Zip in a blast or three of hot sauce…
Salt if you are inclined…
Now I like mixing in a bunch of cheese… cheddar, jack and such… but you need not… be heart smart
Whip it all up in a big bowl…
Add the bacon… oops not that heart smart is it?



While all this is happenin'… heat a frying pan… medium heat…



Once all is mixed to YOUR satisfaction spoon the mixture thinly on half of a tortilla (quesadilla wrap)… fold over and cook two at a time in the bid old pan… (now nicely greased… I like olive oil)

Eat with tomatillo salsa… crisp white wine… whatever makes you happy… VERY cold beer is delightful too.



Once you have followed these exacting directions YOU MUST experiment to make it your own and remember to footnote: Thanks Mike!

[Edited by X to add: we served ours with bacon pineapple salsa, courtesy of Cin]

Bacon Maple Muffins

We devoured these. Original recipe is here.



BACON MAPLE MUFFINS

8 slices bacon, fried and diced
2 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 C milk
1/2 C vegetable oil
2/3 C maple syrup (the real stuff; no skimping, y'all)
brown sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400. Mix ingredients together in a bowl, reserving brown sugar. Spoon muffins into baking cups, then sprinkle brown sugar on top. Bake about 20 minutes, until well risen and golden brown.



We consumed ours with coffee and a side of fresh fruit. If you have leftovers, make sure to refrigerate them, what with the meat and all.

Bacon-wrapped Chicken with Boursin

This recipe was swiped from recipezaar.com, with a few small changes. It is delicious. Cinnilla and I may not eat for a week.



BACON WRAPPED BOURSIN STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 package smoked bacon (uncooked)
150g boursin (I used one with garlic & herbs)
4T olive oil
Few drops lemon juice
Fresh ground pepper
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes

Preheat oven to 375F. Place chicken breasts between two sheets of plastic wrap, and beat thin (I used a potato masher; a wooden mallet or heavy frying pan would also work well). Spread one side of each chicken breast with boursin, then roll the breast and wrap with bacon (I found 2 to 2 1/2 pieces of bacon per chicken breast was sufficient).



Brush a pan with olive oil and place the chicken breasts on the pan. Season with ground pepper, and drizzle 6 or 7 drops of lemon juice over each piece of chicken.

Roast the chicken in the oven for approximately an hour. After the first half hour, check the chicken and add the tomatoes to the pan.

I served this with roast potatoes and asparagus, also cooked in the oven on the rack below the chicken. About 10 small russet potatoes were washed, quartered, and sprinkled with seasoning salt and steak spice, then put in the oven 10-15 minutes before the chicken (for an hour and 10-15 minutes of total potato cooking time). I added the asparagus (drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with lemon pepper) to the potato pan in the last 20 minutes of cooking.



SAUCE

All of the chicken/boursin/bacon drippings
1/3 C whipping cream
1/4 C white wine
Fresh ground pepper
1 T corn starch (dissolved in a bit of water)

The original recipe says that the sauce is optional. The sauce is not optional. The sauce is so freaking good. We could eat it as soup. It is possible that more than one spoonful was consumed in this fashion. It is also possible that extra potatoes were consumed solely as an excuse for more sauce.

Add all ingredients to a small sauce pan and whisk over medium-low heat. Turn off the oven, but leave the chicken, potatoes etc. in the warmth while the sauce is simmering.

The sauce is really tasty. I don't know if I've made that sufficiently clear. (Edited to add: my parents have now tried this recipe, and my mother suggested renaming it to 'Boursin Bacon Cream Sauce with a Side of Bacon-Wrapped Chicken.')

As bonus information, our wine of choice for the evening was Red Bicyclette Syrah. It nicely complemented both the main course and the cayenne chocolate cupcakes we had for dessert. (We were shameless tonight, people.)

Bacon Rice Croquettes

Yes: the farmer's market is closed, the marking is on our desks, and we are back in bacon business. You may see a few other recipe types on here this year -- Cinnilla and I have a hankering to try some Coke cake -- but so far bacon is still winning as our ingredient of choice.

For the first recipe of the year, I turned to Mr. Breakfast and pretty much used their recipe for bacon rice croquettes, with two small changes. I added green onions, and ended up rolling the rice balls in dried bread crumbs (because adding an egg to the bread crumbs as originally suggested just made for a clumpy mess).

BACON RICE CROQUETTES

2 C cooked rice, cooled
3/4 pkg bacon (we cooked the whole package and used the rest for "snacking bacon")
1/3 C freshly grated parmesan
3-4 green onions, finely chopped
1 egg
1/2 C fine dry bread crumbs
1/4 tsp pepper
vegetable oil (I used canola)

Fry bacon & chop into bacon bits. Add together bacon, rice, parmesan, green onions, pepper, egg. Press into small patties, then roll in bread crumbs (I had imperfect luck even with the dry bread crumbs; may have needed another egg in the rice, but at that point I was out of eggs.)



Fill a large pan with an inch or two of oil (I used a big metal stew pot, as I did not want oil splashing all over the kitchen -- please be careful here). Heat oil, then drop in patties and fry for a few minutes on either side. Drain hot croquettes onto a paper towel.



A few of the croquettes did crumble in the pan, but for the most part they held together pretty well -- and they were delicious. The leftovers were also great cold.



Served with blueberry banana pancakes, and Cinnilla's sweet potato bacon hash (recipe incoming).

Bacon Ice Cream

So yeah - Bacon Ice Cream.

While I fully support my crazy friends' efforts in general, I wasn't sure that this would actually be a worth-while contribution to the Bacon Saturdays project.

Proving there really is everything and anything on the internet, X found this recipe from otherwise fantastic ice cream recipe guru David Lebovitz. I own his The Perfect Scoop cookbook, which has delicious recipes and drool-inducing pictures. So, armed with a recipe that had to be as good as one can get, I started the preparations.

Step 1: Make candied bacon
Following the recipe, I laid out 5 slices of bacon on a cookie sheet and put brown sugar on top - trusting that my silicone baking mat (I serious just mistyped that and wrote "bacon mat") would protect my cookie tray. Unfortunately not, the bacon grease plus the brown sugar turned into some kind of crazy carbon space matter that is now permanently fused to my tray. Be warned. Despite this, the bacon actually turned out looking pretty, and certainly "candied".


Step 2: Chop bacon into tiny pieces
Harder than you think with it being so sticky. Being a fool, I used a paring knife which just wasn't cut out for the job (heh heh). Definitely use a chef knife if you are crazy enough to replicate this recipe. Put bitty pieces in container and put in freezer. Shake container to keep pieces separate.


Step 3: Give the poor dog crusty left over bits of bacon for being so good during this torturous process
How can you say no to this face!


Step 4: Make ice cream base (custard)
Again following the recipe, I made the custard for the ice cream. The only change I did was to mix in the dark rum, vanilla and cinnamon into the cup-or-so of half-and-half that was waiting for the hot custard. The custard took 40 freaking minutes to set, but I'm still timid with custard making, perhaps for a more advanced custardtier it would take less time. Anyhow, the ice cream base itself was fantastic. The brown sugar lent an almost smokey quality to the base, and the dark rum with vanilla and cinnamon was out of this world. Keep cold.

Step 5: Drive 1.5 hours to nearest little town and meet crazy friends
(optional)

Step 6: Plug in the ice cream machine and let it churn
I love my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker which, because I ordered it from Williams Sonoma, came with an extra freezing compartment (they take orders by phone and deliver by FedEx - excellent service). Poor only the ice cream base into the machine and let it do its thing for about 30-minutes. The churning was great as always, creating a nice thick and rich texture. It took a little longer than normal because the freezing compartment warmed up on my drive down. When the ice cream looks like its reached soft-serve thickness with a "grainy" appearance it is ready for the next step.


Step 7: Follow through
Add in the candied bacon. My brain did not compute the two aromas mixing together. Nevertheless, it wouldn't be bacon ice cream without the bacon. So go forth and be brave. I always freeze my "mix ins" so they don't affect the ice cream's temperature (and thus consistency) and don't clump together when being mixed in (my brain had much easier times throwing in frozen maraschino cherries into white chocolate ice cream, or frozen Cadbury Creme Egg pieces into dark chocolate ice cream). Let mix for another 5 minutes or so to distribute bacon evenly, stop machine, then scoop out into a sealable container. Let chill in freezer for at least 30 minutes to firm up.


Step 8: Eat?
Well... It smelled good - the dark rum/vanilla/cinnamon/brown sugar combo was fantastic, and technically the smokey, sweet bacon also smelled nice - but the fact that they were together was just odd. The flavour was also good, but bizarre. The chewy bits, which would normally be chocolate, nuts, or, at worse dried fruit, in ice cream were... pieces of meat. Troubling. Despite this, all 4 taste-testers finished their portions (aided, no doubt, by the delicious praline sauce we ladled onto our servings). No one went back for seconds.


Final verdict
Bacon Ice Cream was strange - and not something that will ever take off. It wasn't terrible, and the flavours were okay, but the meat in ice cream was just too mentally uncomfortable to move beyond. I would totally re-do that ice cream base with walnuts or, heck, even rum-soaked raisin in the future. Until then, there are lots of leftovers at X's...

Bacon Potato Scones

This was not an official Bacon Saturday, but Cinnilla and I were scrambling to get video clips edited for some conference presentations, so we really needed to... er, cook with bacon.

The original recipe was from Mr. Breakfast -- I tweaked it a bit, mostly due to the fact that I misread and added too much flour to mine, then had to compensate. The results were very tasty -- like a thick potato pancake.

BACON POTATO SCONES

1 1/2 C cooked plain mashed potatoes (no butter/milk)
8 pieces bacon, fried crispy and crumbled
Bacon drippings (leave in pan)
1 T butter
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 C flour
Optional garnish: sour cream, applesauce

Combine flour, pepper, salt, eggs, bacon bits, and mashed potatoes. Stir into a thick dough.

Add butter to hot bacon drippings in pan, and let melt. This is totally healthy. Add scones (large spoonful of batter each) and fry on medium heat until golden on both sides.





You could serve these quite nicely with maple syrup, we think; we used sour cream and applesauce, which were also very good. Veggie side dish provided by Cin -- very tasty, but your guess as to ingredients is as good as mine!

The Elvis

We have run into mention of this sandwich at several places, but I first remember hearing about it around 2006 when visiting the Peanut Butter & Co. restaurant in NYC. It is a grilled peanut butter sandwich with bananas, honey and bacon. We were skeptical but game.

PEANUT BUTTER BANANA BACON SANDWICH

A nice bread -- we used fresh multigrain Italian bread, cut thick.
Sliced bananas
Bacon (fried to crispy)
Honey
Peanut butter (we used smooth; crunchy should also be fine)



Slather peanut butter on bread, then add bananas and bacon. Drizzle honey lightly over top, then add second slice of bread (uh... "make a sandwich") and grill.





Simple and tasty. Also, good for any meal of the day, really -- probably more of a breakfast/lunch thing, but we had ours for dinner due to scheduling issues.



For dessert, there'd been a sale on fresh strawberries so I whipped up a strawberry shortcake and garnished it with bacon just for the hell of it. It was fine, as long as the bacon was eaten separately. We would not recommend the bacon/vanilla ice cream combo, which should prove interesting for our upcoming (wait for it!) attempt at bacon ice cream.

Grilled Arctic Char with Bacon

I am a few posts behind with our bacon recipes, and will do my best to get caught up this week. This recipe is from yesterday, however, and was born of the beautiful weather and my urge to turn on the barbecue. We had successfully combined bacon and salmon before, and I'd thought to do so again -- until I walked into the seafood store and saw the fresh char on display. You could easily use salmon for this as well.

GRILLED ARCTIC CHAR WITH BACON

1 lb Arctic char filet (with skin)
1 lemon, sliced
6 slices of bacon
seasoning salt

Since fish cooks faster than bacon does, pre-fry the bacon just enough so that it is still limp but there is no longer a danger of food poisoning. Reserve the drippings.



I picked up a fish grilling basket at the grocery store for $11. Professional looking, no?

Layer the bottom of the basket with lemon slices, then three bacon slices. Place the fish on top of the bacon, skin side down. Baste the filet with bacon drippings, then sprinkle with seasoning salt. On top, add another layer of bacon and then the remaining lemon slices. Grill, turning over occasionally, until fish is cooked through.





Separately, I made up two foil packets; one contained perogies, garlic butter and onions, and the other contained red and yellow peppers, sliced water chestnuts, and a lime soy sauce (no recipe for that -- I bought it at the store, hello laziness). I threw these on the grill with the fish. We also had some lovely homemade French bread, courtesy of Cinnilla.

The char was delicious -- it was infused with lemon and had a faint taste of bacon. The bacon itself had also become lemony; it's your choice whether you want to eat or discard the bacon. We tried eating it, and pronounced it good.

Praline Bacon

Alternate title: "The Louisiana diet will kill a man as surely as the sword." (King of the Hill)

This recipe requires slightly more dedication than our usual lazy options.

PRALINE BACON

First, fly to New Orleans.

Next, get a cab to take you to the corner of Chartres and Gallier, in the Bywater district.



There, you will find a restaurant called Elizabeth's. Make sure to arrive when breakfast is being served.

Order the praline bacon.



When the nice waitress brings it to you, consume it.

You might follow it up with sweet fried rice cakes, French toast (stuffed with strawberry cream cheese), or a giant waffle (with strawberries and whipped cream).

Then, walk half an hour to the French Quarter. You will need the exercise in order to prevent your arteries from immediately hardening with delicious, delicious goo.

Even Brussels Sprouts Can Be Delicious... With Bacon

[Cette recette est aussi disponible en français]

This is no April Fool's joke. This underappreciated vegetable can be made to be loved, provided one is willing to work just a little. One of the guests at the pot roast dinner exclaimed, seeing the little bag that contained the green balls: "You don't intend to make me eat Brussels sprouts?" My answer was that she was free to try, and that I may even change her perception of this miniature cabbage. And I did.

A few years ago, I discovered that there were other ways to cook Brussels sprouts than boiling the living heck out of them, which leaves them brownish, soggy, and entirely devoid of any nutritious value or appetising flavour. A cook once made me taste them taken apart, blanched, and then stir-fried in olive oil with fresh mint and basil. I still occasionally make that recipe.

Recently, I discovered another variation, based on bacon. I thus decided to try adapting it and serving it along with the pot roast.

• 15 (or so) fresh Brussels sprouts
  
• 100 gr bacon, cut into strips
  
• A quarter red pepper (I happened to have some on hand) diced
• A handful pine nuts
  

First, take the Brussels sprouts apart. This can be made easier by cutting the stems of the leaves while removing them one by one. Make compost with the hardened hearts. They can also be cut in halves or quarters, which is quicker to prepare but will require a bit longer cooking.

In a large skillet with a lid, cook the bacon, and when it is almost ready, add a handful of pine nuts. Warm and coat with the bacon fat. Deglazing the pan with a little cider vinegar adds a nice flavour.

Then add the Brussels sprout leaves and the red pepper and close the lid. Let steam over medium heat 2-3 minutes, until the sprouts start wilting. Serve warm.

Sausage "Pot Roast" with... Bacons

[Cette recette est également disponible en français]

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

[Cette recette est aussi disponible en français]

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!

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!

Bacon in gratin dauphinois

[Cette recette est aussi disponible en français]

How to waste a perfecly fine Thursday evening that should have been spent marking... make this delicious dish, gratin dauphinois, which I tweaked by adding bacon. Yeah. The necessary ingredient. There were four of us enjoying this last Thursday (I'm becoming the weekday bacon annex to the Bacon Saturdays, I think).

Now, the idea for making this dish came from my having invited Cinnilla, X, and The Chemist over for dinner and not having much at the ready... and as I was about to leave town for a few days, I did not want to generate leftovers or worse, have to go to the store for anything. Mulling over my inventory, I thought of the potatoes I had in the cellar and of the broth I had made from my holiday turkey, and decided to make a variation of a French classic: gratin dauphinois. Normally, eggs are necessary for this recipe, and opinions differ as to whether it should include cheese, but heck! Beggers can't be choosers! I had to do with what was at hand.

So, here's how it works:

• 10 potatoes
  
• 1/3 pound bacon (about eight slices)
• 300 g grated sharp cheddar
  
• Seasoned béchamel
• [There normally would be eggs in the recipe to help thicken the sauce]
  

For the béchamel:

• ¼ pound (125 g) salted butter
• ½ cup (125 ml) flour
• ½ an onion, finely chopped
• 1,25 l (5 cups) turkey broth (I happened to have that in the fridge)
  
• 2 chopped green onions (they were in the crisper and looking forlorn)
  
• 3 finely chopped garlic cloves (to taste, really!)
  
• Salt, pepper, nutmeg, cumin, thyme, and ½ teaspoon (2,5 ml) chicken bovril.

First fry the bacon and prepare the béchamel, adding the finely chopped onion to the melting butter before preparing the roux (adding flour, cooking together for a couple of minutes). When roux is ready, gradually add the broth and then the seasonings. Stir very regularly over medium heat, until quite thick (about 15-20 minutes).

Peel and wash potatoes, and slice into thin slivers. Lay in a gratin dish, layering in bacon and grated cheese.

Pour béchamel over potatoes, making sure it reaches down to the bottom of the dish (the béchamel is shown here midway through cooking; it was quite a bit thicker.

Cook in preheated oven (ideally around 300°) until top becomes golden and the entire mixture has become more or less one solid mass. We were in a bit of a rush to eat and only cooked it for an hour at 375°, finishing it off under the grill. It still was delicious, if still a bit "liquid" and the centre potatoes were a tad firm.

Happy Valentine's day to all! Even if like ourselves you're single, that's no reason to be grumpy! This is a day to love and share the love!