We know when you think jam, you mind doesn't automatically jump to bacon. Well, it should. Our quest to make bacon jam started with an amazing charcuterie plate we had at a local restaurant that featured bacon jam. Of course we had to find a recipe, so Zack scoured the internet until he found this one. This savory jam went perfect on crusty bread at our holiday parties last year. Or, if you want to deliver edible treats as presents, this is the perfect gift for your foodie friends.
This one is going to be a long one, so get comfortable. We're going to be here a while.
Here's what you need:
3 lbs bacon
3 large onions, thinly sliced
10 cloves garlic, minced
9 Tbsp brown sugar
3 cups coffee, brewed
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup maple syrup
fresh cracked black pepper
3/4 tsp smoked paprika
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
Special Equipment:
Pressure Cooker
6 1/2 pint canning jars
Here's what you do:
Cook the bacon until it just gets crispy. You'll need to do this in batches. Lots of batches. Drain the excess bacon fat off in between batches.
When the bacon is finally all finished, slice it into 1/2" pieces. Set that aside for now.
Reserve a few tablespoons of the bacon fat and add to a large heavy bottom pot.
Add the onion and garlic over medium high heat. Toss to coat everything in the bacon fat.
Cook for 10-12 minutes until the onions become soft and translucent.
Add the chopped bacon to the pot.
Next add the brown sugar.
Next comes the apple cider vinegar.
Maple syrup joins the party next.
And, then add the coffee.
Bring that whole mixture to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer.
Let that simmer for 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally. Your mixture will look like this when it's ready to move on. Beautiful, isn't it?
We put the jam in the fridge over night to let the fat come to the top. The picture above is actually after we pulled it from the refrigerator. Scoop the fat off the top and discard.
Transfer the mixture to the blender or food processor and pulse to chop the large chunks of bacon and onion up to a finer consistency.
Return to the pot and place on the stove over low heat. Add the pepper to taste and red wine vinegar.
Let that cook for another 45 minutes or so until all of the red wine vinegar has evaporated.
Meanwhile, let's get started with our canning procedure. Sanitizing time!
Put your jars in a tall dutch oven so that the jars are submerged by about an inch.
Take some of the boiling water and pour over the top of the of the lids.
Now, scoop your jam evenly into the 6 jars.
Place inside the pressure cooker with about an inch of water.
Seal the cover of the pressure cooker and put over medium-low heat. Each pressure cooker is different, so read the directions carefully. You're going to cook it at 10 pounds of pressure for about an hour.
Now you're finally done. We warned you it was a long one!
Enjoy!
Spezzatino is an Italian dish that we saw on David Rocco Dolce Vita. We made this to go with our polenta... which happens to also be from David Rocco's Dolce Vita. What can we say, we like rustic Italian food.
Here's what you need:
4-5 lb roast (you can use beef, pork, veal, venison - whatever!)
4 carrots
4 celery ribs
1 large onion
4-5 baking potatoes
1 15 oz. can low sodium tomato sauce
1/4 cup red wine (we think we used a cabernet)
Kosher salt and black pepper
Here's what you do:
Slice the roast into about 1" cubes.
Place a large pan (or perhaps a enamel coated cast iron dutch oven would be better (You'll see why later)) over medium high heat and add a bit of olive oil to the bottom. Sear the meat. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, chop your carrot, celery and onion.
You don't have to be precise about your chopping, because you're going to run it through the food processor.
Peel and chop your potatoes.
Your meat should be seared, so remove from the pan.
Add the veggies to the pan. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Brown them for about 5 minutes.
Once your veggies are softened, pour the wine over them, and deglaze the bottom of the pan by scraping with a spatula. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
You're going to want to let this simmer for a few minutes. Once you can't smell the alcohol in the wine any longer, you're ready to move on.
Add the potatoes to the pan. Stir and season lightly with salt and pepper.
Now add the meat.
Next goes the rest of the wine.
And finally the tomato sauce.
Give everything a good stir. We had to be very, very careful with this step. As you can see, our pan probably wasn't quite big enough.
Bring this to a low boil.
Now, just reduce your heat to medium and cover for an hour and a half.
The meat tenderizes and the potatoes cook through, but aren't mushy. We think you're really going to enjoy this one.
Enjoy!
If you read our blog with any consistency, you'll know that we really enjoy Asian flavors. We also love pork loin, and are constantly searching out new ways to prepare it. Zack came up with this marinade himself. We'll be using it again!
Here's what you need:
2 lb pork loin (you can get a smaller one, just adjust your cooking time)
2 Tbsp plum sauce
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp honey
1 shallot, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed
about 1" of fresh ginger root, roughly chopped
1 tsp sesame oil
1 1/2 Tbsp sesame seeds, divided
Here's what you do:
Put all of your marinade ingredients (reserving half of the sesame seeds), into a gallon sized Ziploc bag.
Remove the silver skin from the pork loin. The silver skin is the shimmery fibrous layer on the outside of the loin. You really want to remember this step, because the silver skin is tough. Just trust us.
Add the pork loin to the marinade and let that hang out in the fridge for an hour or so.
Preheat your oven to 350. Use your roasting pan with the rack inserted. Pour water into the bottom of the roasting pan, until it is about an inch deep.
Place the pork loin on the rack, then top with the rest of the sesame seeds.
Pork loin in the oven can take anywhere between 25-35 minutes per pound to cook through. Use your meat thermometer and pull the loin when it reaches 145 degrees or above. The internal temperature will continue to rise a bit as it rests.
Remove the pork loin from the oven, tent with foil, and allow it to rest for at least 5 minutes. The juices need to redistribute. If you cut into it right away, you'll have dry pork loin. Nobody likes dry pork loin.
Now, all you have to do is slice and eat.
Enjoy!
Michelle had a few girls over to celebrate a friend's upcoming nuptials. The bride and groom will be heading to Hawaii for their honeymoon, so we created a Hawaiian themed meal for the get together. The Shoyu pork was a hit! And, it is ridiculously easy to make.
We deviated from the original recipe a bit. We don't really like sake, like the original recipe calls for, so we substituted it with vinegar.
Here's what you need:
4 lb pork butt roast
1 8 oz can of tomato sauce (we got the low sodium)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 cup rice wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic, crushed
Here's what you do:
Put the sugar, soy sauce, tomato sauce and vinegar in a large bowl.
Stir together until the sugar dissolves. Toss the garlic into the mix
Place the roast in a large slow cooker and pour the sauce over the top.
Let cook on low for 10-12 hours. Flip the roast over half way through.
The meat will fall apart - that's when you know when you're done.
Place the roast on a cutting board, and pull apart with a couple forks. Remove any large pieces of fat and discard.
Return to the sauce and keep on warm in the slow cooker until you're ready to eat.
Enjoy!
This recipe is an adaptation of one of Michelle's brother-in-law's mother's recipes. Did you follow that? We've been wanting to try it for a while. Both of us love smoked sausage and sour kraut, so obviously, this meal was a hit with us. And, to top it off, this is super easy to make.
Here's what you need:
1 pack of Polska Kielbasa
About 1 1/2 cups of sour kraut
1/2 a bag of egg noodles
Pepper to taste
Here's what you do:
Start your water boiling to cook the egg noodles. Meanwhile, heat a high-walled skillet over medium heat. Coat the bottom of the pan with about a tablespoon of olive oil.
Once your pan is hot, place the sausage inside. We're going to crisp the sausage up whole before we slice it.
Let that cook until it's browned and the skin is crisped.
Once that's sufficiently crispy, remove from the pan and slice on the bias.
At this point, the water for our pasta was boiling, so we salted the water with Kosher salt, and drop your noodles.
Add the sliced sausage back in the pan.
Top with the sour kraut.
Let that cook while your pasta finishes cooking. Scoop the pasta into the pot.
Season with pepper and toss everything around to coat it.
Throw a lid on it and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
Now, all you have to do is give it another good stir, and plate it.
Enjoy!
