Red Wine Bacon, a thinking man's recipe

So it would appear my business partner thinks you want foie gras, gold leaf and half a hundredweight of pomp and circumstance with your bacon. Personally I like to think you lot are a little more sophisticated then that. I mean does chef Dominic really think people want bacon that looks like something Mr. T would wear on a chain around his neck? Do you really want bacon that's as spangly as P-diddley's trousers?  I think not.
In all seriousness though I think the bacon Dominic made is magnificent and it's going to be fabulous for an event I'm hoping to organize in the near future, but more on that in a later post.
What you really want is some seriously grown up bacon, you want bacon that's moved on from the breakfast table to take it's rightful place at dinner. You want the kind of bacon that makes people really rethink what bacon is all about, you want red wine bacon.
That's right, I said red wine bacon, amazing winey, garlicky, baconny goodness that takes bacon to a whole new level.

Ingredients

Bacon
1 pound of pork belly (Ask your butcher to remove the skin at the time of purchase)
1 1/2 tsp Morton's kosher salt
1/2 tsp curing salt #1 (sometimes called Pink salt #1 or Prague salt #1)
1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp of brown sugar
2 tbsp of garlic powder
1/2 cups red wine

Glaze
1 /12 cups of red wine
1 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp brown sugar

!. Throw your dry ingredients into a large ziplock bag (I like Glad Zipper locks, but do you boo, most heave duty ziplock type bags will work)
2. Add your wine to the bag and shake thoroughly so the wine is well mixed with the dry ingredients.
3. Put your pork belly in the bag, force as much air as possible out of the bag before sealing and place the sealed bag in the fridge.
4. Store the bag in the fridge for between 1 and 3 weeks to cure, turning the bag over daily to ensure even curing.  I recommend erring towards longish curing times when working with red wine try for at least 10 day to allow the wine to get right in there.
5. Making a glaze, put your glaze ingredients into a sauce pan and and simmer until the red wine starts to thicken and look syrupy.
6. Remove the now cured belly from the bag and rinse under the tap, allow to dry for about a 1/2 hour before smoking
7. I like to smoke over a hickory and apple wood mix between 220-240 degrees, allow about 45 minutes per pound, double that if it's below freezing out. Coat with wine glaze when you put it in, turn the belly over at the half way mark and re-glaze.
8. Remove from the smoker and refrigerate for 24 hours before slicing. (Do not skip this step!!!)

Cooking:  As I mentioned at the beginning this bacon is more at home at the dinner table then at breakfast, though I've found fun ways of including it at breakfast also, there are lots of interesting ways to cook it, when you fry it it turns a deep winey red as it cooks and the wine flavour is very distinctive.  My favorite way to prepare it is to put it over top of a chicken breast in the oven, just cook the chicken as you normally would and lay the bacon on top of it before you put it in the oven, the wine flavour will spread through the chicken in the most delightful way.

I've also enjoyed chopping my wine bacon into lardons and frying them up to throw on top of salad, you have to do something to help salad. ;)
       

Strawberry Bruschetta

Fresh strawberries, that tangy, sweet taste; dancing in perfect harmony with the lemon soaked tomatoes and the fresh from the garden taste of beautiful thyme. The crunch of the baguette against the smooth creamy taste of the goat cheese makes this an appetizer to impress your friends. Or woo the girl of your dreams. Or make up for doing something stupid to your usually loving partner.




Ingredients:
6 Medium size hot house tomatoes.
10-15 Good sized strawberries
6 Lemons
1 Red onion
1 Handful of parsley
1 Sprig of thyme
1 Tbsp of Salt
1 tsp of garlic powder
Vienna loaf or whatever bread you like.
1 Small of soft goats cheese - chilled

Disclaimer: This recipe takes 24hrs! You can rush it but you will not get anywhere near the same flavours!

First the strawberries. Cut them into little cubes by cutting them in half, cutting into strips, then cutting those strips in half. When you have them cut up, throw them in a bowl with the juice of one lemon and the leaves from your sprig of Thyme. Let them sit for 1 minute then throw out any remaining lemon juice in the bowl. Pop them in the fridge and let them sit for 24 hours! When you take them out they should have a bit of the lemon flavour with a nice aftertaste of the thyme. Lovely!

Cut up those delicious looking tomatoes and throw them into a bowl, small cubes is great. Next is the onion, cut up half, very fine and in it goes with the tomatoes. Next is the handful of parsely leaves, cut them up fine and in they go too with the juice from the remaining lemons and the tsp of garlic powder. Stir it up and let it rest beside its starberry friends for 24 hours.




The next day!

Toast your bread or throw it in the frying pan with a little oil and give it a quick fry.

Put a thin layer of the tomato bruschetta on the bread, followed by a thin layer of the starberries then crumble a little of the goat cheese over and  you are done!

Now feed it to your loved one and enjoy the eternal love... or, you're out of the doghouse now. you're welcome.

Dominic

Dominic's Summer Hot Sauce

 Look at those beautiful peppers! Red! Ripe! Perfect to add that summer kick to everything you cook!

Why is it that peppers remind me of the summer? I think of islands, beaches, the sun, sitting in the shade with a burn, looking like a lobster and getting drunk from something that tastes like a coconut did VERY inappropriate things with a bowl of fruit and a bottle of rum. But let’s leave the beaches and bikinis behind and head to that drum cut in half, coals glowing a loving orange colour and throw on some veg!

For my hot sauce I like spice, but above spice I like flavour! If the reaction is, “Mmm this tastes great… oh my god I need a drink.” I'm doing it right.

My hot sauce starts with a citrus note that fills the mouth and gets it watering, then comes the garlic and onion, adding rich notes of BBQ and the same taste one would get from the first bite of pasta sauce. It finishes sweet and then burns a constant and sharp treat that will last for about 30 seconds on a fresh pallet.

Sounds good? Ok, let’s get those veg on the grill!

I will be using:
1 Head of garlic.
1 Large red onion
Aprox 30 Scotch bonnet peppers
Aprox 8 Red hot chili peppers
6 Lemons
1 Tbsp of brown sugar.

Garlic! Grill it! It turn as soft as butter.
(TIP: Pull off as much of the outside husk as you can.)
(TIP: BBQ, cut in half, serve with crusty bread, olive oil and a nice balsamic as an app.)

Onion! You know what happens when you throw it in a pan with butter, same thing happens on the bbq.
(TIP: Cut an ‘X’ halfway through each end so the heat can get in there.)

Peppers! Throw them on and watch them closely, as they cook, the meat will start to separate away from the waxy outside covering.
(TIP: Experiment! There’s an amazing selection of peppers out there and they taste wildly different, see what combinations you like and what works with your best dishes. I’m using Scotch Bonnet and Red Hot Chili Peppers.)

Got the veg on the grill? 

Great!  Flip those peppers and enjoy something cool to drink while you dream of the sand between your toes.

Done? Awesome! Smell that? Mmm, think of all the dishes that you could add a little spice too.
Jerk Chicken. Fried Chicken. Pizza. Curry. Burgers. Wings. Sauces. Drinks(Caesar+). Desserts. Quiche. Etc.

Pull the veg off and let them cool a little so you can touch them with your hands.
Snip an end off the red hot chilies and squeeze the meat and seeds into your container.
Pull off any stems and throw the scotch bonnets into the container too, seeds and all.
In goes the onion when it’s nice and soft.
In goes the garlic when it too is nice and soft.
Squeeze in your lemons using a wire strainer to make sure the seeds stay out.
Now add 1-2 cups of vinegar and blend with an immersion blender until you have a paste that is super hot!

The next step is completely up to you and how hot you like things. The more vinegar you add, the
less viscous and less hot it will become. If you see my picture of the container I chose, it was 1/4^th full of the chili paste and I added 3/4 vinegar.

Add a Tbsp of brown sugar or two and give it a stir.

You’re done! How easy was that!
Now go wash your hands!!
Trust me O_O