Brussel Sprouts w/ Smokey Bacon Sous Vide

Ok enough of the focus has been on the sous vide-ing of meat lately. Let's try our hand at one of my favorite veggies, brussel sprouts. Most people are either in the love or hate camp when it comes to brussel sprouts. My belief is you have either had them cooked properly or not. I can't think of another veggie I love more than a brussel sprout, or as they are called in the country side of Belgium, big city sprouts.

We start by cutting off the nub end and splitting them in half. Then we take some of our home smoked bacon, and crisp it up in a fry pan. Come on now this isn't a vegan blog, have to add some bacon.

While the bacon is crisping up give the sprouts some seasoning love of salt and pepper. Once the bacon is crisp, remove from heat and let cool slightly then add the bacon and its rendered fat to the sprouts with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. (Added the olive oil as there wasn't a lot of rendered fat from the bacon)

Now its time suck. Vacuum seal the mixture and place in your water bath. Sous vide is a great way to cook as all the vitamins, minerals and flavor are sealed in the food, there is no leaching of beneficial nutrients or taste. I set the temp at 185 F and let cook for about 2 hours.

While the sprouts bathe, I reduced a couple of tablespoons each of balsamic and sherry vinegar, over high heat into a nice thick syrup to drizzle over the finished veg.

Here is the finished product, they suffered a little color loss, but the flavor was great and they were not mushy at all. Since they were cooked in a sealed environment they were infused with the smokey bacon flavor, that made me wonder if there is a way to graft bacon into plants while they're still growing. Next time I do 'em I would lower the temp to 170 and pull them after an hour, just to maintain a little more color.

Home Grown Tomatoes w/ Home Smoked Bacon

 SF is hitting its summer stride now. For a few days no fog and the temps reaching highes that make San Franciscans not want to cook. So what better than to enjoy a cool end of summer salad with some fresh home grown tomatoes cut into 8ths and drizzled in good Olive Oil and salted with grey sea salt, add arugula, a smattering of home made bacon and a dash of sherry vinegar. A beat the heat meal with smokey cool flavor.

Smoking Bacon

So chilled after a night uncovered in the fridge, now ready for the hot smoke to turn our little innocent pork belly into sexy bacon. The hot coals are offset from where the pork will be. The indirect heat needed is 200 degrees F.

Since the charcoal alone won't give it enough smokiness, adding some applewood smoking pellets will produce the smoke needed. Tossing a small handful on the coals about twice an hour yields a pleasant smokey flavor and creates that beautiful smoky patina.

Internal thermometer is inserted in the pork belly, to make bacon it needs to rise to 150 degrees F.

Yes, hot smoke action.

Keep that heat slow and low 200 degrees F. I had a small Smokey Joe going with a few backup coals burning when I needed to add more to maintain the heat.

Reaching our goal of not only 150 internally, but also in creating damn sexy pieces of pork.

Skin is a little too chewy, so carefully remove it and reserve it to add to beans, soups and sauces. I chopped it up and placed in the freezer for future uses.

Sliced and ready to devour. However this bacon wasn't made to make bacon strips with eggs over easy, it was made to make more incredibly delicious meals and blog posts...nom, nom, nom

Bacon Cont. Today we chill, tomorrow we smoke

So out of the fridge and ready for the rinse.

A quick rinse under cool running water.

After the rinse set up a sheet pan with a wire rack.

Then pat dry the pork belly with some paper towels and place on rack.

After patting dry place uncovered in the fridge over night to dry out more a little more, because today we chill & tomorrow we smoke.

Making bacon

So here we go again another week long campaign in pork products, today we are starting on making bacon. First you have to cure it and the curing ingredients clockwise from the left are kosher salt, pink salt (you can only find it at the Barbie Store), brown sugar, black pepper and a little dried rosemary. Mix till equally combined.



Spread curing mixture equally over the bacon, today I had two 2 pound pork bellies.


Mmmmm salted and sugared.



Now they're bagged and tagged and I will gently flip them daily in the fridge for the next week before we rinse off the cure and then let them air dry over night in the fridge and before we smoke them. Cue Homer Simpson, Mmmmmmmmmmm BACON!

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Samgyeopsal Gui or Korean Pork Belly part 2

Out of the dry rub for a quick rinse. Then a brushing of cooking marinade (sesame oil, soy sauce, fermented spicy bean paste and a little honey) before being sealed and cooked at 160 for 24 hours.

Superbowl Fun