Bacon Jam (or chutney) (oh yes I did!)

So, I needed to make bacon jam.  Yeah, well, sorry but I did.  I did a little reading about it, realized it was really just like onion jam but with bacon and figured I could spend some kitchen alchemy time and come up with something. 

Sometimes, rarely, I make something that simply delights me, this is one of those things.  I think it's better than most anything else I've made. 

I didn't need to make a ton, there's just me who would like something like this.  It's part jam, part chutney, all crazy delicious good. 

Jump on the bandwagon to the "new" hot trend and make some.  My version makes three little mason jar fulls.  Just enough to keep one for yourself (or two) and share one which makes you an instant rock star.

Let me know what you think, I will be busy with my bacon jam on crisp toast with a lightly fried egg straight out of one of my chickens on it and really, I'll be glowing right afterwards :)  

TRACY'S BACON JAM (CHUTNEY) RECIPE

3/4 cup coffee (room temperature is fine)

1/4 cup maple syrup (use the real stuff, it matters)

1/4 vinegar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon fresh cracked pepper

1 medium onion (sliced)

1/2 large apple, chopped

2 large garlic cloves, smashed

1 pound of your favorite bacon

OK, let's begin: 

In a glass measuring cup, combine the coffee, syrup, vinegar, brown sugar and pepper, leave it aside.

 

Chop the bacon in 1/2-1 inch pieces and throw it in your favorite heavy dutch oven.  Fry it on medium heat until it's brown and crisp and all the fat has rendered off.  Transfer the bacon to a bowl to wait for you.
 

Drain off all but about 2-3 tablespoons of the bacon fat. SAVE THE FAT in a mason jar and put it in the fridge, this stuff is GOLD.  Use it to fry EVERYTHING and you will have a 587% happier life, trust me, I did the math.

Add the onions and garlic to the pot and fry them for a few minutes, until they soften then add the chopped apple.  Fry it until the onions start to turn slightly golden and the apples are soft.  Remove the onions, garlic and apple from the pan.  I just toss them on top of the bacon that's waiting for me.
  

Add the liquid you prepared to the dutch oven, crank the heat to high and boil hard for 3 minutes.
 

Add the bacon, onions, garlic and apple back to the pan and adjust the heat on medium low.
  

Simmer the mixture until it turns dark and thick and syrupy.  I let it go about an hour, if it gets too thick, add water and let it continue to cook.  I add 1/4 cup if it needs it. The onions and garlic will have almost melted and the apple will disintegrate when you touch it.
 

Transfer the mixture to a blender, I have a Ninja, and pulse to chop and combine everything.  Feel free to add a few tablespoons of water to help it loosen a bit.  Transfer it to the 3 little jars and put lids on them and voila...you are the proud owner of  bacon jam.
  

Oh the smokey, thick, sweet, savory, coffee, maple syrupy flavor is something else!
 

I won't tell if you decide to keep it for yourself. 

This is great warm, room temperature or cold.  Each temperature changes the flavor slightly.  I like it room temperature on bread with extra old cheddar.  I like it on warm bread out of the oven.  I like it on crustini spread with herbs.  I like it on crunchy bread under an egg.  I like it on a fork,  It's very rich so a little goes a very long way.  

I think this is the perfect amount to make to enjoy and to share.  It should keep in the fridge about a month but really, I have no idea how on earth it'd be around that long.

I intend on making jars as gifts this christmas, a little jar full of this degree of delight with a little red bow...I can't imagine a better gift to give or to receive!! 

Make this, you'll be happy. 

/enjoy!

Backyard Chicken Eggs

My girls' egg, v XL white egg

I have backyard chickens, 6 of them. Alouette, Edna, Martini, Peck, Sunny and Chicken.  Husband named "Chicken".  They all have huge personalities and are all very loving.  They enjoy being held and stroked and follow me around the yard like the pied piper.  I love my chickens

They are Buff Orpington chickens   They are 21 weeks old today and today, I got my first 2 eggs! There was an egg in the nesting box when we let them out of the coop this morning and then I was standing there, talking to my mother on the phone about how I'd listened to Alouette "sing" for an hour or more in the nesting box, heard a "knock" against the plywood and opened the door to see Alouette and a fresh, warm, wet egg!!!

I ran the egg inside, rinsed it and promptly lightly fried it in a little butter. I slid it onto a slice of homemade bread with a little butter on it. I ate it. It was heaven. I cannot believe how beautiful it was, firm albumen, 1/2 inch high, tight, almost neon yolk. It was the best egg I have ever eaten.

In a perfect world, the theory is that we'll get one egg per day per chicken. That's 6 per day. I can do that.

      

I heated a little butter in a non stick pan to medium high.  I cracked the egg and slid it into the pan.  I immediately rotated the pan, like a crepe, and it folded itself over.  No need to flip :)
 

I put it on a slice of homemade, buttered, bread.  Split the bright yellow yolk so it ran into the bread and ate it hungrily. 

I may never eat anything else again. 

/Tracy

English Muffin, (revisited, reworked)

 English muffins.  I love them.  I love them toasted and put under anything at all.  There are few things so wonderful as a nook or cranny completely filled with little puddles of butter.  Really.

I made hollandaise sauce last night for my steamed broccoli so naturally I woke up thinking I needed something to go under the sauce this morning. Enter the English muffin. Well, I had planned on adding some bacon and a poached egg of course but, as you'll see, neither of those materialized and I was left with English muffins, nooks, crannies, melted butter and really is there anything else you need when you're up at the crack of dawn thinking about bringing a new puppy into the zoo?  I thought not.

I could have gotten dressed, gotten into my car, driven the 20 minutes to the grocery store, wandered down the aisled to find a hermetically sealed cellophane tube of English muffins, made who knows where or when. I could have then stood in line, paid, walked back to my car and then driven the 20 minutes home to have a toasted English muffin. I think we both agree that wasn't going to happen. Much preferably I chose the second option, throw some ingredients in the kitchen aide, stay in my jammies, enjoy the second cup of coffee on the back porch watching dogs play and birds do bird things just out of reach of said dogs.

You need some basic ingredients that I guarantee you have in your house, an hour or so of time and an electric griddle. Get comfy, we're heading to nook and cranny yumminess.

Look around your kitchen and realize the list of ingredients isn't daunting at all.  Make a coffee then gather these items;

1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp honey
2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup warm water
4 T melted shortening
3 cups of a/p flour
1 tsp salt
some cornmeal for dusting

Proof the yeast in 1/2 cup warm water in the kitchen aid bowl. Combine the milk and honey, warm gently to body temperature in the microwave.  See, it's not just a butter melter, frozen pea cooker and popcorn popper!

Add the milk to the water when it's cooled down to slightly warmer than body temperature. Add 2 1/2 cups of the flour, the salt and the shortening*  *I scoop 4 Tablespoons shortening into a bowl and microwave to melt it then measure the melted shortening, one Tablespoon at a time, into the bowl while the machine is running. Add the remaining flour, if needed, to form a soft dough that clears the side of the bowl.

Mix with the dough hook (or in a bowl by hand works just as beautifully) until it's a smooth dough that barely sticks to your hand. You want a very soft dough here. Try to resist adding too much flour when you gently knead it.  Knead it a couple of times until it's smooth and like a baby bum! (no, really, this dough is that soft and warm and squishy!) I simply put it back into the kitchen aid bowl with a tea towel over it for about an hour.  I either put it in the oven with the light on or in my garage (which is perpetually warm). This dough needs to double in size. This is after about 50 minutes, it's grown substantially in the kitchenaid bowl!
     
Sprinkle cornmeal on your work surface and gently tip the dough onto it. Press it out with your fingers, gently, about 3/4 inch thick. Cut the dough with a 3 inch biscuit cutter or a tuna can or a glass or whatever you want. Flour before you cut each time and the only trick here is not to twist when you're cutting them out, just press straight down!  I have also formed the dough into a 9 inch square and run a pizza cutter through to make 9 square English muffins, weird but it's fast and there's no waste!  you can round the sides if you're a purist.

If you use a cutter, re-flatten the scraps to make another cutting pass and then just form the last bits into a funky, cooks treat, muffin that you'll sample, all in the name of science of course. OH and cook treats don't have any calories so worry not! 

I made mine quite small, 2 inches, but I like the crunchy edge bits when they are toasted so making them small means I have to eat 2-3 of them at a time and thus having more crunchy edge bits. Feel free to make them a more normal size, you should get 9 'normal' English muffins. *OH and yes, you can double the recipe.


Turn the muffins over so the second side is coated in corn meal and throw a tea towel over them to rest for a bit, I left mine about 20 minutes.



Heat an electric griddle to 350 and lay the muffins on it, dry!. Cook for 8-9 minutes per side. I threw them on a sheet pan and finished them in a 350 degree oven about 10 minutes to be sure they were cooked all the way through.

 

In about 8-9 minutes, they're ready to flip for another 9 minutes or so.

Pop them into the oven to finish cooking through

  

Leave them a few minutes if you can possibly stand it before you open them WITH A FORK pressed in the sides and toast them.

  

Slather thickly with cold butter and homemade jam.
EAT
 

They are crazy delicious, light, airy, toasty, crunchy, soft, chewy and quite frankly will turn you off the hermetically sealed cellophane tube of mystery muffins forever. You're welcome! OH and yes, these are going to be in my regular weekly baking rotation.

Here's just some beauty shots, no dough shots, I didn't think to grab pics till they were cut out, ooops.
 
As I said, they're light and airy and full of nooks and crannies just waiting to be toasted and filled with whatever decadent topping you desire!
 
Toasted beauties!
  
Oh, sorry, couldn't help it! you'd have done the same :) luckily there's MORE and this one screamed out for raspberry jam!! Mmmmmm

They are, like so many other things, far superior to the store bought alternative.  Take a bit of time one weekend morning, make these.  You'll be delighted!

/enjoy