Everything’s better with Bacon Bacon Bacon. And Teatime Catering
I don’t know about you, but I am REALLY sick of winter at this point in time. Early February on a Friday morning in Washington DC, and it’s barely out of the single digits. Very little catering going on. Time to fantasize about something majorly yummy. Something epic. Farmer’s Market Tomatoes. Oh, Yeah!
It usually takes about June before we see those amazing little golden and/or red orbs in the Northern Virginia Farmer’s Markets. Tuesday. 2-6P right down the road. The golden ones are my favorite, they taste like candy. Buy two boxes, leave one on the counter and eat it throughout the afternoon, set the other in the fridge. I know, I know, you aren’t ever supposed to put ripe tomatoes in the fridge, it changes the flavor and texture, but on a hot day nothing beats a chilled bite from one of these babies.
So, how could we possible guild the lily? Bacon.
There was a recipe earlier in the year in the Washington Post Food Section for Tomato-Bacon Jam, and I played around a bit until it became a Teatime recipe. (You can search out past recipes at www.washingtonpost.com/recipes
Now I know it’s the dead of winter and we cannot obtain the prized Orbs, but I have found some pretty impressive offerings at Wegman’s www.wegmans.com
They have a “brown” tomato that has a lovely full tomato flavor and can be substituted, although there will be more liquid and hence more time required to cook out the liquid.
Ingredients:
1/2 lb bacon
1 sweet onion, chopped
2+ cups of (ideally) Farmer’s Market Grape Tomatos
1 tsp Smoked Paprika
pinch Cayenne Pepper
2 TB light brown sugar
pinch dry mustard
1 tb apple cider vinegar
Fry or bake the bacon until crisp, remove from skillet and drain. Leave 2 TB of bacon grease in pan. Add onion and cook 5-8 minutes till slightly softened. Add tomatoes and crumbled bacon and remaining ingredients. Once bubbling, reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes periodically stirring until thick. Quality control throughout is a necessity. Adding salt optional, depends on the brand of bacon.
I can personally testify this tastes ridiculously fabulous on top of ANYTHING. Room temperature is the best, but hot or cold or warm, it is righteous. So, lets just amp up the gild factor and pair it with MORE bacon…
Take your favorite biscuit recipe, heck it can be a batch from a box of Bisquick! Add 1/4 lb cooked and crumbled bacon, 1 cup mashed sweet potatoes. It will be a softer dough than regular biscuits because of the sweet potato, so you can adjust by cutting back slightly on the other liquids. As with any biscuit, the less you handle the dough, the more tender the final product. I use a very small biscuit cutter, not much more than 1 1/2 inch, so these are one or two bite delights. Bake the same as you would a regular biscuit, just for less time (425 for 7 minutes) and while still hot, brush with melted butter. NOT melted margarine. Butter. There is no substitute here people. These aren’t vegetarian.
Now, spread a little of the jam on a warm biscuit.
You’re Welcome.