It's BACON!!

[patgund]

A night in hog heaven with the Bacon Club

"Nicholson hosts the Bacon Club in her Mission Hill apartment. It's a simple place on the first floor of a triple-decker, with a modest kitchen lit by a makeshift Christmas-light chandelier. A small, friendly, and slightly ramshackle screened-in porch overlooks a backyard full of grape vines.

That's where Nicholson found the leaves for her bacon dolmas. She blanched the leaves and pickled them for a week before stuffing them to bursting with brown rice and bacon. Savory and tart, they are served in a deep bath of rich olive oil and fresh lemon juice.

Almost everything on the table is finger food and going fast - bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with toasted almonds, and bacon-wrapped bananas roasted with curry powder and brown sugar. The bananas are spicy, smoky, sweet, tender, and crisp in the same remarkable mouthful. Hummus with bacon and green and black olives, spread on crostini, is being scooped up quickly by the 10 participants."

Bonus - Recipe of the Day!

Almond-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon

Makes 15

15 dates, pitted
15 whole almonds
5 strips bacon

1. Turn on the broiler. Set a rack on a broiling pan.

2. Cut the bacon strips into thirds. Stuff one almond into each date. Wrap a piece of bacon around each one.

3. Broil the dates for 10 to 12 minutes, turning once, until the bacon is evenly browned. - Karrie-Anne Toews

Comments

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

That's a version of what's called "Devils On Horseback," the cheapass version of "Angels on Horseback" which is freshly shucked oysters, likewise wrapped in bacon and broild or grilled. Devils can be stuffed dates, stuffed prunes or chunks of liver.

I want the bacon dolmas recipe, my parents' grape vines still have leaves but probably not for long!

[solcita.livejournal.com]

The recipe I have for Bacon-Wrapped Dates (with Chevre) comes from Veritable Quandary restaurant in Portland (a place I highly recommend, by the way). VQ also drizzles a balsamic reduction on top, which is excellent.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Goat cheese and balsamic vinegar. Eyeroll. That is excruciatingly dated. On the other paw, it's probably tasty.

[solcita.livejournal.com]

Don't knock it 'til you've tried it, is my motto. =)

[ophy.livejournal.com]

It may be dated, but I'm still buying...

[mistresshuette.livejournal.com]

What can be more dated than dates?

[ophy.livejournal.com]

Screw the dates (who can't figure *those* out?) I want the recipe for the bananas.... OMGZ, I'm going to have to mess with that....

I'd leave out the curry (just not my thing) but man, oh man.... just barely ripe bananas, wrapped with some smokey bacon (skewered with a toothpick to hold it on) rolled in a mixure of brown sugar, saigon cinnamon, fresh nutmeg, a wee pinch of cayanne, and a dash of cumin before roasting to crispy goodness.

Oh lord. I'm gonna have to do this. And SOON.