Bacon Makes The World Go 'Round

Everyone loves bacon--I think vegetarians do too, just in secret. It's part of our DNA, the sequence is right there next to the "love garlic" and "love ice cream" genes. Bacon has such a unique flavor and is so versatile. It can be the star of a breakfast with eggs and toast, forefront in a BLT sandwich for lunch, speckled in a pasta for dinner, mixed into bacon cupcakes with maple syrup frosting for dessert, and even infused in a bacon bloody mary during happy hour. Now what other food can be incorporated into every single meal of the entire day? Not many, but bacon is a superstar.

I have already professed my love of brussels sprouts and here is yet another way to enjoy them. I bought a pound of them with the intention of making the usual brussels sprout hash, but after some searching on tastespotting, I thought this recipe looked interesting and it features our favorite friend bacon. The dish called for cooking up some bacon and then sautéing the brussels sprouts in the bacon fat. Toss with some chicken broth and cream, and you've got a winner. The only thing I added were some sliced shallots for a little more flavor. The dish is incredibly simple and doesn't call for many ingredients, but the finished product was way better than I could have imagined. The bacon adds just enough savory meaty flavor to pair perfect with the sweetness of the brussels sprouts. The cream makes the perfect sauce that isn't too heavy. I used orrechiette pasta because I thought the little cups looked cute, sort of mimicking the shape of the brussels sprout leaves.

This probably took be about 45 mins, start to finish. It's a great weeknight meal because it is so quick and easy and also makes great leftovers. You get your fill of brussels sprouts and bacon wrapped in a perfect dish.

Bacon and Brussels Sprouts Pasta
adapted from Taste Food

• 1 pound orrechiette pasta
• 1/2 pound bacon, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 pound brussel sprouts, trimmed and halved
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese, plus extra for garnish

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Drain; transfer to a large bowl. While the pasta is cooking, heat a skillet over medium heat. Add bacon and cook until fat is rendered and golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a plate lined with a paper towel. Remove all but one tablespoon bacon fat from skillet, reserving the rest in a dish on the side. Add brussels sprouts and saute until they start to soften. Add garlic and shallots and saute until fragrant, 1 minute. Add a few more tablespoons of the reserved bacon fat if the brussels sprouts get too dry. Add chicken stock and continue to cook until brussels sprouts are tender.  Add cream and simmer until reduced and thickened. Stir in salt and pepper. Add brussel sprouts and bacon to the pasta. Toss with cheese to combine. Serve with extra cheese on the side.

The Veggie Everyone Loves to Hate

Currently I am in the midst of board studying and to say the least, it is incredibly utterly terrible. On a better note, a couple of weeks ago, before I dove into boards world, JC and I went to the Nutrition and Health Conference in San Francisco. This is by far my favorite conference of the entire year, for obvious reasons. We heard great talks about vitamin D, soy, GMOs, the dangers of fructose, and lots of other important topics. I also saw a cooking demo with Mollie Katzen and Dr. Wendy Kohatsu and also met with Michael Pollan. The conference was absolutely amazing and I'm really hoping to be able to attend next year in Boston.

Michael Pollan and I

Appetizer at The Slanted Door

 Another highlight of the conference was that it was in San Francisco, one of my absolute favorite cities. Not only is the city tons of fun, but some of my favorite people live there too. They showed us a great time, thank you guys so much! We basically had a foodie trip around the entire city. We started with the farmer's market at the Ferry building and then did some tastings at St. George Spirits in Alameda. The next morning we had dim sum at City View restaurant--super delicious, but come with a full wallet. We made a stop at Magnolia near Haight-Ashbury for some fried pig ears washed down with a great kolsch.We also hit up an amazing Pakistani restaurant (Lahore Karahi), had great ramen (Katana-ya), udon in Japantown (Mifune), and our splurge of the trip was The Slanted Door at Embarcadero. We also had a fabulous dinner at Crustacean (Garlic Noodles!)--thanks Will! We also took a quick day trip up to Berkley to see my sister. She showed us around the campus and we were lucky enough to eat lunch at Chez Panisse and an afternoon snack of pizza at The Cheeseboard. We did an ice cream tour of the Mission stopping at Bi-rite (salted caramel and honey lavender) and Humphry Slocombe (Secret Breakfast and Vietnamese coffee). We had lunch at 'wichcraft and also coffee at Blue Bottle and Philz. But the food highlight of the trip was Izakaya Sozai. I was so excited about the food, I completely forgot to take any pictures. We had a great dinner (with great company) of ramen, tempura maitake with truffle salt, shishito peppers, takoyaki, fried oysters, tempura flounder, beef tongue yakitori, yamaimo fries, raspberry duck yakitori, tsukemono, and probably a few other dishes. It was absolutely divine. Everything was cooked to perfection. Great choice Ralph!

Lunch at Chez Panisse

 You can tell we are big foodies in this house. We also had a dinner in and had a dumpling night. We taught our wonderful hosts the art of dumpling making and made a huge mess of flour. An odd pairing, but our veggie of the night was Krista's brussels sprout hash. A word about brussels sprouts: this is definitely the veggie everyone loves to hate. I don't know where it got its terrible reputation from because it is one of my favorites. Prepared right, you can eliminate that sulfur flavor and bring out a wonderful sweet, nutty essence that goes great with just a little butter and garlic. You need to make sure you cook them long enough to release the sulfur, and then a beautiful veggie will emerge. I've been trying to convert JC to because a brussels lover like me, and this is the only brussels sprout dish he has actually enjoyed. It's so simple yet so tasty, and also great for you. Plus, it only takes about 10 minutes to prepare.

I paired the brussels sprout has with some baked salmon. The acidity of the veg goes nicely with the fish. We also had some lemon goat cheese on had that tasted great on top of the fish. Enjoy!

Krista's Brussels Sprout Hash

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 shallots, diced
• ~20 brussels sprouts, sliced from butt to head into 1/8th inch slices
• 2 Tbsp honey
•  Sea salt
• 1/2 lemon, juiced

Brown the butter with the shallots. Toss in the sliced brussels sprouts and add the honey and salt.  Cook on medium high, tossing occasionally until bright green and softened (this should take about 7-8 minutes). Turn up to high to char the bottom layer. Remove from heat and toss with lemon juice.

Kuma was sick earlier this week. Sad but so cute.