Bacon directly from the freezer can be diced into lardons that get sautéed for salads, pasta, or pizza. The frozen bacon only needs to soften just enough so that you can cut off the desired amount with a chef’s knife. Pop the rest of the package back in the freezer.
The lardons are especially nice sautéed with orrechiette pasta, arugula, and peanuts (use the pasta cooking water and a bit of olive oil to emulsify into a light sauce). The idea is that the lardons and peanuts are small enough to nest within the hollows of the orrechiette. Squeeze of lemon at the end if you have it to brighten the dish, and grated cheese such as Parm or Romano at the table. The amount of bacon you use for this is a matter of your preference (dish as taught to me uses speck but I sometimes substitute bacon). Could also sub green peas for the peanuts.
I made chicken fried rice this week. Sunshine always complained about the fried rice (from the restaurant up the street); she said it was too oily. I’m careful about the amount of oil I use.
For me, I make the rice the day before and dry it out in the fridge. I do fluff it & break up any chunks of rice during that 24 hours, prior to use. I also cooked the chicken (separately) and shredded it prior to adding it.
I make enough for two days, so its worth the effort.
I recently fried a bunch of bacon, and stored it in the freezer to keep people from eating from in the fridge. It worked out great for portion control. I added a strip or 2 of frozen already cooked bacon to the skillet while frying an egg, and it was warm by the time the egg was cooked.
You have worked out a method! Sounds good. I still need to work on my fried rice skills. I did make a good one using a Woks of Life recipe for crab fried rice. I will check to see if Woks of Life also has a bacon fried rice recipe posted.
Here it is:
Interestingly, my friend in high school who used to order bacon fried rice, currently runs her family’s Michelin-starred restaurant in Hong Kong.
4 Likes
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
25
In my experience it’s taken only minutes until my knife can cut knife safely through the bacon. So that main chunk of bacon never actually thaws. Would that pose a problem I’m not aware of?
Also, making your own bacon jam uses up a LOT of bacon. I prefer recipes that are more meat and less sugar, but there are a million variations out there. Here’s mine:
2 pounds bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, diced
1 chipotle in adobo, chopped, plus 1 T. adobo sauce
2 t. chile powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 T. cocoa powder
1 cup of brewed coffee
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 T. maple syrup
In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until the fat is rendered, but the bacon is not too crisp. Remove bacon from skillet and drain most of the fat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and saute until onion is translucent. Add garlic and saute a minute more. Add the dry spices and saute a minute more.
Add the bacon, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup and coffee. Simmer on low for approximately two hours, until bacon is very tender, stirring occasionally. If jam starts to get dry, add small amounts of water as necessary. Near the end of the cooking time, allow the mixture to become fairly dry.
Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Place cooled bacon jam into a food processor, and pulse until the jam becomes a coarse paste. Adjust seasoning as desired. Store in the fridge or freezer (do not can).
6 Likes
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
38
Nice recipes! My peeps and I are mainly mutts, but mostly identify as Lugan (no offense to any who don’t like that term, but that’s what I grew up self-identifying with because of my dad/uncles said that’s what we were).
And we were also often called “Hunkies”, although that one was more about our area of the town ("North-end Hunkies’) and not specific to us as Lithuanians.
1 Like
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
39
OH MY, this sounds fantastic. I’ve never even thought about stuff like this.
2 Likes
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
40
I wouldn’t worry at all about this. It probably never hits 40°F overall, or even if it does, it’s only for a few minutes.
Thinking through this, the issue is having foods at over 40°F and less than 140°F for more than a couple of hours.
Partially thawing so as to be able to cut, and then refreezing soon after, is unlikely (IMO, extremely unlikely), to cause a problem.
Even if you did it serially, for example, to cut a 1 pound package 8 times at 2 oz each. As long as you don’t start to approach the 2 hour total time above 40 degrees.
