Camp Bacon at Zingerman's

This event is too good not to write about, a weekend long celebration of bacon! Zingerman's, which I also wrote about here, is bringing some of the biggest names in bacon to Ann Arbor, MI (I know, I hate Ann Arbor too - go Buckeyes!) for a weekend full of bacon festivities. Tickets for the all day bacon class are steep at $150 but I'm sure it's an experience you'll never forget. Highlights include:

• Bacon tasting with Zingerman’s co-founder Ari Weinzweig
• Bacon curing demos with Allan Benton from East Tennessee
  and Nick Spencer from Chicago
• Hands-on pancetta-making class with Herb Eckhouse
  from La Quercia in Iowa
• Camp Bacon T-Shirt!!!
• Bacon cooking demo with James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and chef Molly Stevens
• Plus breakfast and lunch from Zingerman’s, a free copy of Ari’s Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon, a free t-shirt and more!

Following the class there is also a Bacon Street Fair to raise money for the local 4-H program. A $5 donation gets you tastes of bacon from some of America’s best—Nueske’s, Benton’s, La Quercia, Ozark Mountain Trails and more, plus bacon-cheddar scones, bacon-apple coffee cake, peppered bacon farm bread and other bacon based baked goods from Zingerman’s Bakehouse; bacon based games for kids, book signings by Sarah Katherine Lewis, Molly Stevens, Ari Weinzweig and more!

I'd love to see Michael Symon, Jonathon Sawyer and some of the other chefs in the Cleveland area get together in celebration of not just bacon, but the entire pig! What do you say Michael???

Red Potatoes with Arugula (p. 163)

This post has been sitting in blogger for almost two months half written. I made this dish way back when I made the whole grilled snapper and I didn't find it to be a very exciting dish so I've been putting off finishing. I decided it was finally time to finish it off. So without further ado...Iron Chef Michael Symon's Red Potatoes with Arugula (p. 163).

Potatoes in a bed of arugula, about as artistic as I get

This is the second recipe in a row that involves few ingredients and is very quick and easy to make. You know how to boil potatoes, right? In this case simply wash a couple pounds of red potatoes, add them to a pot and cover them with warm water. As always, add kosher salt to season the water when cooking potatoes, it helps increase the flavor of the potatoes without having to over salt your final product.

Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes until they are tender, probably a little more than 30 minutes. Be careful not to over cook the potatoes or you'll end up with a messy, soft final product. The potatoes should not be crumbling or falling apart, rather they should still have a little bite to them. Once the potatoes are done, carefully drain them and let them dry. Once dry, cut the potatoes into slices around a half inch thick, or whatever your desired size is. You can also peel the potatoes if you chose, but I prefer to leave the skins on since that's where most of the nutrition is.

Simmering sauce

When the potatoes are getting close to being done, it's time to start the sauce. The sauce is a simple combination of heavy cream, Dijon mustard, and homemade chicken stock.

A quick note on chicken stock - don't buy the stuff in a can or even cardboard container at the grocery store, if you don't have time to make stock, you are better off just using water rather than stock from the grocery store. The stuff in a can at the grocery store is full of sodium and has very little taste to it. Don't believe me? Taste the stuff in a can next time you have some on hand and then compare it to water. I bet the biggest difference you'll notice is the salt. Still don't believe me? Read Michael Ruhlman's thoughts on the subject.

Combine the three ingredients in a large sauce pan (the potatoes will be added eventually) and reduce the mixture until it starts to thicken, 5 minutes or so. Once the sauce has reduced, gently mix in the potatoes, along with the butter, salt, & pepper.

Not as pretty as it looks in the book

Keep the heat up and bring the sauce up to a simmer and add the arugula, stirring gently until the arugula cooks a little and begins to wilt. Remove from the heat and serve immediately.

You've seen this picture before

Like I mentioned earlier, I served these Red Potatoes with Arugula (p. 163) along side the whole grilled snapper way back before Easter (as you can tell by the tablecloth on our table). Everyone I had over for dinner really seemed to like the potatoes but I thought they were just OK. It reminded me of a warm German potato salad, which I typically don't like. My wife makes an awesome cold potato salad in the summer. Even though I'd much rather eat her potato salad, I definitely recommend giving this dish a try if you are sick of the typical mashed or roasted potatoes. The arugula is a nice addition to the dish and helps bring some additional nutrition into your diet.

Cost

I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used. 

It cost about $5.42 to make Iron Chef Michael Symon's Red Potatoes with Arugula (p. 163).

Red potatoes - $2.42

Heavy cream - $1

Chicken Stock - $1 (I used, and recommend, homemade)

Arugula - $1

Misc (salt, Dijon mustard, butter, pepper) 

I purchased all ingredients for this recipe at Heinen's.

BBQ Smoking & Heinen's Gift Card Winner

I had my smoker working double duty today and we'll be enjoying its hard work all week.

Sweet & Spicy Smoked BBQ Pork Loin

I started with a pork loin from the pig I bought from Bluebird Meadows last fall. The loin actually had the baby back ribs still attached when it came from the butcher so I trimmed those off and was left with a beautiful roast that had a bone running through the middle. I always make my own rubs so I mixed one up with sugar (white and brown), a couple of different paprikas, "homemade" chili powder, homemade "seasoned salt", garlic, onion, allspice, cloves, and a few other spices. I generously applied the rub to all sides of the roast and put it on my Weber kettle grill at 230 degrees for 4 hours or so until the meat reached 140 degrees. After letting it rest, I sliced some of the roast and served it with grilled asparagus for dinner tonight. There will be plenty of tasty leftovers for at least another meal or two.

Chili Rubbed-Smoked Turkey Breast

We don't buy much deli meat because it's full of sodium, water, nitrates, and other stuff we try to avoid while eating. During my last trip to the Westside Market, I noticed some nice looking turkey breasts at Kaufmann Poultry that I thought would be great for some homemade lunch meat. Since I had the grill going low and slow, I decided to throw one of these on too and it couldn't have been easier to do. I used the same rub I used for the pork loin and added it to the smoker once the pork was about half done. After a couple hours it was done and I sliced it nice and thin. The meat is delicious and juicy. So much better than any turkey you can find at the grocery store and so much better for you!

Ok, enough about what I've been up to, on to the winner of the Heinen's giftcard. Random.org says.....

Lucky 24

Commenter #24, Chrissy, please email me so I can send the gift certificate to you. I will pick a new winner if I haven't heard from Chrissy in a few days.