Un-Yucked Brussels Sprouts

I'm a grown woman and still as disgusted by Brussels sprouts as any child. There are just some things that to this day remain, for lack of a better term, yucky.

But Brussels sprouts, like other vegetables, are good for you. I've been trying to find ways to make them more palatable. There are actually people who LOVE Brussels sprouts. Some of these people are ones I know and even love.
I still think they're weird.

Friends suggested sautéing with garlic, roasting, steaming...the more like-minded suggesting throwing them away. This was, by far, the best idea.

But one lone comrade introduced the idea of brown sugar and bacon. Well, duh. Bacon makes everything better! And maybe caramelizing and candying (is that a word?) these icky little vegetables was the one way to make them appealing.

It ALMOST worked. Brown sugar is delicious. Bacon is delicious. But Brussels sprouts still taste like dirt.

At least they looked pretty.

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Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

by Paulette E. Fontanez May-29-2013

Sugar and bacon can help make vegetables more palatable.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound bacon
• 1/2 pound Brussels sprouts, halved
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Instructions

1. Fry the bacon in a skillet. Remove to paper towel and allow to cool before chopping into half-inch pieces. Reserve 1 tablespoon of bacon drippings.2. In the same skillet with the bacon drippings, melt the butter over medium heat. Sauté the sprouts until the edges begin to blacken.3. Add in the brown sugar and chopped bacon. Mix to coat evenly. Remove from heat as soon as sugar melts completely. Serve warm.

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 25 mins Yield: 2 servings

Girl+Fire Turns 3!

Three years ago, after being laid up from foot surgery, I came up with the crazy idea to start a blog. And fiery orange one at that.

Three years later, my foot works again. And Girl+Fire is still burning orange. Somewhere along the way, I even learned to cook!

The way I've celebrated this milestone the last two years was to compile a top five list. When going through the posts from the last year, I noticed a distinct trend: alcohol.

Well, I've never been shy about my love for certain spirits. And what better way to commemorate a third anniversary than to pull out the best alcohol-laden posts? Because it's not a celebration without a good drinky-drink!

5. The only non-alcoholic item on this list is the Semi-Raw Kale Experiment. One should blog responsibly, after all. And eat your greens!

4. And then we delve right in to the whiskey posts with Lemon Whiskey Apple Butter. The best way to enjoy a comfort food like homemade applesauce is to cook in some whiskey while making it.

3. Then came the making of Red Wine Sangria. I've since made this for several parties and it always disappears. We'll call that a win.

2. But we always return to whiskey, especially when paired with bacon! The Bacon Whiskey Milkshake was really the best way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

1. Hands down, my favorite meal all year long was the Fluffy Homemade Spiced Pancakes. Made for grown men and young children, they have all become fans of the pancakes. Of course, these pancakes are even more excellent when paired with a lovely champagne. Which is what I actually put in them when making up a batch this last weekend. Champagne pancakes. It's one of the best things about being an adult. And this here blog!

Thanks to all the fans and readers for the last three years. A toast to all of you!

Bacon Edamame à la Française

I've been stuck at home watching a lot of tv recently, since my immune system decided to take a vacation. Daytime tv is horrible, so I usually stick to the Food Network and Cooking Channel.

I caught an episode of French Cooking at Home and watched Laura Calder melt a HUGE portion of butter, fry pearl onions in it, and THEN add bacon to it. I was totally on in love with the idea...until she started shelling peas.

Peas irritate me. I don't know what it is about them that bothers me so much, but I don't like them. So I knew I wasn't going to follow this recipe exactly, but I didn't know what to use instead.

And then I remembered there was edamame in my freezer. And despite all the warnings about genetically-modified soy, and soy consumption tied to cancers, I do occasionally indulge in some. It's rare, because I don't want to die (that's why I eat quinoa). But it was the perfect replacement for this exceptionally rich dish.

Obviously with this much butter AND bacon, you eat this sparingly. After you defrost the beans, of course.

The original recipe called for an entire pound (2 cups) of peas. That's a LOT of peas. I decided half a pound of soybeans was sufficient and there was a good balance of beans to everything else. Despite my abhorrence of peas, I do so love bacon. And pearl onions (usually in my martinis, but fried up is good too). Throw in a bunch of lettuce so as not to completely clog your arteries and you're in business.

If you've never peeled pearl onions, all you have to do is boil them for a few minutes and the skins will come right off. Then drop them in butter, and once they're lovely and brown, toss in the bacon. The smell will overwhelm you. It's fantastic.

It's okay to scale back on the butter, if you're really afraid of saturated animal fat. I used half the listed amount and it was just fine. You might also want to be careful about how much salt you use. The bacon will add a good amount, so low-sodium chicken broth is a good bet.

In the end my taste testers (aka mom & dad) loved it. I found it intoxicating, from the aroma while it cooked, to the warm wilted lettuce and plump soybeans in my mouth.

I'm not clear on what makes this à la Française (read: French)...maybe it's the obscene amount of butter? The fact that Laura Calder has a delightful accent? I don't know. Suffice to say it's good food. Just eat it.

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Bacon Edamame à la Française

by Paulette Fontanez November-7-2012

Adapted from Petit Pois à la Française

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 16 pearl onions, peeled and halved
• 4 slices bacon
• 1/2 pound soybeans, shelled
• 1/2 cup low sodium chicken stock
• 2 cups red leaf lettuce, shredded

Instructions

1. Melt butter in a frying pan and add the onions. Cook on medium heat until the onions begin to brown. Brown food tastes good.2. While the onions are frying, cut the bacon strips into small pieces (sometimes called lardons). When the onions have browned, add the bacon and cook until crispy. 3. Add the soybeans and chicken stock. Cover and cook until tender.4. Add the lettuce, stir, and cook covered until just wilted (about 1 minute).5. Serve warm.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 10 mins Total time: 20 mins Yield: 4 servings

Quicky Appetizer: Bacon-Wrapped Goat Cheese-Stuffed Dates

It will take you longer to say the name of this appetizer than it will to either make them or eat them all.

I had these recently at a friend's party, and that reminded me of a little snack I'd made at home a few weeks prior. She had stuffed hers with blue cheese, which I usually don't care for (yes, there are some cheeses I don't like), but when paired with salty bacon and sweet dates, it somehow just worked.

And that's another benefit of these delicious little bites: you can stuff them with anything. Don't fancy cheese? I don't understand what that means, but stuff it with mango instead. Don't eat bacon? Wrap these in...ha, funny! Ok, fine I do understand that some people don't eat bacon. Don't wrap them. Dip them in chocolate instead.

Ooh, something new to try...

Don't like dates? Use figs instead. Or jalapeños.

I told you: so many possibilities.

Each pitted date uses one-half of a slice of bacon. Stuff with a small bit of cheese, wrap the bacon around,  and bake on a lined sheet for 15-20 minutes (until bacon reaches the crispiness you desire) at 350 degrees F. 

Let them cool lest you burn your tongue.

It takes longer to say the name than to write the recipe. Enjoy.

Bacon Whiskey Milkshake

This experiment started just before St. Patrick's Day, when I found a home recipe for the infamous McDonald's Shamrock Shake. I made it, switching out Oreos for Thin Mints (it was Girl Scout cookie season, after all). Then I drank it and immediately remembered that I don't like Thin Mints, or mint chocolate chip ice cream. But I do like whiskey.

And bacon.

So I tried again, this time adding a whiskey caramel sauce. A bacon-infused whiskey caramel sauce.

Because there is ALWAYS bacon scotch on hand in this house...until there wasn't! Turns out I'd used it all in the doomed Thin Mint Shake and hadn't replaced it. So I ran to the store for some good ol' fashioned Kentucky bourbon and made me up some more. 

And decided that, while I was at it, might as well switch up the ice cream from plain vanilla to something less bland. Something like pralines and cream ice cream. Because pralines and bourbon marry so nicely. They're both southern comforts.

And got it right. So very right. The whiskey caramel recipe came from Hispanic Kitchen. I'm going to need to try the Coconut Upside Down Cake it's paired with. Mmm, coconut. Also, whiskey + bacon + caramel = mmmm.

The whole recipe yields about 4 large/6 smaller shakes. But if you want to make a single serving, simply take two large scoops of ice cream mixed with 1-4 ounces of milk (depending how thick you want it) and add a shot of whiskey. Drink.

If you're making this for kids, simply omit the whiskey and make up the missing liquid in milk. Simple virgin milkshakes! That you can still top with whipped cream and bacon.

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Bacon Whiskey Milkshake

by Paulette Fontanez April-10-2012

Play with the ratio of milk to whiskey depending on how thick you like your shakes. For super potent shakes, omit the milk and use a 1/2 cup of whiskey instead.

Ingredients

• 1 48-ounce container of pralines & cream ice cream
• 1/4 cup bacon-infused whiskey
• 1/4 cup milk
• whipped cream
• whiskey caramel sauce
• crumbled bacon

Instructions

1. Blend the ice cream and whiskey/milk together until smooth.2. Pour into glasses, topping with whipped cream, caramel sauce and crumbled bacon.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Girl+Fire Turns 1 With A Top 5

Today is the day marked in all the Girl+Fire calendars as the day this site was born!

It's been a lovely year of experimentation in the kitchen, learning the ins and outs of food photography (an ongoing process), how to style food, and getting to hob nob with some of the coolest food bloggers in Los Angeles, the FBLA.

I'd like to thank all the readers and Facebook fans for your support, and hope to give you more and more good stuff!

To start, how about a retrospective? Here are the Top 5 Moments in G+F First Year:

5. Surviving the first Chopped-Inspired Dinner. Luckily the gathered friends and family made it easy. And we now have a running joke about Kevin Bacon and shrimp shakes (see the video here).

4. Learning the very simple art of canning! This was so much fun, and completely cured me of my fear canning. Which then led to my next favorite blogger moment...

3. Making sweet and spicy poblano jam. What happens when you add blueberries to jalapeños and poblano peppers? DELICIOSITY. It's a new word. I loved this jam so much, it's one of the few G+F recipes you'll see on both the blog and the calendar.

2. Meeting Chef Aarón Sanchez on my mom's birthday. He is such an incredibly nice guy, and we had the greatest time that evening.

1. The absolute highlight of the year, however, was being voted top pizza among the gathered food bloggers at Rosti Tuscan Kitchen last April. Getting to meet everyone who's blogs I'd been lurking on, and then having them pick my pizza was mind blowing.

There are, of course, plenty of other memorable moments. Finally getting to meet Oakley at the OC Foodie Fest AND learning her bacon scotch recipe—which was later featured on BaconScotch.com!!—are just two of the many.

Thank you all again. It's been hectic, heartbreaking, and wonderful all rolled into one!

Wordless Wednesday: Teeny Glass of Bacon Whiskey at Boneyard Bistro

Chopped-Inspired Dinner Party

Chopped is a Food Network show that pits 4 cheftestants against each other and a basket of mystery ingredients. I watch the show to take notes on the different ways the chefs prepare their various ingredients. Some of the baskets confound even the judges (one of whom is Aaron Sanchez, who we partied with on Quatro de Mayo). That's when you know it's good.

So fascinated have I been by the idea of "mystery ingredients" that I decided to host my own dinner party styled after the show. I've finally gotten comfortable enough in the kitchen that I think I can whip up something on the fly. Thankfully my guests didn't make it too hard on me.

Erik, Katie & Adrienne

The instructions to them were simple: each would bring either a protein, fruit/vegetable, and wild card item, and my only restriction would be that the wild card be gluten-free. The Chopped chefs only get 30 minutes to make an entree, but I told them I was giving myself an hour just to be safe. Adrienne arrived first with a bag of cooked baby shrimp. I had expected seafood, so I was relieved. Up next was Katie with herbed goat cheese and a polenta loaf. Finally my brother Erik arrived with oranges.

The goat cheese was camera shy.

My very first reaction to the oranges is not appropriate for young eyes. Suffice to say I panicked for a half-second.

While I loaded them up on wine, cheese, and strawberry jellies, I set to work in the kitchen. Inspiration came from the buns I had anticipated using if ground meat had come through the door (hey, even burgers can be sexy!). I grabbed my favorite kitchen tool (the mini chopper attachment on my stick blender) and set to blending the shrimp, goat cheese and orange zest together. I didn't know what it would taste like, but it sounded like a good idea. My brother wandered in at that point to shoot some video and ask if we were having shrimp shakes. He was slightly disappointed when I said no.

Appetizers

At first I thought I'd make shrimp pâté burgers with the polenta rounds as the bread. Then I thought about doing Napoleons. But something was missing. We had yellow bases topped with orangey-pink goop. It needed greenery. And bacon, because everything is good with bacon. So out of the fridge came the bacon and a bag of spinach. Bacon fried up and then the spinach sautéed nicely in its drippings.

Finally it was time to plate. A diced Roma tomato added the final touch.

I waited cautiously for everyone's reactions. My brother was the first to speak up, saying he thought the orange zest added a really good, interesting flavor. The girls agreed and we all dug in with gusto. Erik went on to eat four Napoleons. So at the very least I know he really liked them.

It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again. Maybe will become the new Saturday Night Test Kitchen! (As I was writing this, I realized that Napoleons are supposed to be stacks of repeated layers, and these weren't exactly that. But that's why artistic license exists, right?)

Polenta & Shrimp Pâté Napoleons
yields approximately 5 servings

1 pound of cooked baby shrimp (250-350 per pound)
3 ounces of fine herb goat cheese
1 tablespoon of orange zest
1 pre-made polenta tube
1 tablespoon of sunflower oil
8 pieces of bacon
1 six-ounce bag of baby spinach
1 roma tomato, diced

1. In a food processor, blend together the shrimp, goat cheese and orange zest. Pose for pictures.

2. Cut polenta into 1/4-inch rounds and sauté in the sunflower oil until a slight crust develops on both sides.

2a. Answer questions for the camera man when he wanders in asking about shrimp shakes. Give him more wine.

3. While the polenta is sautéing, cut the bacon in half cross-wise and fry in a separate pan. Remove to a dish lined with paper towels and reserve the pan drippings. Wilt the spinach in the drippings. Sauté just until the leaves wilt and turn slightly dark.

4. To serve, place the polenta in the center of the dish. Top it with the paté, spinach, a slice of bacon (or cut in half again to make the decorating process easier). Add a couple pieces of chopped tomato and serve.

5. Drink more wine.

My brother's funny little video of the night is available on our new Facebook page. Click here to Like Girl+Fire and watch a two and half minute recount of our Chopped-inspired night (Kevin Bacon may or may not make a cameo in the video...).

Poll: Bacon - Crispy vs. Chewy

How do you like your bacon?

Bacon-Infused Scotch

Bacon is all the rage, some might even say it's passé. Being a staple of morning dining across this country, I scoff at that notion. Bacon is here to stay.

I'll eat bacon in just about anything. My friend Oakley, knowing about my love for both bacon and scotch, mentioned she was making bacon bourbon after our volunteering stint at the OC Foodie Fest. I'd never heard of such a thing but it sounded fantastic. Bacon-flavored alcohol! The problem is, I don't keep bourbon in the house. I wouldn't even know what a decent bourbon tastes like (a visit to Kentucky will need to be had). But I do love its foreign cousin scotch. So much so that friends have taken it upon themselves to gift me random bottles for birthdays. These are the types of gifts you must accept graciously and politely.

But finally, I found a remedy for the glut of harsh spirits haunting my liquor cabinet: bacon! There was one particularly rough scotch that a well-meaning man brought to me on a first date many years ago. Sitting on the shelf for a few additional years had done nothing to mellow its punch. So it was the perfect test.

Oakley's recipe was simple: add bacon fat to a bottle of liquor, let sit, freeze, then fish the fat out a day later. The result was a much smoother, less harsh alcohol.

I wouldn't try this with the higher-end scotch. You don't mess with a good thing. But it's a great recipe for the more run-of-the-mill varieties.

Bacon-Infused Scotch

3-4 strips fatty bacon
1 tablespoon freshly rendered bacon fat
1 bottle of scotch

1. Fry up the bacon. Save a tablespoon of bacon fat. Eat the bacon. (If 3-4 strips doesn't give you a full tablespoon, fry some more!)

2. Pour the scotch into a clean, wide-mouth container. You don't want to put the bacon fat in the alcohol's original bottle because some might get stuck in there, which leads to floating fat globules and that's not pretty.

3. Let the mixture marinate overnight.

4. The next morning, stash the mixture in the freezer. Scotch doesn't freeze, but the fat will. After a few hours, the fat will be solid, making it very easy to fish out. Even easier if you used a wide-mouth container.

5. Strain the alcohol back into its original bottle.

Your scotch is now ready to drink. Mmm.

Pan-Fried Bacon-Wrapped Enoki

I had a hankering for spring rolls the other day so I visited my local Japanese market for supplies. And that is where I spied these very interesting little mushrooms. Enoki mushrooms are delicate, long white mushrooms with tiny little caps for heads, and are packaged in bundles. They're great raw. Throw them in a salad. They're an wonderful alternative to sprouts, which always taste like dirt to me (enoki do not taste like dirt).

And while the raw preparation is fine, fried isn't half bad. At all. I learned that when I put them in the spring rolls (which promptly exploded—apparently I didn't wrap them tightly enough). And then, of course, there's the no brainer: wrapped in bacon.

Do a search for bacon-wrapped enoki and you'll mostly find oven baked recipes. And while I'm sure that's fine and dandy, I had no desire to a) turn on the oven in the middle of the summer (despite the very cool temps we've been enjoying in LA), or b) wait the requisite 15-20 minutes for my food to be ready. So I pan-fried instead.

I rushed the cooking because, quite simply, I was hungry. And I had 30 minutes before a conference call, so the quicker the bacon fried up, the better. That's why everything looks a bit over-charred in this picture. But it still tasted like bacon heaven, so I cannot complain.

Pan-Fried Bacon-Wrapped Enoki
Yields 8 pieces

1 package enoki mushrooms
4 pieces of bacon, cut in half

1. Cut the dirty tail end of the mushrooms off. Separate into 8 smaller bundles.

2. Wrap a half-piece of bacon around each bundle. Secure with toothpicks.

3. Place in a skillet on medium heat. Cook until bacon is crispy all the way around.

4. Drain on paper towels until cool. Serve immediately.