Bacon-Topped Cornbread with Chiles and Cheese

I get hungry just by looking at the name of this dish. I mean, goodness, what isn't there to love? I feel this should be part of my ongoing series of why "Everything's better with bacon". Because it clearly is.

There's no denying cornbread is an American staple. Humble and easy to make, it goes with just about anything. Drizzle honey over it and make it sweet. Chop up some bacon (as we see above) and make it savory. It's hard to go wrong with cornbread.

But strangely, cornbread is still a foreign entity to most Brits. Baked in a skillet, there's something fantastically "frontier-y" about it. There are about 8 million recipes for cornbread online and debates as to how to make it properly can be fierce. While cornbread seems to span the length and breadth of America, you can be judged instantly on where you're from depending on how you make it. Now, I don't have a secret family recipe for it (clearly, as I'm posting this online) but this one, slightly modified from this version via epicurious is tasty as any I've had and fairly easy to make. Judging from the bacon added, I'm thinking this recipe must have Southern origins, but I like to think that I added a bit of southwestern flair to it. Hey, you have to represent local pride somehow. Anyway, I added chiles and Parmesan cheese to the mix, but as I said above, cornbread is forgiving enough to add pretty much anything to.

I also may have forgotten to stir the corn into the mix, accidentally making it a topping. I ended up liking the result, but by all means, stir into the batter before baking. 

Ingredients

6 thick-cut bacon slices

1 cup medium-grind cornmeal

1  cup all purpose flour

2 tablespoons golden brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups whole milk

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons honey or agave syrup

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 cup frozen corn kernels (unthawed)

Optional: 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan, 2 jalapeno chiles (sliced)

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F.

The batter prior to baking.

Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Reserve 2 tablespoons drippings from skillet.

Crumble bacon into small pieces.

Coat 12-inch diameter ovenproof skillet (I used the same as I fried the bacon in. It makes it an easy one-dish preparation) with bacon drippings.

Whisk cornmeal and next 4 ingredients in large bowl. Whisk milk, eggs, honey, and butter in medium bowl. Stir milk mixture into dry ingredients.

Mix in corn (or reserve to place on top), cheese, and chiles. 

Place prepared skillet in oven until very hot, about 10 minutes. Pour batter into skillet.

Sprinkle bacon (and corn, if using) over.

Bake cornbread until golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

Cool in skillet at least 30 minutes.

Spinach Soup with Bacon and Thyme Croutons

My culinary life has had a bit of an upset recently. Mark Bittman, master of the minimalist cooking approach, has hung up his apron strings at the New York Times. His recipes were a source of many a weeknight dinner for me and his blog will be much missed. This doesn't mean that the Bittster is gone forever, however, he has resurfaced already with a brand new blog about...well...cooking. The point of the blog is still a bit beyond me, but as far as I can gather, he's now writing about simple hearty recipes that you can make easily. Which sounds...remarkably like his earlier blog, but never you mind. I feature here one of his newest creations (or rather recommendations). His entire entry on soup claims to show you the last four recipes you'll ever need for soup. I tend to disagree but regardless, his first item on the list, a spinach and yogurt soup is simply marvelous.

Well, marvelous if you put bacon in it. Which arguably makes everything better. The soup is ridiculously easy to make and wonderful for those late winter nights where there's still a bite in the air but you can tell spring is just beyond the horizon. When you add these croutons to it, well, here's to Bittman and here's to soup.

Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3 cups water
2 tomatoes, diced
1 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp achiote powder (or chili powder)
12 ounces spinach
1/2 cup parsley, chopped 
1 1/2 cups greek yogurt
3 slices bacon, cooked and chopped into bite size pieces.
salt and pepper 
Thyme croutons (see recipe below)


Method
Put 1 chopped onion, garlic cloves, spices, 3 cups water, and salt and pepper in a pot over high heat.

Boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer until the onion is tender, about 10 minutes.

Add chopped spinach, tomatoes, oil, and parsley leaves; cook until the spinach is tender, 2 to 3 minutes.

Add Greek-style yogurt and purée. Stir in bacon pieces.

Garnish: A spoonful of Greek-style yogurt and chopped parsley and some thyme croutons

For croutons:
Tear up day-old bread into small bite size chunks. Douse with olive oil and a sprinkling of thyme. Put under grill/broiler under golden (c. 3-4 minutes).

Sweet Potato Hash with Corned Beef and Bacon with Melted Onions

How to describe the oddity that is hash? It's not really a dish, per se, more of a conglomeration of various products. Most hash resembles something that you'd find on a standard American breakfast plate: potatoes, meat, and usually an egg or two. Onions are usually added to give the whole thing some flavor, but honestly, it's among the more basic items on any menu. My father even swears that at one point (and I have no proof of this except his word) they sold it out of a can. Now I'm not sure how that would be possible (although science usually has a way of finding ways round these kind of obstacles), but there you go. So basic, you can find it in a can.

Like the humble pie, hash apparently is experiencing a resurgence in popularity in restaurants across the US. Instead of your basic potatoes, bacon, and eggs, you can now find all sorts of upscale variations of this dish, depending on your taste. In the Mission District in San Francisco, I was able to try some tongue and potato hash which, I have to confess, was absolutely delicious. Thank you, Hog and Rocks. And yes, their specialties were pig and oysters. Anyone surprised?

Regardless, hash is easy enough for anyone to cook but allows for endless variations. This particular recipe (as usual, found in the New York Times) originally called for just bacon, but in my mind, corned beef should never be turned down as a possible meat alternative. And, thanks to the wonders of science yet again, they now have corned beef available pre-cooked. Just heat and serve! This was clearly a win. The sweet potatoes were also a great substitution. I used white sweet potatoes to add just a bit more starchiness rather than yam-iness (?) to the dish. And it was a good decision.

No matter how you eat your hash or serve this recipe, do NOT neglect the onions. Yes, they take a bit of time. But mostly they're sitting in a pot, soaking in their own juices. And with a stick of butter melting into them, they are deliciously bad for you. Try to say no to them. Just try.

Now the bizarre white thing in the photo above is a poached egg. I know. It doesn't look right. I used one of those new-fangled "egg poaching cups" that swears it will make egg poaching the easiest thing ever. Well, it IS easier, but it doesn't make it any prettier. Your eggs come out looking rather like baked polenta. Well, at least according to my mother. But still soft and runny and delicious, so I still have to advocate the poacher if the old-school method is a bit daunting (as it is for me).

Ingredients

8 cups sliced onions (3 large ones)

Kosher salt

1 bay leaf

4 sprigs thyme

10 black peppercorns

1 garlic clove, smashed and peeled

1 stick unsalted butter, in 8 pieces

12 ounces corned beef

3 ounces best-quality bacon, sliced about 1/2-inch thick

3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled, cooked (boiled, roasted or microwaved) and diced

1 tablespoon minced chives

Poached or sunny-side-up eggs, for serving (optional).

Method

Put onions in a large skillet, place over medium-low heat, and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook, uncovered, reducing the heat to maintain a low simmer, about 20 minutes, until onions are soft and swimming in liquid.

Tie the bay leaf, 3 sprigs thyme, peppercorns and garlic in a piece of cheesecloth (I just added them to the pot. Forget the cheesecloth). Add to onions along with butter, stir and cover (not too tightly, some steam should be allowed to escape). Cook slowly 30 to 35 minutes, until onions are meltingly tender and coated in butter. The mixture should look creamy at all times: if butter separates or if pan looks dry, stir in cold water 1 teaspoon at a time. Season to taste with salt. (Onions can be made up to 3 days in advance and refrigerated.)

Cut bacon crosswise into thick matchsticks. Pour 2 tablespoons water into a medium saucepan and set over medium heat. Add bacon, reduce heat to low, and cook for 30 minutes. Bacon will render its fat and become golden, but not completely crisp. Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels. Pour off excess fat from pan, leaving a thick film on bottom to cook hash; reserve the extra fat. Add the corned beef to the pan to warm it (you don't need to heat it for long).

Heat oven to 200 degrees. Spread half of potatoes in pan, sprinkle with salt and add half the leaves of the remaining sprig of thyme. Cook undisturbed, over medium-low heat, until crisp, about 5 minutes. Add 1/2 cup melted onions and a quarter of the bacon  and the corned beef, and gently fold together until heated through. Transfer to an ovenproof serving bowl and keep warm. Repeat with remaining potatoes, a quarter of the bacon and corned beef, another 1/2 cup onions (refrigerate leftover onions; they make a great sauce for fish) and remaining thyme leaves. Sprinkle hash with chives (if using) and remaining bacon and corned beef. Serve hot, topped with eggs if desired.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.