Need a great recipe using bacon or avocado

[CaliPoutine]

Im participating in an Iron Chef challenge with Bacon and Avocado. The recipe doesnt need to contain both. For bacon, it has to be nitrate free. It can also be ham, canadian bacon, etc.

For the avocado, it cant be guacamole, unless that is the topping.

They would like the dish to contain at least 1 vegetable.

I think someone is making an avocado ice cream so I dont want to do that.

What do you have?

[Alex]

Chilled avocado, tomatillo, and cucumber soup, or some variation thereof.

To keep it simple, a cold tomato-watermelon-mint soup--the one I made at the Chicago Heartland Gathering--garnished with chopped avocado and fleur de sel.

Edited March 21, 2011 by Alex (log)

[SobaAddict70]

Salade Lyonnaise.

[CaliPoutine]

We cant make a salad with bacon sprinkled on top. That doesnt count.

[Lisa Shock]

I sometimes chop up avocado and heat it up with a little lemon/lime juice, diced seeded green chiles, salt and garlic and use it as a hot pasta sauce.

[Borgstrom]

I had a great appetizer at Zero Zero in San Francisco a few weeks back with avocado. As I recall:

• Very thin slice of avocado on bottom, about 1" x 2"
  
• Very thin slice of hamachi (yellowtail) on top of avocado
  
• Drizzle of olive oil (?)
  
• Sea salt
  
• Small piece of a supreme of grapefruit on top
  

Very simple, but surprisingly good.

[Ashen]

How about a BLAT.. Bacon , lettuce, avocado , tomato sandwich.

doing such a simple thing ,it will all revolve around getting the best ingredients you can find.

you could up the factor by making your own bread and mayo .

A simple rosemary and gray sea salt foccacia made with pizza dough could be fast and delicous .

[FoodMuse]

Bacon chicken chili. A white chili with bacon stirred in. Crisp the bacon and use that fat as the base for sauteing chili ingredients.

Avocado and Ahi Tuna Poke with a little chipotle. Kind of a Tex Mex Twist on a Hawaiian staple. Lime juice, little soy sauce, cilantro..

I haven't made either, but I think the flavors could be interesting.

Good Luck!

[SobaAddict70]

We cant make a salad with bacon sprinkled on top. That doesnt count.

Well you didn't say that originally.

Spaghetti amatriciana is a possibility. Tomatoes, bacon (guanciale if you want to be technical) and pecorino.

Recipe here: http://spamwise.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/in-the-style-of-amatrice/

Edited March 21, 2011 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[Corinna]

The combination of avocado and grapefruit has real possibility. Pretty on the plate and surprising/pleasing in the mouth.

The recipe for this salsa came from Splendid Table, but it looks like they have taken it down. Basically, avocado, grapefruit supremes, red onion, jalapeño, cilantro. It was delicious with shrimp!

Edited March 21, 2011 by Corinna (log)

[LindaK]

The Paris restaurant L'Astrance had (has?) a celebrated item on its menu: avocado-crab ravioli, in which thin slices of avocado served as the "pasta" a little nut oil and citrus to finish. It was brilliant, and much discussed in the L'Astrance topic.

In that same vein, James Beard has a recipe for Avocado Pasta in his book "Beard on Pasta." I've never made it but it's always stuck in my head--it sounds luscious and would be an interesting and versatile base for a pasta dish.

[Blether]

Soba, that Amatriciana looks great - and by the appearance of it, even features the uber-authentic Bucatini.

Cali, Nitrate-free ham... will they accept any pork you have salted yourself ? Does it have to be a product you've purchased as 'bacon' or 'ham' ? Building on Soba's Lyonnaise inspiration - if the former - you could salt & use a pig's head to make a fromage a tete, or salade de tete de porc (salted, cooked, the meat broken up and dressed with vinaigrette).

Japan doesn't have its own pork-curing tradition, but the salted belly used in ramen means you could play with that, if you think that'll win you points. Again, it depends how the boundaries around 'ham' are drawn - it's dead easy to choose an excellent piece of belly and salt it. Of course "ham" the word comes from "leg", but shoulder ham is ham now, right ?

[CaliPoutine]

Here are the full rules. I dont eat raw tomato so I wont make anything with that. Same with raw fish. We cant do any cooking on site, only reheating.

1) Nitrate-free (as your resident nutritionist, we should stay away from nitrates for their health risks). This means your cheap grocery store bacon is going to disqualified for this potluck. Trader Joe's has an inexpensive "applewood smoked" bacon that is nitrate free. You have other options in this bacon challenge--please read #2.

2) You choice of protein can be loosely defined as bacon. I had a delicious salad with toasted serrano ham and it tasted like lean bacon--thus the idea emerged that bacon can be defined as: any kind of smokey pork -- canadian bacon, serrano ham, prosciutto; turkey bacon is qualifiable, but no veggie bacon please (sorry I've tried them and they don't taste good).

3) You can bring things like Vosges chocolate bars with bacon, and as yummy as that is, it will not qualify for the Iron Chef Challenge. You must cook/create something with a secret ingredient. Sprinkling bacon on top of a salad may not count, unless you've done something fantastic with the salad. Bacon-wrapped dates is already assigned to a member, so you'll need to pick something else!

Avocado:

1) Guacamole does not count as a dish. If you make guac, it must be a relish or something on top of an entree. Last time I had tomato as a secret ingredient and people chopped tomatoes for salsa--that's too easy, sorry.

2) Creative things like spiced pistachio avocado ice cream is desired! Who has an ice cream maker??

3) If you are stumped for ideas, you have several weeks to use websites like www.epicurious.com or allrecipes.com where you can type in your desired ingredients to search for recipes. My chef friends at realfoodhascurves.com wrote a collectible ham book that got published last year if you need creative smokey pork ideas.

4) You are welcome to bring extra dishes that do not have the secret ingredients and you know your foodies will enjoy that! Sorry, those dishes are additional and will not count for the votes.

THE VOTING PROCESS:

1) When you arrive, everyone puts the name of their dish on an index card to label the plates. Anything special, please note on the index card. Please make an effort to try a taste of every dish in order to fairly vote.

2) After we are well-fed, everyone gets to cast 3 votes for their top 3 favorite dishes. These are done by tallies on the back of the index cards.

3) I will collect the votes and announce the top 3 winners! Small prizes will be given as tokens of their win!

For all dishes:

I encourage you to find a way to include veggies in your entries, which will help us digest better with this bacon extravaganza. Please cook things with fun and love. The energy of the food has the energy of the chef in addition to ethical farming etc. If you are cooking with anxiety, those of us with sensitive stomachs will feel your stress. Please bring your dish ready to serve--that means bring your own platter and servingware and be prepared to track down your own dishes to take home because your hosts will not be able to remember your goods when we are cleaning up. Michael has an oven for reheating if you wish. The address will be sent a few days before the event to the confirm attendees. As usual, no flakes (please "early cancel" if you are sick that week). Drink and wine? Yes--please bring what you want.

Ok, that about covers the guidelines about our secret ingredients! Let the Iron Chef Challenge BEGIN!!!

[Lisa Shock]

I usually serve my avocado sauce over ravioli that I have filled with mashed up baked potato and chipotle in adobo sauce, so that the insides are red and the sauce is bright green. You could add bacon to the filling pretty easily, thus combining both items into one dish.

[OliverB]

As far as I know, there is no such thing as a nitrate free bacon. The "uncured" bacon you can buy has celery juice added, which in turn contains nitrate, but since you're not adding nitrate as a salt/powder, it doesn't fall into the official definition of cured. Same thing though, it's kind of a scam.

I recently made the "uncured" corned beef from TJ's, it actually said something like "no nitrates added, except those naturally found in celery juice and (something else I can't remember now)"

As for ideas, somewhere on this site I saw some photos of what I'd call bacon art, I unfortunately can't remember the thread. That person had made bowls and rolls etc out of bacon that looked stunning and could be used to serve avocado slivers or something like that. Could be an elegant looking thing, somewhat resembling sushi, but with the seaweed wrap being replaced by bacon. Maybe somebody here remembers where this was posted?

I've also seen interesting salad preparations that were served in the avocado skin, not sure if that's a bit too 1960es :-)

I just had some Asian style pork belly cubes on a skewer, very crunchy and bacony if you will, can be made to look quite elegant, but I'm not sure it would qualify?

Since you can't cook there, battered and deep fried avocado might not work, unless you have access to an oven.

If I come up with more I'll post, good luck!

Is this a private for fun kind of event? I've been thinking about trying to set something like this up locally, more along the line of chopped and throwing some must use odd things into the basket though.

ETA: if you have enough time and access to them, the books "Ham", "Cured", and "Bacon, a love affair" are great to look into, maybe at a library?

Edited March 21, 2011 by OliverB (log)

[SobaAddict70]

Might be helpful if you let us know of other food dislikes/allergies. I know Cali doesn't eat meat -- is that still true? And the bacon I usually use is from Flying Pigs Farm. It's a far cry from supermarket bacon, not to mention more expensive.

A couple more suggestions ...

Thin spaghetti with chickweed, radish greens, smoked bacon ends and fried breadcrumbs

Mustard greens braised in Belgian beer, with heirloom beans and bacon

I don't eat much avocado unfortunately, so can't help you there.

Edited March 21, 2011 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[OliverB]

beans are a great idea, with bacon and I sometimes do slice some avocado to put on top, works very well.

Avocado soup is also great, lots of recipes around. Served with some bacon and croutons on top, can't go wrong with that!

[HungryC]

How about an avocado gelato with candied bacon praline crumbles, or an avocado paleta (common enough) with some candied bacon frozen inside? You probably won't have much competition in the dessert category.

[Blether]

Hmm. "an oven so you can do limited reheating"... it's almost more Iron Delivery than Iron Chef. It could even be Iron Shopper if you had access to a good deli

What seafood is best quality and most available to you this time of year ? How about "Avocado seafood terrine", like this for example ? Plenty of ways to create your own presentation.

The idea of prosciutto as 'smoky' isn't really speaking to me, but prosciutto's a great ingredient, of course - I mean, serve some good prosciutto and unsalted butter, what more do you need ? - but it works with all kinds of other ingredients and carries the lead role with ease. You could give them "vietnamese summer rolls" (goi cuon) with prosciutto or serrano as the wrapper, kind of role-reversal ? The dipping sauce you come up with'd be key.

[judiu]

<snip>

The idea of prosciutto as 'smoky' isn't really speaking to me, but prosciutto's a great ingredient, of course - I mean, serve some good prosciutto and unsalted butter, what more do you need ? - but it works with all kinds of other ingredients and carries the lead role with ease. You could give them "vietnamese summer rolls" (goi cuon) with prosciutto or serrano as the wrapper, kind of role-reversal ? The dipping sauce you come up with'd be key.

To run with the idea of prosciutto and butter, remember in Mexico, they call avocados "mantiquilla de pobre", poor (man's) butter... Just a thought

[Corinna]

To run with the idea of prosciutto and butter, remember in Mexico, they call avocados "mantiquilla de pobre", poor (man's) butter... Just a thought

In Chile, I enjoyed avocado spread on toast for breakfast.

[Beebs]

For the avocado, what about something dessert-y (other than the ice cream)? I saw an Alton Brown episode where he used avocado as an icing for cake. Or avocado profiteroles? Avocado pudding, mousse, creme brulee, panna cotta? I have seen - but never tasted - avocado bubble milk tea.

[andiesenji]

I often prepare a strata with brioche sliced very thin, layered with tomatoes, bacon(pre-cookedCanadian, if I don't have meaty bacon on hand), sliced or chopped artichoke hearts and after the eggy custard has been added and the dish baked - in a 9 x 13" or similar sized and shaped baking dish - I top it with sliced avocados and pipe on a mixture of half sour cream and half mayonnaise in attractive squiggles.

I use the recipes on this page as a guide for amounts, varying for the number of people I am serving.

I often use the Corning French White casserole that holds almost twice as much as the 9 x 11 baking dishes.

I've served these for breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea and for dinner or a late supper.

Very versatile and everyone seems to love it.

Edited March 21, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[Lisa Shock]

Bacon can easily be formed into roses for garnishes. Take raw bacon and fold over one end to 90° to make a pointed center and roll it up in the same manner as making a ribbon rose. Run a skewer through the base (you can put multiple flowers on one skewer) and bake until very well done.

You can also weave raw bacon then place it over an upturned bowl and bake to make a bacon bowl.

[CaliPoutine]

Is this a private for fun kind of event? I've been thinking about trying to set something like this up locally, more along the line of chopped and throwing some must use odd things into the basket though.

Its for a foodie group( Gay Foodies) I belong to thru meetup.org. They do a lot of fun events, but this will be my first potluck.

The event is on March 27th

Thanks for all the great ideas.