Yep, bacon jam. One of the food blogs I read, Kitchen Konfidence, posted a recipe for bacon jam hand pies a couple weeks ago and it piqued my interest, to say the least. We had an extra pound of bacon in the freezer that Nick had brought home from work. It turns out that one of his co-workers, who deals in meats, doesn't eat pork and generously passed some along to Nick, who decidedly does. That was all it took and I got to work. The recipe takes some serious time. I had to cook the bacon down over a period of 3 to 4 hours, then refrigerate overnight and cook for about another hour the following day. So, before you jump into this project, make sure you are committed. The end result, however, is well worth it, as you get a sweet and salty, gooey treat. If you like bacon-wrapped dates, you'll love this jam.
Now Brandon, over at Kitchen Konfidence, used his jam to make some hand pies, but I still had sandwiches on the brain. Nick and I decided to try a riff on one of those classic summertime sandwiches, the BLT. We spread a layer of our bacon jam on toast, topped it with sliced cucumbers, avocado and arugula. Since we don't have any fresh tomatoes growing here yet, I decided to make a tomato aioli to add that essential ingredient.
I consulted How to Cook Everything and found a mayonnaise recipe that sounded easy and I went to work. I think I need more practice at homemade mayonnaise, however, since my first attempt turned out more like salad dressing and less like the creamy spread I was hoping for. It tasted good, though, so we drizzled some on our sandwiches and used the rest for a dipping sauce.
These sandwiches were a very fun experiment. They were quite flavorful. The sweet, salty jam combined nicely with the bitter greens. The cucumbers added a much needed crunch. And the best part is that we still have more bacon jam left.
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