Tag: bacon

Potato salad

It seems ludicrous to give you a potato salad recipe. I mean, thousands of them already exist and mine changes basically every time I make it. But this one is a bit of a dinner winner.

A simple potato salad with a tangy sweet dressing

Potato salad
 
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A deeply comforting potato salad with tangy and sweet dressing.
Author:
Ingredients
  • 1.8-2kg potatoes, whole and unpeeled
  • 10-12 strips of streaky bacon
  • 2-4 green shallots/spring onions, depending on size
  • 6 eggs
The dressing
  • 200g mayonnaise
  • 4tbsp buttermilk
  • 2tbsp maple syrup
  • 1tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 heaped tsp seeded mustard
  • good pinch of salt
  • heaps of freshly cracked pepper
Instructions
  1. Boil the potatoes until a skewer easily goes through them
  2. Drain and let cool
  3. Peel the skin off and cut into dice or rounds, whatever takes your fancy.
  4. Cook the bacon until quite crispy (think you want to be able to crumble it or roughly chop it into smallish pieces)
  5. Slice the shallots/spring onions thinly
  6. Hard boil the eggs
    eggs in cold water, bring to the boil, boil for about 9 minutes
    drain and run under cold water until they're cool enough to handle
    peel while the water keeps running over them
  7. Grate the eggs on the fine side of a box grater
  8. Gently mix everything together
The dressing
  1. Mix everything together, have a taste and adjust as needed (sometimes I add more vinegar)
    The flavours develop if you can make it ahead of time and let it sit in the fridge
  2. Add about ⅔rds of the dressing to the potatoes, have a taste, had more dressing until you get a coverage and consistency you like.

 

Onward!

Chestnut, bacon and sage stuffing

This is basically the best stuffing you will ever make.

No question.

Seriously.

Chestnut, bacon and sage stuffing rolls
Chestnut, bacon and sage stuffing rolls

It just doesn’t get any better.

Chestnut, bacon and sage stuffing
 
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A richly decadent stuffing for any fancy occasion but let's just say Christmas to fill this space.
Author:
Ingredients
  • 50g butter
  • 1 large brown onion, finely chopped (the original says 2 small, which is just silly)
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 100 g rindless bacon, finely chopped
  • ⅓ cup dry sherry
  • ½ cup pitted dates, chopped
  • 1 x 240g can cooked chestnuts, chopped
  • ¼ cup slivered almonds, toasted and chopped
  • 3 cups fresh breadcrumbs
  • ¼ cup sage leaves, finely chopped (so much finely chopping!)
  • ¼ cup parsley leaves, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1tsp sea salt flakes
  • 1 tsp cracked pepper
  • 24 thin slices streaky bacon
  • 1tbsp sherry
  • 2tbsp honey
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 180C
  2. Melt the butter in a frying pan and then saute the onion, garlic and bacon for around 5 minutes or until soft
  3. Add the sherry and dates and cook for a further minute or so
  4. In a big bowl toss everything - EXCEPT the bacon, extra sherry and honey - together
  5. On a bench, pull out a long piece of foil - enough to lay the HALF the streaky bacon, slightly overlapping, on
  6. Then do the same with a piece of baking paper and lay that on top of the foil
  7. Place 12 slices of bacon on the baking paper, slightly overlapping each other
  8. You still with me?
  9. Place half the stuffing at one end of the bacon and then, using the baking paper/foil to help you, roll up into a log
  10. Tip for new players, don't roll the paper foil inside the log as you go, use it as you would a sushi mat rolling up... sushi
  11. Then wrap the foil/baking paper around the log and place on a baking tray
  12. Do the second one
  13. Bake for 20 minutes
  14. Take out of the oven and carefully remove the wrapping
  15. Keep on the tray
  16. Brush over the sherry and honey, which you have mixed together
  17. Bake for a further 20 minutes or until the bacon is nice and crisp
  18. * you can prepare this two days ahead and keep in the fridge until ready to cook on Christmas day
  19. * you can add it to the oven at the final 40 mins of cooking time of your ham/pork/chicken/turkey

 

Twice baked potatoes

One of my greatest failings as a parent is that I have produced children who don’t like mashed potato. How is that even possible? I mean potato, unholy amounts of butter and milk with plenty of salt and pepper, what is not to love. So, when I made these for #everyfuckingnight I was pretty nervous I’d be left eating them for days, but I totally tricked them with bacon, sourcream and cheese! Huzzah!

I based mine on a Pioneer Woman‘s recipe but used violently less butter and completely forgot to add the milk. I also didn’t have/couldn’t find the potatoes on steroids PW used.

While I’ve put some measures in this I strongly advise you to trust yourself and go largely by sight. PW used 8 super big potatoes, I used 6 smaller mid sized ones, probably about a kilo? So look, That’s what I did and they worked a treat.

Twice baked potatoes about to go back in the oven.
Twice baked potatoes about to go back in the oven.

 

Twice baked potatoes
 
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Potatoes mashed with bacon, sour cream and cheese. Get onto it.
Author:
Ingredients
  • 5-6 mid sized potatoes (ideally use much bigger ones and follow PW's recipe linked to above)
  • oil
  • 4-6 slices streaky bacon, or 3-4 traditional rashers
  • 1 tbsp butter, I really think it's optional
  • about 125g or heaped ½cup sour cream, I just used a large tablespoon and used about ½ a 30ml tub
  • good pinch of salt and cracked pepper
  • 2 good handfuls of grated cheese
  • 2 spring onions, finely sliced
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 200C
  2. Rub potatoes with oil, place on baking tray and bake for 45 minutes or until they're soft on the inside and the skins are slightly crisp
  3. While they're cooking, fry the bacon
  4. Place the bacon, sour cream, butter and seasonings in a bowl
  5. Once the potatoes are cooked, hold them in a tea-towel and cut down through the middle lengthways
  6. Scoop the potato into the bowl with the bacon and sour cream, don't be too precious here, just try not to scoop through the skin
  7. Use a masher and mash up the potato and bacon
  8. Stir in one good handful of cheese and the spring onions
  9. Spoon back into the potato skins, now, when I did this I had two potato skins left over, just so you know the same might happen to you
  10. Put back on the baking tray, sprinkle over more cheese and pop back in the oven
  11. Bake for 15 minutes until the cheese is all melty and golden

 

Twice baked potatoes
Twice baked potatoes

 

Chicken and bacon pasta bake

When you’re groaning at having to make dinner again make this.

If you’re not already, follow me at Instagram, search the hashtag #everyfuckingnight and you will see a feed of the dinners I am cooking my boys.

Chicken bacon pasta bake 1

This dinner is solely thanks to my dear friend S who knows the best places to have dinner, always checks in on me and is breeding olympians. She’s made this as the kids meal on two occasions we’ve been over for dinner – the second time because they all loved it the first.

It’s a dinner standard in her house and will now be in ours.

Chicken bacon pasta bake 3

 

Chicken and bacon pasta bake
 
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A fantastic dinner option even most fussy kids will eat.
Author:
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
  • 500g packet of pasta - shells or spirals would be my advice
  • 2 chicken breasts, cubed
  • 6 slices streaky bacon - if using more traditional rashes you get in Aus then probably 3 would do it
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 500g jar of pasta sauce - your brand and flavour choice
  • couple of handfuls of grated cheese
Instructions
  1. Cook pasta until almost done - meaning if it's meant to cook for 12 mins cook it for 10. Drain
  2. Saute the onion, garlic and bacon in a glug of oil for about 5 minutes or until there's a bit of colour coming on but not crispy
  3. Add the chicken and brown, don't go crazy because it will cook in the oven
  4. Add the pasta sauce
  5. Tip in the pasta and combine thoroughly
  6. Stir in a big handful of grated cheese
  7. Tip into a baking dish, top with more cheese
  8. Bake at 180C for 30-45 mins - this is basically dependent on how much time you have and how crispy you want the top to be.

 

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