maple bacon jam.

I felt like a total trendwhore, but nonetheless I made Kevin Gillespie's bacon jam recipe last night, because I thought maybe I wanted to put a dot of it on these onion frittata bites I'm making tomorrow for Baby Bird's First Show (!!!). Two observations: 1) as written on the Bravo site, it's not an especially helpful recipe, but 2) nothing can stop bacon jam. It basically made itself. And it's good, very good. Here's my rewrite of the original recipe:

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bacon and maple jam.

125 grams bacon
1 yellow onion, julienned
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
3 cups chicken stock

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

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Basically: cook bacon until crisp and set aside, leaving the bacon fat in the pan. Add onion to pan and cook until golden brown. Add sugar and stir to coat. Add one cup of broth and reduce until thick. Add another cup of broth and do the same. Add the third cup of broth then transfer contents of pan to a food processor, along with the reserved bacon. Process until fairly smooth but not totally boring. Return the mixture to the pan and add maple syrup, black pepper, and butter. Cook over medium heat 10 minutes or so, stirring every once in a while, to further reduce the jam and darken the color. Makes about 3/4 cup.

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My next attempt at this will involve chiles and a fruit, maybe cherries or peaches. Here's the caramelized onion frittata bite with a little bacon jam, crème fraîche, and chive. The frittata also has a little medium-aged Gouda in it. Basically Marcella's onion frittata recipe with Gouda instead of Parmesan.