Bacon Marmalade, a la GainCarlo
Since eliminating gluten, cow products, processed sugar (almost 100%), preservatives, and HFC, I am always looking for ways to make what I can eat, taste better. This is also true for our #2 son, chef GainCarlo. He’s an avid fan of Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, where he first saw bacon marmalade. It’s one of his best creations yet though he assures me, the recipe is not done.
We use a high end bacon, like Applegate Farms or Niman Ranch that has no additives or nitrates. Yes, it costs more but I believe it’s worth it.
Ingredients:
1/2 large sweet onion
1 12 oz package of bacon
1/4 c brewed strong coffee
1 t hot sauce (more if you like it spicy)
2 T maple syrup (Avoid fake maple syrups)
5 T brown sugar (You can use regular white sugar. You will use one T for the onions and the remainder later)
Several glugs of EVOO
Chop the onion into a small dice. (We do the entire onion and pull half of it out for later use) In a cast iron pan, saute in EVOO, stirring constantly until it begins to brown. Add 1T regular or brown sugar and continue to cook until the sugar caramelizes. This takes about 15-20 minutes. If you cooked an entire onion, remember to pull half of it out.
As the onion is cooking, chop bacon into small bits.
Once the onion is finished, remove it from the pan.
Add bacon to pan and cook until the bacon is browned, careful not to overcook. Pour off the bacon grease.
Add in the coffee, sugar, syrup, and hot sauce. Stir constantly until well mixed and the sugar begins to thicken being careful not to let it get to the hard rock stage. Stir the onions back in and mix until everything is thoroughly mixed.
This is fabulous on pizza, scallops, and burgers. It freezes well. (If you are cooking scallops, reserve a bit of the bacon grease to saute them in.)
I have no idea what the calories are and frankly, I don’t care.
Wine pairing: Laroche Bourgogne
