by Christopher Smith
Have you ever heard of Irish bacon?
Americans might confuse it with Canadian bacon, which is more readily available in our grocery stores.
Irish bacon is cut from the back of the pig and is frequently referred to as back bacon.
It’s served as part of a traditional Irish breakfast and the Irish boil it with cabbage and potatoes for dinner.
For our seventh and final blog in our salute to St. Patrick’s Day, we have a recipe that is a variation on the classic dish toad in the hole, which combines Yorkshire pudding batter with English sausage.
This recipe calls for ½ cup of vegetable oil, but we have had success with less oil so try it about half that amount.
Have a happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Popover Pudding with Irish BaconServes 8
You may substitute Canadian bacon for the Irish bacon. You will need to sauté the Canadian bacon in 1/4 cup additional vegetable oil because it does not contain the same amount of fat as Irish bacon.
2 cups whole milk
4 large eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 large bunch fresh chives
1 pound sliced Irish bacon
about 1/2 cup vegetable oil
1. In a blender blend milk, eggs, flour, and salt until just smooth. Transfer batter to a bowl. Finely chop enough chives to measure 1/2 cup and whisk into batter. Chill batter, covered, at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Trim any fat from bacon. In a large nonstick skillet cook fat over low heat, stirring occasionally, until most of fat is rendered and solids are golden brown. Discard solids and increase heat to moderately high. Heat rendered fat until hot but not smoking and sauté bacon in batches until just golden, about 1 minute on each side. Transfer bacon as cooked to paper towels to drain. Pour rendered fat into a measuring cup and add enough oil to measure 1/2 cup total.
3. In a 12- by 2-inch enameled cast-iron casserole (3 1/2-quart) or a 13- by 9- by 2-inch glass baking dish heat oil mixture in middle of oven 5 minutes. Quickly arrange bacon evenly in casserole or baking dish and pour batter over it. Bake pudding in middle of oven until puffed and golden brown, about 50 minutes.
- from Epicurious.com
