My favorite meat is pork. Chicken is just OK and same with beef. But pork? You have to really overcook it to spoil a pork dish for me. I love the flavor of the meat and the fat just adds more flavor and moisture.


Last October I was at the San Francisco Ferry Building farmers market and saw a long line and smelled a wonderful smell. I followed the line and my nose to the end and found one of those gourmet food trucks with rotisseries twirling. They skewered rows of whole chickens and pork rolls and then racks filled with roasting pig knuckles. Best of all, at the bottom of each huge rotisserie were piles of quartered potatoes that were being roasted while also collecting the delicious, fatty, flavorful drippings from the meats above. Mouthwatering!


Unfortunately I couldn't get one then and so I've been craving for six months. This weekend I had hiked the Golden Gate to Sausalito and took the ferry back to the Ferry Building. We got off the boat and headed directly for the Roli Roti line. Just in time! It was about 1:00 and they were on their last pork roll. They came down the line and counted off people for the last that they would be able to make. Thank goodness we made it within the count! By the way, if you want chicken, there is an express line. It's the porchetta sandwiches that creates the huge line.


I highly recommend that you watch the video over on Vendr.tv video. This site features gourmet food trucks and this video shows how the pork roll is prepared in their commissary before it gets skewered. Basically they take a pig torso, debone it, fill it with a special blend of spices, and then roll it up tight.


The porchetta sandwiches are made with sliced Italian rolls that sop up some of the grease from the slicing table. The pork roll is sliced and then topped with some crunchy bits of roasted pig skin. Then they sprinkle with sea salt, add some fresh, organic herbs, and an onion jam.


The end result? Pork lovers' heaven. There is so much flavor from the herbs roasted inside the pork roll, the herbs and onion jam added to the sandwich, and the sprinkle of sea salt. The meat, of course, is awesome.

We come across those recipes or food items that seem to be hot and trendy. I believe, though, that bacon is not a trend, it is a way of life for many people. Pork happens to be my favorite meat, and so I can't argue with any bacon lovers. Candied bacon is also not necessarily a trend, but it's an item that seems to be cropping up more and more in recipes and on food shows. Essentially candied bacon is simply bacon that has been caramelized in brown sugar.

Yes, I have been on a "bacon as candy" kick of late. See my posts on bacon peanut brittle and bacon turtles. I decided that candied bacon sounded darn easy and worth spending an hour on over the weekend. Unfortunately it took more time than that because I wasn't happy with my first results.

First attempt at candied bacon

All you really need is a cup of brown sugar with which you coat the bacon. You can add some pepper if you like and so I added a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Since I knew I was going to dip these in chocolate, I cut the bacon into inch long pieces. I coated them with the mixture and laid them out on my stoneware baking pan. (I chose to use my Pampered Chef stoneware because it is easier to clean the expected greasy, sticky mess than a metal pan is.) In recipes I found on FoodNetwork.com, they say to line a baking pan with foil or parchment paper.

You bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. I checked mine and found the pan full of greasy, sticky goo and the bacon partially cooked - like chewy bacon. I wanted it to be more crispy, so I left it in there for longer. It didn't help. So then I took it out cleaned out the mess with paper towels, and then put the bacon back on and into the oven again. Still wasn't getting the results that I wanted or had expected. It was OK, but not great.

I finished that batch up but decided I needed to try a different method, one that I saw on a different site.



This time I lined my pan with a couple layers of paper towels and then put a wire rack over it. I put the bacon across the wires without any seasoning yet. I wanted most of the grease to be cooked out of it first. I baked these for 20 minutes and then took them out, dipped them in the sugar mixture, and then laid them out on the wire rack again. After 10 more minutes in the oven I took them out and  brushed them with more sugar and returned them to the oven. Another 10 minutes and then I flipped them, brushed them, and back in the oven. After about an hour I had more of what I was looking for. Success.

This looks much better

You can watch a video of a similar process done by my friend, John of Foodwishes.com.

The final step is just to melt chocolate, dip the bacon in it to coat, and then let the pieces cool on parchment paper. Chocolate covered candy bacon!

Chocolate covered candied bacon

1 package of thick cut bacon
1 cup of brown sugar
1 t cayenne pepper (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the brown sugar and cayenne pepper.
Line a baking sheet with a couple layers of paper towels. Place a wire rack on top. Drape the bacon across the rack in a single layer. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and dip each bacon into the sugar mixture and make sure to get all surfaces coated. Replace on the wire rack. Bake for another 5-10 minutes. Brush some sugar mixture on top of the bacon, return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes. Remove, flip bacon over, coat with more sugar and then bake for a final 10 minutes.
Remove sheet from oven and let bacon fully cool.


Bacon

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

The Press is up on my favorites list. A spontaneous decision took Suzanne Phan and I over to check out the place. We were not disappointed.


We walked in where the old Dragonfly used to be and found that it was brighter, more upbeat in décor. The walls have a new coat of light paint and there seems to be more lighting. We saw the large communal table and decided to go for it. The communal table is tall and long, probably ten feet. The bar stools were nice with backs (I hate stools with no backrest).

We were handed simple sheet menus. The selection included tapas, appetizers, pasta, and entrée. Tapas are $4 each or three for $10. The pasta dishes had small and large price points. We made three selections and I was a bit surprised at how quickly they came out.


Our first was the crispy pork belly with cauliflower gratin. I took my first bite and Suzanne could instantly tell I was in foodie heaven. She laughed at my happy grin as I savored the flavor and the texture. Pork is my favorite meat and pork belly is a decadent cut. But pork belly has to be cooked correctly. I’ve had undercooked versions where it was like eating a giggly piece of pure fat. Yuck. Other times it’s over crisped so that it is almost rock hard. This pork belly was perfectly cooked. It was nice and crispy on the exterior yet tender and buttery on the inside. That, coupled with the creamy gratin, was a perfect mix of textures in each bite. And it didn’t taste bad either! 




I tried the salmon rillette next. For those unfamiliar with the term, rillettes are shredded meats made into a spread. Think of Deviled Ham. This salmon had been poached in a dill mixture, shredded, then mixed with crème fraiche. It was served with some crisp flat bread. It was light and refreshing, but not anything spectacular.



Our last dish was the gnocchi with pesto cream sauce, roasted garlic and cherry tomatoes. I selected this dish because the Sactown Magazine review had said that the chef was known for making incredible, light gnocchi. Based on that review, we were disappointed. The gnocchi were large, hearty, but light? No. They seemed pretty heavy and doughy. But the overall dish still tasted good. The pesto tasted fresh from the garden and the roasted garlic and parmesan shavings added salty and buttery accent.

Speaking of the chef, that was the best part. David English has worked as a chef at Ella and also in Spain and France. Now he’s opened The Press as his first restaurant and is taking pride in it. How does one know? Because he’s not hidden back in the kitchen. English is very visible - walking through the restaurant, talking to patrons, helping to serve. Hey, even cleared our dishes like a busser. He stopped by and asked us how we liked our meal. It’s been a while since a chef has done that while I was eating a regular meal. Biba is one who often visits the tables. Patrick Mulvaney visits does during his Family Meals, not sure about regular dinner service. It’s such a simple thing and yet it makes all the difference for me wanting to go back again. Kudos.

When he stopped by we raved about the pork belly. He said it was the last night for that dish. He’s going to be doing pork cheeks for the next few weeks. I’m glad we got the pork belly before it goes and the idea of the cheeks just makes me want to go back that much sooner.

Definitely stop by and try The Press. You’ll become a subscriber yourself.

I found that I had a forgotton package of pork loin from our pig buy hidden in the back of my freezer. It's also fig season. How to put the two together?

I found a recipe for Citrus Grilled Pork Loin with Mint Fig Sauce at allrecipes.com. Seemed like a great solution, even though reading the ingredients made you wonder just a bit. But the reviews were favorable and so I gave it a go.

I ended up just grilling the pork on my George Foreman instead of on a BBQ. I'm not convinced that the bacon was really necessary - and it's an added cost. But if you did use a BBQ, I could see you losing some of the moisture of the loin without the bacon protection.

My friends said it was good but weren't overly enthusiastic. I thought it was delicious. But I am a sauce person. The orange juice and balsamic give the sauce some tang along with the mintiness. It was easy to put together as it just requires a blender. It is not a heated sauce, although, I suppose you could heat it if you wanted.

Minty Fig Sauce

6 fresh figs
1 cup fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup orange juice
1 pinch sea salt and pepper to taste

Blender it all!