Doing my bit for Bacon Week

As I mentioned in my last post, it is Bacon Week. So aside from just eating (I really don’t wish to make this task seem menial or mundane, as it is something that always fills my heart with joy) my favourite cured pork product, or quite possibly even my favourite piece of my favourite animal ever, like the shore bound sailor eats the prostitutes vag… i… n… nothing… I shall also be trying new and exciting things with my friend, the bacon. None of them will be bedroom orientated (apologies to the German crowd). Needless to say, the point I am trying to express to you is that I have certainly been doing my bit to support the bacon farmers of this great land… well at least the bacon farmers of the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, as I am a bit of a slut for the local produce…. And the bacon… And definitely the local bacon. Just writing this has heightened my bacon buds* to full alert and now I’m seriously craving a bit of the ol’ bacy bacs. Alas though, I am void of any ability to sample previously discussed bacon as I am sitting in my car at a little school oval in the middle of the countryside and I’ve have neglected to pack emergency Bacon Week bacon rations (rashers) and heat source… there could be a market there… and before you start getting concerned about my loitering about a primary school;
1. Those charges were dismissed by the court
2. Those boiled sweets are for me
3. I am waiting for my eldest son to finish soccer training so we may get the heck out of this cold afternoon air and into the warmth of our comfy little home

Just to remain consistent with my prior murmurings on this blog, I have wandered well and truly off the path and now find myself stuck in a thicket (even though I am not even sure what a thicket is… some kind of shrubbery perhaps? That’s what it shall be today; shrubbery) while a hungry owl tries to pluck my eyeball for it’s evening meal.

Where the hell am I?

I just need to re-read that first paragraph so I can catch up. Won’t be a sec.

Brrrzt mmmrr hbl nds hmmmr rr wsst svvnnn mmmmm *This is the sound of me reading*

So I was talking about Bacon Week and how I am eating enough bacon to put poor a bacon farmers’ many children through porcine university. But also I am trying to find something a little different I can make with it so as to keep my life interesting. Enter the Pandebono. A Columbian cheese bread of awesomeness. I found a recipe recently on What’s Cooking and thought I should definitely have a crack at them because;
1. They were gluten free so that would also appeal to the gluten-weak disposition of my dearly betrothed, Jennee
2. They were full of cheese. Like more than half the dough/batter was cheese and that is a winner in everyone’s books
3. Amanda at What’s Cooking may have mentioned they go well with beer… or maybe she didn’t… maybe I just assumed they would go well with beer. Sometimes my belly wants a little company while consuming that golden nectar
4. I thought they would also be good with a heap of bacon cooked into them, which coincides with the whole Bacon Week thing that I am embracing with such enthusiasm right now. Much like the hungry lion would embrace the lame wildebeest calf

This stuff was off the fricking hook! It is cheesy like nothing else I have ever tasted. It is almost like a firm cheese custard with a light dough crust. Probably not the best to eat it every day instead of toast for breakfast, but it’s damn tasty, damn moreish, damn well ready to hang out with you and a few (or however many you class as necessary) beers and damn well part of my Bacon Week!

The original recipe didn’t have yeast but it does give it a little super model lift and also it didn’t have bacon, but we all know the ending to that story.

PAN DE BONO with BACON (for one 10x20cm slice or a heap of little rolls)

1 1/3 cups cassava starch or yucca flour, also called tapioca flour or manioc flour
1/2 cup cooked cornmeal (polenta)
1 ½ cups feta
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
2 eggs
3.5g yeast (I think that’s half a packet/half a teaspoon)
pinch of salt
3 rashers of bacon, sliced 1cm thick
• Combine everything except eggs and bacon in a food processer and blitz until it is thick and almost smooth
• With motor still running, add eggs one by one
• Spoon/pour batter/dough into a lined baking tray or make pretty little rolls as would be traditional
• Top with bacon and rest in a warm spot (the batter that is… I don’t really care how tired or cold you are) for half an hour to activate the yeast
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C for 15 minutes or until it is a little golden on top
• Eat with a heap of friends or in gluttonous solitude, but always with a heap of beer

*Bacon buds. The part of your face that gets really excited when you smell bacon. Not your nose though. That’s still your nose.