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Here’s my infamous Bourbon Bacon Popcorn recipe.  We’ve had it on our menu at SPiN Toronto since we opened in August 2011.  It really hits the mark when you’re after a tasty snack that covers it all; sweet, salty and savoury.

Bourbon Bacon Popcorn

Click here to see what The Grid Magazine in Toronto had to say when they sampled a batch back in February.

Candy making is a relatively basic process once you know what you’re trying to do.  Please know that this recipe involves really high heat and can be dangerous if proper care is not taken.  Be careful!  This stuff gets really hot.

A note on Ingredients:

• Obviously, this recipe calls for Bacon.  We use wonderful Perth Pork thick-cut smoked bacon from Sanagan’s Meat Locker.  I spent a lot of time looking for the best bacon available.  In my opinion, this is it.
• Whole Pistachios are available at most grocery or bulk stores.  Look for unsalted, bright green nuts.
• Use whatever brand of Bourbon you like.  We use Jim Beam at SPiN.  The flavour that comes through is tasty, but subtle.   This may not be the time to bring out the single barrel bottle you’ve been hoarding.
• This recipe calls for popped Popcorn, you can pick this up from a retail outlet or use an air popper to pop it in the kitchen.  Either way, your popcorn needs to be air popped, not oil popped.

A note on Equipment:

• If you have never made candy before, i would suggest a Candy Thermometer, they are available at any restaurant supply store for around $10.  This will take the guess work out of this recipe.
• You’ll also need a brush of some kind, either a pastry brush, or an unused, natural bristle paintbrush.

Bourbon Bacon Popcorn

Popcorn Mise en Place

5lt Popped Popcorn

1kg White Caster Sugar

500ml Water

210ml (7oz) Bourbon

1pc Whole Cinnamon

1/2tsp Liquid Smoke

10 slices (roughly 400g) Thick Cut Smoked Bacon

250g Shelled, Unsalted Whole Pistachios

1.  Preheat your oven to 350F.  Place popcorn in a metal bowl or container with excess room to stir vigorously.  The bigger the container, the better.

2.  Lay the bacon out on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Bake for 35-45 minutes until the fat has rendered and you are left with ‘crispy’ bacon.  During this time, you can also toast your pistachio nuts on another baking sheet.  They will take about 5-7 minutes.

3.  Using a kitchen towel, blot as much fat from the bacon as possible.  Then in a food processor, pulse the bacon until it is broken down into 2mm x 2mm pieces.  Do the same with the pistachios.  Reserve both the nuts and bacon to the side.

4.  In a pot, combine the Sugar and the Cinnamon Stick.  Gently add the Bourbon, Water and Liquid Smoke.  Make sure you don’t splash any sugar up onto the sides of the pot.  Also, do not stir the sugar mixture.

5.  Heat your pot on high heat.  While it’s heating, gather a small container of water and your pastry/paint brush.  You will be brushing water on the edge of the pot anytime you begin to see any sugar crystals forming.  This water brush will keep the sugar in a liquid state.

6.  Using a Candy Thermometer, heat the sugar mixture on high.  The booze and water will evaporate quickly.  This will leave a highly concentrated sugar solution.  As the solution continues to cook, it will contain less and less water.  Eventually it will become purely sugar.  This will happen at 300-310F.   We want to go slightly higher.  At 320F the sugar will begin to caramelize.  Remember: brush the sides of the pot with water  to prevent crystallization.

7.  Once your solution has hit 320-330F, add the bacon and cashews.  This will slow the rise in temperature.  The sugar will seize slightly, return the pot to the heat to re-liquify the solution.  Careful, if you take your sugar much higher than 330F, it will burn.

8.  Acting VERY quickly, pour the sugar solution over the popcorn.  Stir vigorously until the popcorn is thoroughly coated in the sugar solution.  Season the mix with the flaked Kosher Salt and Finely Ground Black Pepper.

9.  Let the Popcorn cool and store in an airtight container.  It will keep for about a week if you keep it away from humidity.  Store with a silica gel packet if you have one.

Please, give this popcorn recipe a try and let me know what you think in the comments.

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We get complements on our Ketchup at SPiN all the time.  The running joke is that we’re taking down the Heinz empire, one bottle at a time.  It’s easy to make, tastes great and lasts for ages.  Best of all, it’s all natural and you know everything that’s gone into it.

A note on ingredients:

• San Marzano Tomatoes can be found in most Italian grocers.  Although they are more expensive, there really is no substitution.  They are the best canned tomatoes money can buy.
• This recipe calls for fresh Bay Leaf which can often be difficult to find.  Dried Bay Leaf really won’t give you the herbaceous flavour that you get from the fresh leaves. Try Phil’s Place in St Lawrence Market.
• Buy the best cider vinegar you can find.  Health food stores often sell cider vinegar that still contains live bacteria culture.  This is the kind of vinegar you’re after.

Ketchup

SPiNtergalactic Ketchup

3ea Cans(28oz) of Whole San Marzano Tomatoes

2ea Cans(6oz) of Tomato Paste

2.5 Cups of Brown Sugar

2.5 Cups of Cider Vinegar

3ea Large Sweet Onions, cut into 1cm dice

10ea Cloves of Garlic, sliced

3ea Fresh Bay Leaves

1ea Whole Cinnamon Stick

50ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1.  Heat a large pot on medium-high heat. Add the Olive Oil, diced Onion, sliced Garlic, Cinnamon Stick and Bay Leaf.  Continue to sauté until the onion and garlic are soft and translucent, without colour.

2.  Bring the heat down to medium-low.  Stir in the tomato paste.  Keep it moving in the pot, this will keep it from sticking to the bottom and scorching.

3.  Deglaze the pot with the cider vinegar, and add the brown sugar.  Stir to dissolve the sugar.  Add the San Marzano Tomatoes.

4.  Cook on medium-low, stirring often to keep it from sticking.  Reduce the ketchup uncovered by 1/4 of it’s volume.  Blend the ketchup until smooth with a blender.

5.  Strain the ketchup through a medium fine sieve.

6.  Pour into sterile mason jars or glass bottles while still hot and then refrigerate.

Because of the high sugar and acid content, this ketchup will keep for at least a couple weeks.

Please try this recipe and let me know what you think in the comments below.

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Photo Credit: The National

It’s difficult to express the importance of salt in the kitchen.  Predominantly, we use salt to make food taste better, but it can do all sorts of things.  It will put out grease fires, raise the boiling temperature of water to reduce cooking times it will even help restore an old cast iron pan as an abrasive.  The list doesn’t stop there.  Below are a few of (what i consider to be) the most interesting culinary uses for salt that go beyond simply seasoning food.

Dehydrating

“…Don’t drink the Sea water, no matter how thirsty you get!”

Salt will absorb all the water you can throw at it.  This can prove really handy.  I’ve had great success in using salt in the dehydration or partial dehydration of fruits and vegetables.  I’ve used the following technique with grapes, plums and tomatoes.

Tomatoes are prefect this time of year and once semi dried, they are easily worked into all sorts of dishes.

Start with the best tomatoes you can find.  The following will work with any tomato(Heirloom, Hot House, Saladette, Roma and Grape tomatoes have all gone down this road in my kitchen).  Cut them  in half, lengthwise.  Pour a bed of Rock salt(kosher salt will work, in a pinch but avoid table salt) 3cm deep into a baking dish.  Place the tomatoes cut side up into the salt (leave about 1cm between the tomatoes for circulation).  Cook them in a 150F oven with the door cracked open overnight.

The time they take to dehydrate will depend on the size and moisture content of the tomatoes.  You can semi dry them(usually 5-7 hours) or completely dry them( 7+ hours).  The drier they are, the longer they will keep.  As always, use your intuition.

The salt does two things here:

1. The bed of salt acts as insulation and keeps the temperature even (preventing the sugars from browning on a hot surface).
2. It also seasons.  The final product should be a lovely concentrated flavour with mild salinity.

This salt-bed technique will work well with any juicy fruit with a thin membrane type skin like grapes, plums or peaches.

Tromba Watermelon

Plating

“…So clean you could eat off of it!”

We recently threw a summer BBQ for the staff at SPiN Toronto.  Among the snacks was a real crowd pleaser.  A fresh watermelon, macerated in Tequila Tromba.  We finished the melon with some fresh spearmint and Maldon’s flake salt.  The results were beyond anyone’s expectations.

The flavours on this dish work well in a plated salad.  Compress or macerate the watermelon with Tromba.  Toss it with Arugula (for body), some light fresh cheese (for fat content) and something crunchy(toasted/candied nuts or seeds, a crispy and fried/dehydrated starch etc) for texture.  Finish it with some Maldon’s flake salt and you’ve got a nice, simple, fresh summer dish.  Nothing special, but tasty none-the-less.

…Or you could skip the Maldon’s and serve it family style on one of these!

Himalayan Pink Salt Block
Photo source: SaltNews.c

Himalayan pink salt blocks are sold for anywhere from around $10-50.  Use them as a platter to serve cold foods.  Any foods moist enough will pick up some of the natural salinity from the block(melon, cucumber, or raw tuna all work really well).

But wait there’s more… You can cook on these things.  Think seared scallops, fried eggs or crispy beef tenderloin.

However, there are a couple things to know before throwing your beautiful salt block on the bbq…

1. They require a three-stage, slow heating process.  Water is often trapped within the blocks and needs to evaporate slowly to avoid shattering. The block you purchase should include instructions.
2.  Once they’ve been heated, they lose their remarkable pink pattern.  Still, once you’ve tasted something seared on one… You’ll know it’s worth it!

Freezing

“…Because everyone loves ice cream.”

Now, I’m fortunate in my kitchen.  We use a beautiful Musso Ice-cream maker and I would recommend them to any chef or home cook who is serious about frozen desserts  with a bit of cash to spend.   We make the frozen stuff in quantity so it’s a bit of a necessity.  However, if you want to make small batch ice creams, you can use salt and it’s easier than you think…

Something magical happens when you add salt to ice.  I’m not sure what exactly, but it’s pretty alluring.  Likely, you already know, the ice will begin to melt.  What you may not know, is that (according to general chemistry online) adding salt to ice-water can drop it’s temperature down to -21C.  That’s pretty cold… and useful.

Basic Ice-Cream

Combine 500ml 35% Cream with 250ml milk in a pot.  Heat until steam appears, don’t boil it.

In a bowl, combine 3 egg yolks and 200g white sugar.

While whisking the egg mixture, slowly pour in the cream mix.  Add a dash of vanilla, cinnamon and/or nutmeg.  Put this mixture in the fridge until it’s cool to the touch(about 3 hours), then pour it into a plastic zipper bag and seal it.

In a larger zipper bag, add lots of ice, just enough water so the ice is floating and about 3/4 cup of salt.

Drop the bag of custard mixture into the bag of salted ice-water.

Now shake the bag for 7-10 minutes until your ice cream has firmed up.

*** More importantly, this technique will also work on bottled wine and beer. One to keep in mind for the summer.***

Well, there it is.  Salt does some interesting things.  So keep using it to enhance your flavours in the kitchen and don’t be afraid to use it to do something a little outside-the-box. Please, comment below and let me know what you think of these recipes and techniques.