From the demo: Entertaining with Bacon!
Recipes courtesy of Chef Amy Jurist
Yields 2 Dozen Appetizers
1 pound of Regular Cut Bacon(not thick cut)
1 Package of Roschti Potatoes or a 12 oz bag of Frozen Hash Brown Potatoes – fried crisp(per package instructions) and seasoned with salt & pepper
1 Medium Yellow Onions minced
½ cup Sour Cream or Lite Sour Cream
½ pound of Gruyere(or Swiss) shredded
1 bunch of Chives minced
Salt and Pepper
3-4 tbl of Reg Olive Oil or Canola Oil
Heat the Oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat, then add the onions and sauté until they are slightly caramelized about 25 minutes. Season with a little salt and pepper. Preheat the oven to 375°.
Cut the Bacon into 3 inch strips. You will need 2 pieces per cup, depending on how big your muffin tin is and how thick/wide your Bacon is. Place the pieces in a cross pattern so it fills up the cup. The strips should be just long enough to go across the bottom and up the sides of the cup of the muffin tin. The goal is to create a “cup” with the bacon so you want bottom and sides covered. It needs to go to at least to the top of the tin since the Bacon will shrink down. But if pieces are too long and they go too far over onto the flat part between the cups, it will stick and the cups won’t cook right!
Cook the Bacon cups in the oven until the Bacon is firm and cooked about 30-35 minutes. Be careful they don’t burn. After about 20 minutes check the cups and gently push the bacon down toward the bottom of the cup, unsticking any pieces that have stuck across the top.
When cooked, and slightly cooled, lift the cups out of the fat(they will be sitting in the rendered fat) so they can drain and cool off. The cups will firm up a little more once they cool. You can make these 1-2 days ahead of time. You will just need to store them in the muffin tins, or in a single layer on sheet pans so they don’t break and to help them keep their shape.
Set up an assembly line with bowls of each of the ingredients. Put the sour cream in a squirt bottle if you have one. If not just use a small teaspoon. Fill each cup with 1 tsp. of the fried seasoned Potatoes, then a sprinkle of Onions, then a tsp. of the Gruyere. Bake the filled cups in a 375 degree oven until the cheese melts about 3-5 minutes. Top each cup with a squirt of the Sour Cream and a sprinkle of Chives. And Enjoy!
Chef’s Note. While testing this recipe for my Bacon Affair Decadent Underground Dinner, I tried this recipe with fancy thick bacons and regular thin center cut store brands. While the flavor was terrific with the “heirloom” bacons, the cups worked better, and the pieces fused together better with the plain store brands. The pieces seemed to stay separate with the thick fancy cuts. What I finally did was make the cup with the store brand and put a small piece of the “fancy” bacon at the bottom of each cup. Though this is not necessary.
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