asian jewish deli

Oh my. This dish is so delicious. In the Momofuku cookbook David Chang writes about the substitution of smoky American bacon for dried and smoked Japanese fish in dashi broth as an important early success  and an example of the philosophy behind their cooking.

We respect tradition and we revere many traditional flavor profiles, but we do not subscribe to the idea that there’s one set of blueprints that everyone should follow. I think that in the questioning of basic assumptions–about how we cook and why we cook with what we do–is when a lot of the coolest cooking happens.

Bacon dashi really does look and smell like traditional dashi, but is unctuously porky instead of fishy. I simmered quartered new Yukon potatoes in the bacon dashi, then tossed in Manila clams just until they opened. Topped with julienned green onions and crispy bacon, this dish is so simple, warming, and fulfilling. There really isn’t anything more to say.

The weather today was amazing! I made burgers tonight to celebrate the upcoming spring/summer season. I always grind my own beef, using shortrib. The beef ends up being around 30-40% fat, resulting in a delicious, moist, and fatty burger. I season before grinding the meat, and always add a secret ingredient—anchovies.  The anchovy helps with seasoning and adds a noticeable hit of umami to the patties.

Tonight’s burgers were 3 oz and on Oroweat potato dinner rolls, small enough that I consider them sliders. From top to bottom: toasted potato roll, my own bacon onion jam (amazing, to toot my own horn), raw paper thin onion, Tillamook cheddar cheese, ground shortrib cooked medium-rare, black pepper, Kewpie mayo, potato roll. Sometimes I add romaine, tomato, or bacon but these burgers were really spectacular as is.

Accompanying was Belgian-style (twice fried) truffle fries cooked golden well-done. I made a tartar sauce for the fries, using mayo, sweet pickle relish, preserved lemon, shallot, and vinegar.

Smokey, spicy, savory.

These cookies have a certain je ne sais quoi that keeps you reaching for more. A fairly straightforward adaptation of a traditional Swedish spice cookie, these substitute rendered bacon fat for butter or shortening. The smokey and salty fat plays against the spicy ginger, cinnamon, and clove while molasses keeps everything soft and chewy. Sugar sprinkled on top and around the edges soak up any fat that melts out and crystalizes into a lacy, delicious rim. The cookies are reminiscent of the best part from a Christmas ham, the crusty glaze. I hate to play into the recent bacon internet trend (I had a bacon fan page up in 1997!), but these cookies do show that bacon can make most anything better.