Cured Heritage Breed Pork Jowl, Pickled Strawberry, Puntarella, Red Radicchio, Red Leaf Lettuce, Crumbled Egg Yolk, Garlic Scape, Spinach Flowers, Warm Bacon Dressing
Warm bacon dressing is one of those things that every kid growing up in a PA Dutch (German) family will remember. It's one of those things that were born from necessity but stood the test of time because they are really delicious. Throwing away perfectly good bacon fat is a sin in a PA Dutch household. This is a culture that never really bought into the absurdity that plant-based fats were better for one's health than animal fat. And so, after rendering numerous pounds of bacon, and being left with a large quantity of delicious fat, it was utilized in a number of ways including this very dressing. A warm bacon dressing is best suited in a salad with very hearty greens that can stand up to the heat and fat. Endive, treviso, radicchio, etc.
I sliced the pork jowl, that I had cured and aged in my basement for 10 weeks, into thin slices and pan fried them to render some of the fat and make them crispy. The jowl was strained on paper towels and then set on the plate.
The dressing was made by blending the rendered jowl fat with rendered bacon fat, black pepper, buttermilk and cider vinegar. You blend these all together after heating the fats. The dressing is rewarmed before use. I dipped all of the leaves in the dressing. You don't need a lot of dressing as it is extremely rich.
I arranged the rest of the ingredients on and about the plate. The crumbled yolks were from hard-boiled eggs. The not-quite-ripe strawberries were cold pickled and chilled for a week.
Product:
Heritage Breed Pork Jowl - Landisdale Farms
Almost ripe strawberries - 3 Springs
Puntarella - Culton Organics
Red Radicchio - Culton Organics
Spinach Flowers - Queen's Farm
Garlic Scape - Culton Organics
Pastured Egg- Culton Organics
Red Lead Lettuce - 3 Springs
I sliced the pork jowl, that I had cured and aged in my basement for 10 weeks, into thin slices and pan fried them to render some of the fat and make them crispy. The jowl was strained on paper towels and then set on the plate.
The dressing was made by blending the rendered jowl fat with rendered bacon fat, black pepper, buttermilk and cider vinegar. You blend these all together after heating the fats. The dressing is rewarmed before use. I dipped all of the leaves in the dressing. You don't need a lot of dressing as it is extremely rich.
I arranged the rest of the ingredients on and about the plate. The crumbled yolks were from hard-boiled eggs. The not-quite-ripe strawberries were cold pickled and chilled for a week.
Product:
Heritage Breed Pork Jowl - Landisdale Farms
Almost ripe strawberries - 3 Springs
Puntarella - Culton Organics
Red Radicchio - Culton Organics
Spinach Flowers - Queen's Farm
Garlic Scape - Culton Organics
Pastured Egg- Culton Organics
Red Lead Lettuce - 3 Springs