This is a variation on a theme. A sauce, absolutely bursting with flavour was the inspiration. To be precise, this one, created previously as a way to use up some tomatillos and provide a dinner that could be left alone for hours while road trip preparations were made. This time, the sauce was not created through mere necessity, but elevated to sheer reverence. The basic sauce preparation was the same, but the choice of meat for it to envelop while baking was different. A large piece of back bacon may seem an unlikely choice for Mexican inspired food but I'll admit it was through laziness that it came about. It was all I had in the fridge and seemed like a new idea.
A lot of the time it's the combination of colours that gets me. As I sit here listening to the rain pitter patter on my window and feel the sky begin to contract inwards as it gets darker, I look at the pale pink of the bacon, stark against the vivid yellow of the sauce and think, Wow, that's beautiful. Maybe it's because I'm artistically trained, but I've always been bewildered by people who don't stand in awe at pink and orange sunsets, or those who just keep driving when the sky above them looks like a fauvist oil painting. Do they not care, or do they not see?, or maybe, they just don't want to crash the car.
So here I am imitating that pretentious 20 year old fine artist again, sitting drinking tea with my fellow artists (in my head), pontificating about how post modernism is going to affect the future of the planet. OK, OK I'm digressing slightly, but pink and orange (or yellow), are beautiful together, no argument, OK.
If you can imagine the taste of lightly smoked, sweet bacon, but in a far thicker and meatier slice, blanketed with a sauce of deep, mysterious flavours such as sweet tomatillos with their slight herbal tang and plum tomatoes, you will be close to recreating the magic of this dinner. There were furrowed brows and cries of not being sure whether this really worked from one corner. but I disagree and I cooked it. I think smoked bacon was the perfect choice for this sauce. Unexpected flavours together can be intriguing and sometimes the fact that they are a little daft is what makes them better. I spend hours looking for the most unusual recipes I can find on the Internet, just out of a desire to try something totally new.
Recipe : Smoked back bacon with Mexican tomatillo sauce
You need to get hold of a large piece of uncut back bacon for this. If all you can get is those wafer thin fatty slices of streaky, use some ham instead.
1 piece of smoked back bacon, around 2 lbs in weight
1 cup tomatillos, papery husk removed
4 medium tomatoes, halved
2 bell peppers, seeded and chopped into large chunks
1/2 red onion, chopped coarsely
2 - 4 chili peppers, seeded
2 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
1 tortilla, broken into pieces
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/4 tsp fennel pollen (optional)
2 carrots, scrubbed and cut into slices
a handful of mushrooms, quartered
1 tbsp dried oregano
Preheat the grill (broiler). Lay the tomatillos, tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, chili peppers and garlic onto a baking dish. make two slits in the tops of the tomatillos (so they don't burst). Grill (broil) for about 20 minutes, turning once until the vegetables are soft, squidgy and there is lots of juice in the bottom of the tray.
Transfer the vegetables to a blender or processor and add the tortilla, fennel pollen (if using) and chicken stock. Puree until the sauce is smooth and silky. Taste it at this point and add a little salt and pepper if you like. There should be a good balance between fruity, spicy and tangy.
Pour the sauce into a large pan set over medium heat and cut your bacon or ham into thick slices. Place these into the sauce along with the carrots, mushrooms and oregano and cook, covered to heat the meat through, (if using cooked ham) or to cook and become tender if using uncooked. Let simmer for around 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes or so, the meat should be tender and the sauce rich and fragrant, although it may be a little thin. If this is the case, uncover and boil rapidly over high heat for about 10 minutes to thicken and reduce. You can remove the meat and keep covered while the sauce reduces. Serve with some white rice, stir fried with some green vegetables such as kale and maybe a few bell peppers or a pile of fluffy mash, anything to soak up the sauce.
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