Jamie Oliver’s candied bacon green salad

So I figured that it was about time to continue my journey through Jamie Oliver’s America cookbook.

On tonight’s menu was candied bacon green salad.  I was a bit iffy about the idea of sweetening bacon. I love bacon, but salty bacon, not sweet and sticky. And I’ll be honest; I might have burned the bacon…slightly, just slightly. So therefore I cannot really tell you if sweet bacon works – for me at least. But the rest if the dish is very tasty, fresh and just yummy. I usually don’t like fruit in my salad, but it works very well in this dish. It’s a lovely contrast to the crispy croutons. The dressing is nice and tangy, something I really like.

Here the recipe:

For the dressing

6 tbsp good-quality extra virgin olive oil

3 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 heaped tsp mustard

1 heaped tbsp natural yoghurt

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the salad

10 to 12 rashers of smoked streaky bacon

1 clove garlic, peeled

3 slices of fresh white bread

Olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

2 heaped tsp sugar

3 clementines

5 large handfuls of mixed salad leaves, washed and spun dry

1 pomegranate

A small bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked

Method:

To make your dressing, put all the ingredients into a large serving bowl, whisk together, and season to taste. Put to one side.

Get a large frying pan on a medium heat, add the bacon rashers and cook until lightly golden (but not really crispy), turning them every so often. Remove the bacon to a plate. Squash your garlic clove and add it to the pan, then turn the heat up a little and tear your bread into medium-sized chunks. Drop them into the pan so they suck up all the flavours and become crispy. If your bacon didn’t release a lot of fat and you think the bread needs a little help to crisp up, simply add a lug or two of olive oil. Add a pinch of black pepper and shake the bread around until crispy and golden, then remove to the plate with your bacon.

Wipe the pan clean with kitchen paper, then put the bacon back in with the sugar or honey and the juice of 1 clementine. Stir everything around in the pan so the syrup starts to stick to the bacon. As soon as the rashers are perfectly caramelized and sticky, use tongs to carefully move them to an oiled plate and leave to cool down for a minute. This process is quite quick so keep your eye on it, so it doesn’t burn.

– For next time, I will turn the heat down to low when doing this step, I think that it will reduce the risk of burning.

Whatever shape you leave the bacon in at this point is how it will set, so give the rashers a bend or a twist. Peel the remaining clementines and slice them into rounds.

Grab your bowl of dressing and add your salad leaves. Halve the pomegranate and use a spoon to knock the back of each half and pop the seeds over the salad. Add your mint leaves, then use your hands to toss and dress everything thoroughly. Lightly toss your croutons through the salad and lay your candied bacon on top. Place your clementine rounds on top of the salad.