It seems so logical

After numerous weekends out of town (a visit to my family in MA, a trip to Raleigh to help my friend with her burgeoning pasta empire, and the birthday extravaganza on the North Fork), I went on a bit of a cooking bender last Saturday and Sunday. Now, as far as benders go, this ranks pretty high on the lameness scale, however, it’s far less dangerous and the aftermath is much more tasty.

Since our refrigerator held only eight bottles of beer, a plastic container full of Babybels, expired heavy cream, various hot sauces and a gallon of duck fat, I figured it was time for a major shopping excursion. After a late morning trip to Union Square, Costco, and Fairway on Saturday (with a brief stop at the Red Hook Lobster Pound for some much-needed refueling), our fridge was full and our shelves restocked. And with the 40 degree temperature and sideways rain outside, it seemed as good a day as any for some much-needed quality time alone with my stove.
While I’m not the biggest fan of lobster (probably due to my aversion to mayonnaise), I can never resist the Connecticut-style lobster roll from the Red Hook Lobster Pound. Nestled in a griddled bun, the lobster is warm, buttery and sprinkled with chopped scallions to add a little crunch and slight onion-y bite. The salt and vinegar chips are the perfect counter-balance to the richness of the butter. One of the few things I ate but did not actually cook this past weekend.
Homemade ricotta, garlic confit and a roasted red pepper grooving at the same time. All of these went into some test ravioli fillings for my friend Carm’s fresh pasta company. While the fillings are finished (ricotta with kalamata olives and roasted red pepper and the other a white bean puree with garlic confit and caramelized balsamic onions) - still need to make the actual ravioli.

My mother’s favorite meal and the perfect dinner on a crappy Saturday night: roast chicken with crispy potatoes cooked in the chicken juices and fat. The carcass went into a crock pot overnight for some chicken stock (aromatics were added the following morning and left to cook for another hour and a half). Big thanks to my friend Gleason for introducing me to that brilliant but simple idea.

As a thank you for a great birthday weekend, I made Eric one of his all time-favorites – also a classic from my repertoire – gougeres.

While I normally cook short ribs by braising them for hours in the oven, my Reel Tasty partner Jason introduced me to grilled short ribs last summer. I’m now hooked on this method as it retains the funky flavor of short ribs but still remains tender …however, since we lack a grill, I seared the boneless short ribs and made a quick pan sauce with some ramps from the Greenmarket.

All in all, it wasn’t a very experimental weekend in the kitchen. The one exception was my classic salted almond & walnut toffee – to which I added crumbled bacon. It came out fairly well - on its own, the toffee base was a bit overwhelmed by the bacon; however, once the chocolate was added, the bacon became a much more subtle player – adding a hint of smokiness and a savory richness to the normally sweet confection. Tasty, but still in need of a little work.

The highlight of the weekend, however, was breakfast on Sunday morning. Armed with leftover buttermilk from the ricotta and extra bacon from the toffee experiment, I decided to make my standard buttermilk pancakes and, for lack of anything better to do with it, tossed the bacon into the batter. Topped with maple syrup, this was the best breakfast combination I could imagine – sweet, smoky, salty and savory – all in one bite.

Over the past two days, I’ve discussed these bacon pancakes with a dozen people and keep getting the same reaction: “Wow, that seems like a no-brainer, but I’ve never had that before”. Last year, I had the "bacon-syrup wafel" from the Wafels & Dinges truck, which is the same concept but with a Belgian waffle. Yet I still never thought of doing this with pancakes. So now I’m just going to add this to the “Why didn’t I think of this earlier” category (up there with Gleason's crock pot chicken stock).

And I bet that these pancakes would help with the aftermath of any other types of benders.

Bacon Pancakes
The basic buttermilk pancake recipe is adapted from America's Test Kitchen. However, if you're feeling lazy and want to use a mix, the addition of the crumbled bacon would be just as tasty. Growing up, whenever we had pancakes or french toast with bacon or sausage, I would always dip the breakfast meat into the maple syrup. This recipe streamlines that process.

4 strips bacon - cross-cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter - melted
1 egg - lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk - shaken

In a saute pan over medium heat, cook bacon until fat is rendered and bacon is at desired crispness (I like bacon a little chewy). Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add melted butter, egg and buttermilk. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until just combined (batter will be lumpy). Mix in bacon.

Heat nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat lightly with cooking spray. Using a 1/4 cup measure, ladle or scoop batter into skillet. Cook until lightly browned and flip.

Serve with real maple syrup. Makes approximately 8 pancakes.