5 New Year's Foods to Bring Good Luck

[Music] hello this is chef john from foodwishes.com with new year's baby porchetta that's right for centuries pork has been served on new year's to symbolize progress and prosperity and there's a very good reason for that and that would be the fact that pigs never move backwards it's true pigs are always rooting forward and perpetually moving forward you know lifetime plus they're also very delicious so this works on several levels and what we need to do to start was basically a miniaturized porchetta recipe is to create our garlic herb spice rub which i will be doing in my olive wood mortar and we'll begin by crushing some whole fennel seeds so we will toss those in and give them a brief pounding and that's not because you can't eat these whole you can and do every time you eat italian sausage but by crushing these a little bit first we really release all those beautiful flavors from the fennel seed which by the way if you're doing this will smell amazing so we'll work those over for about a minute before adding the rest of the ingredients which includes a whole bunch of sliced garlic as well as some freshly ground black pepper and then we're also going to need some herb and i'm doing two i'm doing some sage leaves which i've sliced up as well as some freshly chopped rosemary we will also want a little bit of citrus zest as you can see i'm going with lemon but orange or a combination of both would also be nice and then let's go ahead and finish this off with some chili flakes as well as of course some kosher salt and once we have all that together what we'll do is crush this for about a minute or two to form basically a coarse paste so of course this has been edited it's going to take you a couple minutes but we'll want to smoosh and smash that until we have something that looks about like this at which point we'll finish this off with a splash of olive oil and once that's been drizzled in we'll grind that for another minute at which point our garlic herb spice paste should be done and i really do love everything about using a mortar for this step except they're really hard to film because you can't really see what's going on in there but good news you're going to get a great look at that texture when we spread it over our pork which is going to be the next step as soon as we prep our pork tenderloin and there it is what i have here is a one pound of fully trimmed pork tenderloin which is how i buy mine and yours is probably going to come in a similar condition and other than possibly trimming off a little bit of silver skin it should be pretty much ready to go and the only thing we're going to do to prep this for our spice rub is to cut a pocket with a thin sharp knife right down the center about 75 percent of the way through but i don't like to do the entire length okay we want to leave the ends at sans gash so we'll leave about an inch on either end uncut and like i said we'll cut about 75 percent of the way through to form a pocket as shown so that is looking just about perfect right there although i really should probably turn that so it's easier to work with and then what we'll do is transfer in about a tablespoon of our rub and spread that into our newly formed pocket oh and by the way i should mention if these particular rub ingredients don't turn you on this video is really more of a technique and will pretty much work no matter what you use in this right you are after all the bob dylan of your filling so feel free to adapt and then what we'll do once we spread about a tablespoon inside is close that back up and transfer the rest over the top and we'll go ahead and spread that as evenly as we can on both sides and please you're going to want to use your hands here as no other tool will work as well and then what we're going to do once we have all our garlic and spice mixture spread over evenly is wrap this in strips of bacon so we'll start at the end and we'll wrap this in strips of bacon ideally starting and ending with the seam underneath the loin which hopefully is going to help keep them in place okay so a real porchetta is made with pork loin wrapped in pork belly so here to miniaturize it we're going with the much smaller pork tenderloin and then instead of wrapping with the whole belly we'll simply wrap in these strips of bacon which in case you didn't know is sliced pork belly and as far as starting and ending with the seams on the bottom that worked great for the first two but with this third one because the piece was a little smaller and the pork loin was a little thicker my strip ended on top so what i decided to do was simply trap it by placing another one over the top which totally worked to keep it in place but as you'll see later where we doubled up that bacon it didn't quite cook as much as i wanted but anyway we'll get into that later so we'll go ahead and cover our tenderloin with bacon strips from one end to the other like i said somehow ending up with the seams on the bottom and then once that's set i'm pretty sure we could cook it right away if we had to but what i'm highly suggesting is wrapping it up and popping it in the fridge for about an hour to chill it thoroughly and to give it time for those flavors to mingle plus since this was the first time i tried this miniature version i was worried about the loin inside overcooking by the time the bacon cooked on the outside so i thought chilling it would help that situation since the inside would be a little colder and take a little longer to cook but anyway i did wrap mine up and pop in the fridge for about 60 minutes at which point we are ready to roast and what we'll want to do is unwrap that and transfer it onto a very lightly oiled foil lined baking sheet okay i'm using a half pan but a full sheet pan will work beautifully and then what we'll do once our baby porchetta has been successfully panned up is transfer that into the center of a very hot 450 degree oven for about 25 minutes or so or until our probe reads 134 at which point it should look something like this and no 134 internal temp is not cooked enough but as this sits and rests for at least 10 minutes or so that internal temp is going to climb to somewhere between 140 and 145 which is absolutely perfect and if you don't believe me wait until we slice this open so i definitely let mine sit and rest for about 10 minutes and instead of just staring at it doing nothing i decide to grab my blowtorch and give that outside surface a little bit extra color okay while this is a brilliant technique for creating juicy flavorful pork tenderloin it's not necessarily a brilliant technique for creating gorgeous bacon okay if we waited for that bacon to crisp up our pork inside would be way way overcooked so i did cheat a little bit here but as they say if you're not cheating you're not trying and then once our baby porchetta has rested at least 10 minutes we are able to slice in and see how we did and how did we do check it out that is about as perfect as you could hope to cook a pork tenderloin plus it's wrapped with bacon so that just came out amazingly well and i really do want a piece right now but i don't want to wreck a big piece i want to save those for the picture so let me try a little end cut here which was nothing short of insanely delicious and shockingly porchetta-like so i went ahead and sliced up a proper portion and served it with a little italian white bean ragu and then i took way too many pictures and the meat got cold but i ate it anyway and enjoyed every not hot but incredible bite and besides the gorgeous appearance and flavor this was so incredibly tender as you can tell since i'm cutting it with a fork with little or no effort and yes in case you're wondering you can deglaze a foil lined pan i just splashed a little water on it while it was still hot and gave it a little stir and spooned it over so if you want you could just do some natural pan juices or something like a salsa verde or an aioli or nothing since this really is so incredibly flavorful and really doesn't need much but anyway that's it my new year's baby porchetta for first attempt i just loved how this came out although next time i think i will experiment trying to get that bacon cooked a little more most of it was fine but the places where it overlap was a little undercooked so as cooks even though we're happy with how something came out we should always be looking for ways to improve it okay the key is to always try to be happy but never satisfied in fact i think i'm gonna make that my new year's resolution to be happy yet not satisfied in 2017. hey that's better than clean out the garage but anyway let me finish up by wishing you all a very happy and healthy new year filled with progress and prosperity which is why i really do hope you give this a try soon so head over to foodwishes.com for all the ingredient amounts i'm more info as usual and as always enjoy [Music] new year's good luck pasta fazool that's right it is a proven unscientific fact that eating pork beans or greens at the beginning of a new year brings you great luck so just imagine what happens if we put all three of those things together in the same dish like we're doing here all right in that case we're not talking about the kind of good luck where you buy a lottery ticket thinking you have a better chance of winning we're talking about the kind of good luck where you don't even need to win the lottery so with that let's go ahead and get started by throwing a whole bunch of sliced up bacon into a cold soup pot that we will place over medium heat and what we'll do is cook this stirring for as long as it takes for most of that fat to render out and for that bacon just to start to crisp up and by the way any kind of pork here will work and bring you good luck so if you're not into bacon and would rather use something like pancetta or fresh pork or even a pork sausage go ahead i mean you guys are after all the rupauls of your pasta fazool calls but since we have beans and greens going in this i do like that little bit of smokiness the bacon provides but anyway like i said we'll go ahead and cook that until most of the fat renders out and how you can tell you're getting close is by remembering a very old food we're saying which is once your bacon starts to look foamy it's almost done homie okay so once yours looks a little something like this that has probably gone far enough and at this point if we want we can remove some of that excess fat which as you know i like to do with a wadded up paper towel and using some tongs i'll just go ahead and tilt the pan until most of that fat gets soaked up and then we'll just very carefully transfer that into a cup and to me that's just a very fast and easy way to remove some of that fat and don't worry we still have about a tablespoon or two in there with which to saute our onions and celery which by the way are the next ingredients we will add along with a nice big pinch of salt and we'll saute those for about six or seven minutes or until they start to soften up and those onions begin to turn translucent so that is looking pretty good right there and then once you feel that's cooked long enough we'll go ahead and toss in some freshly ground black pepper a few shakes of cayenne a little bit of dry time a little bit of dry oregano and then a couple tablespoons of tomato paste and then once all that's in there we'll go ahead and give it a stir and cook it for about two minutes or so just so that tomato paste toasts a little bit onto the bottom of the pan okay i think that little bit of caramelization really helps bring out more flavor so we will cook that stirring for a couple minutes before tossing in some minced garlic and we'll go ahead and saute that for about a minute or two just to take off that raw edge and infuse that bacon fat with some garlicky goodness and then once that's set we can go ahead and add our cooking liquids which for me is going to be a quart of good quality chicken broth or stock same thing as well as i'm also going to add a cup of water and yes of course you could just add five cups of chicken broth but i really didn't want to open up another container just to get another cup but anyway we'll go ahead and stir that in and then we'll turn our heat up to high and bring this up to a simmer and then once that mixture is bubbling we'll back our heat down to medium and we'll let that simmer just like that while we prep our greens and for this i ended up using a nice big large bunch of swiss chard and the first thing we're going to want to do is go ahead and strip those leaves off those really tough thick center stems okay so i usually start at the bottom and just sort of rip up towards the top until all i'm left with are those nice tender leaves and by the way the swiss chard has not been washed yet all right as you're about to see i think it's much better to wash this after you cut it okay so what we'll do once that's been de-stemmed is go ahead and wad up a handful at a time and then very carefully slice them across one way and then we'll turn them and slice them across the other way and by the way if there's a spot in this recipe where you're going to cut yourself this would be it okay these leaves are very fluffy and distracting so as you're maneuvering them make sure your fingers stay away from the blade so we will carefully and safely slice those one way and then the other which is going to produce some fairly small pieces which i think is going to fit a lot better on your spoon than a long piece but anyway suit yourself maybe you want a nice long piece of greens flopping off your spoon and burning your chin but personally i think bite size is best and then what we'll do once those are chopped is transfer them into a large bowl which we will then fill up with water so that we can give these a thorough washing and the great thing about dirt and sand is that it will always fall to the bottom of the bowl so after we've switched those around for a while what we'll do is grab a handful at a time and transfer those into another bowl and that way any sand that was attached will fall to the bottom of the bowl and that's it our greens have been successfully chopped and washed which means we can go ahead and stir them into our pot and then what we'll do once those have been successfully submerged is let those simmer for about 10 minutes or so or until those greens start getting nice and tender and of course we're going to adjust our seasonings at the end but braised greens do need a good amount of salt so after stirring those in i am going to add a nice big pinch here oh and i should mention when i gave the time of simmering for about 10 minutes that would be if you're using swiss chard which is a relatively tender green okay if you use something like kale or collard greens you're probably going to have to give them a little more time but you'll know because you'll be checking them and you'll be like hey these greens are tender i think i can move on to the next step which would be adding one can of drained but not rinsed cannellini beans or any bean for that matter and we will go ahead and stir those in and then very important raise our heat to high because before we add our pasta we want this mixture boiling so we'll go ahead and crank up that heat and then as soon as our pot is bubbling like this we can go ahead and add our pasta and i usually use elbow macaroni for my pasta visual but this time i went with orc caddy which means little ears since someone a very very long time ago in italy thought that's what these look like and they kind of do but anyway we'll go ahead and stir that in and then we'll cook this stirring occasionally for about 12 to 15 minutes or until our pasta gets tender and of course your times may vary depending on what you use and as you all know there's no guessing in the kitchen so we'll go ahead and grab a spoon and give it a test and as you can see that oroketi is the perfect shape for holding a bean but anyway i gave it a taste and it was cooked perfectly and besides checking the doneness of the pasta we also want to test at this point for seasoning and i determined might need a little more salt and yours probably will too so i stirred that in and gave it one last taste and that said once we're happy with it we can go ahead and grab a ladle and serve it up and by the way for whatever reason it gets too thick you can always add another splash of broth or water alright that's just you cooking but mine was exactly as thick as i wanted which is pretty thick so i went ahead and served some up preferably next to some nice crusty toasted bread and then as far as a few finishing touches i went ahead and garnished the top with a little bit of grated parmesan as well as a little drizzle of olive oil and then last but not least a little pinch of red pepper flake and that's it our new year's good luck pasta vazul is ready to enjoy and yes for the record we are pronouncing it and spelling it wrong it's really of course pasta vigil but why would you say that when you could say pasta vasud it's just one of those things that makes you happy to say but anyway let me go ahead and dig in and that my friends is just a magnificent bowl of comfort food in fact this is so satisfying and so delicious even if i knew this would bring me bad luck i would still make it that's how good this is but don't worry it doesn't it brings nothing but great luck and that i can guarantee oh and speaking of new year's if one of your resolutions was to learn to cook this year this is a fantastic dish to start with since it is very simple and straightforward yet combines a lot of different techniques you're going to want to master all right just simply make this recipe like five or six times using different meats and different greens and different vegetables and different beans and then after that you will pretty much know how to cook but whether you are brand new to cooking or very very experienced and overconfident like me either way i really do hope you give this a try soon so please follow the links below for all the ingredient amounts a printable written recipe and much more info as usual and as always enjoy [Music] roast tenderloin of beef of course this is super expensive but look on the bright side if you screw it up you'll feel bad for weeks but don't worry i'm going to show you a method that's so easy so foolproof you're going to be shocked at how awesome your beef comes out so we're going to start this off with a two and a half to three pound tenderloin roast this one comes from what they call the butt end all right it's the largest end of the tenderloin and because of its size it makes a really nice roast and it also tends to be a little less expensive than the classic center-cut tenderloin roast which are also sometimes called chateaubriand so we have a little bit of prep to do we're gonna remove what's called the silver skin which is yes that shiny silvery white skin so you wanna take a thin sharp knife all right go underneath you only want to get that silver skin do not cut into the meat too far all right so be careful so i'm going to remove any obvious silver skin from the top it's pretty easy to see but on that side between those two little muscles i don't want you digging down too deep all right you'll see when we slice this it's not a problem that fat really doesn't go in there too deeply on the other side there's a piece of meat attached which they call the chain and i'm going to leave it attached to the roast but any of that external fat like you see there i'm going to go ahead and cut that off so tenderloin is a really lean piece of meat so we can leave a little bit of that white fat on there but the tough part the silver skin you want to remove that i'm going to cut that little chunk of fat out there but that's pretty much it i'm going to flip it over so on this side there should just be a little bit of trimming required so i'm going to slice that off if i see any more silver skin i'm going to take that off and that is trimmed and ready to tie all right so we're going to take some butcher string and we're going to do a classic kind of trussing method i'm going to start off by tying one end down and then i'm going to just make a simple loop with the string bring it over the loin and just kind of cinch it up and as you pull it actually will tighten up beautifully all right so let's see another one here so i just loop the string over just like that bring it all the way over the line and then you simply center it and give it a little tug and that string will cinch up and you keep doing that every inch or two and that's gonna hold everything together nice and tight and allow for it to roast really evenly okay so when you get to the end and you've made your last tie flip it over and bring the string along the bottom i'm gonna loop it under once there and i'm just gonna tie that off where i started and that's done by the way if you're getting this from a butcher they will do all this trimming and tying for you it costs a little extra of course but they'll do it all right so my beef tenderloin is prepped and ready to start but before we start the cooking process i have one more thing to prep because i'm doing a shallot and porcini mushroom sauce i need to soak my dry porcini we pour over water we let it soak until it's soft which will take about an hour if you use warm water it goes faster once they're soft squeeze them out and chop in bite-size pieces don't throw away the water all right i'm gonna reserve that until i need it all right so when we're ready to start cooking the beef i'm gonna season that very very generously with salt and freshly cracked black pepper i'm gonna put a heavy skillet on high heat all right a little bit of vegetable oil and i'm gonna sear that really well on all sides i want a very brown crust and i also want a nice fond in the bottom of the pan and the fond of course you know is that caramelized meat juice on the bottom so i'm going to stay on medium high to high heat the whole way here until i have a perfectly seared roast when that happens i'm going to remove the beef to a plate i'm going to turn the heat down to medium i'm going to throw in a chunk of butter and i'm going to add lots of shallots and a pinch of salt now what's going to happen the liquid from the shallots is going to actually deglaze that fond from the bottom of the pan i'm going to cook those shallots in that butter for about five six minutes all right until they start to turn golden brown at that point i'm gonna deglaze the pan with tarragon vinegar if you don't have that you can just use regular white wine vinegar you could even use white wine if you want but i do want a little bit of acidity you're going to pour that in stir it around it's going to evaporate pretty quickly and when it looks like that i'm going to go ahead and pour in some stock or broth i'm using chicken veal stock if you can get it really is what you want to use here but if not i suggest a nice high quality chicken broth all right at that point i'm going to add in my diced porcini mushroom all right i'm going to toss in some salt and pepper we're going to adjust that at the end but i'm going to put it in a little bit here and because this is a special occasion and we want it a little bit more luxurious i'm gonna put in a splash of heavy cream and then a big splash of the water we soaked the mushrooms in of course i strained it because it could have sand in it so strain it a splash of that all right i'm gonna toss my beef back in i'm going to toss it around in that sauce a little bit and that's going to go in a 325 degree oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 125 that's for a perfect medium rare a little bit on the rare side so mine took about 45 minutes at 325 and because you're roasting it very gently you're going to get a perfect tenderloin that's evenly cooked throughout a perfect perfect pink all right i'm going to remove my tenderloin to a plate cover loosely with foil and that has to rest at least 10 minutes while we finish our sauce which is quite simple because it's already been roasting with the tenderloin all right i'm simply going to put that on high heat bring it up to a boil when i'm happy with the consistency i'm going to turn off the heat i'm going to toss in some salt and pepper i'm going to throw in our traditional chunk of cold butter stir that in when it's almost melted the last ingredient a big giant pinch of fresh tarragon and of course tarragon is a main flavoring in bernays which is a very popular sauce for roast beef tenderloin all right you're gonna taste for salt and pepper and that sauce is done so simple so amazingly elegant and delicious so of course you're gonna cut the string off your tenderloin you're gonna place it back on the sauce if you want maybe some more herb maybe surround it with potatoes and bring it to the table just like that all right so that would be one way family style or you can slice it up ahead of time and just plate it up individually and look at that perfectly perfectly cooked and juicy beef tenderloin i'm telling you that slow oven and cooking it on top of the sauce really does magical things to this piece of beef all right so i'm gonna put a little sauce down i'm going to put my sliced beef right on top of there that is just beautiful so anyway there you go a simple easy method for roasting a tenderloin of beef you can see how perfectly cooked that comes out and when i cut into that it was literally like butter just so soft succulent perfect that sauce with that little bit of sharpness from the vinegar the aromatic tarragon the sweetness from the shallots that little bit of richness from the cream and butter just a magnificent combination so anyway if you're splurging for a special occasion roast this beef tenderloin procedure will produce a very very impressive piece of meat so head over to foodwishes.com for all the ingredient amounts and more information as usual and as always enjoy utica greens and beans that's right every year for new year's day we try to do some kind of recipe involving beans and greens and why beans and greens on new year's day you may ask because as any scientist will tell you if you eat poor on the first day of the year you will enjoy incredible financial prosperity the rest of the year i mean think about it totally makes sense right and this year's offering is inspired by a recipe called utica greens which you'll read a lot more about on the blog but for now we better get to preppin and the star of the show is escarole i have two heads here and you know we've used this before for many a delicious recipe and it's very easy to prep you're simply going to trim that bottom off which is going to release all those individual leaves and then you're going to take a handful of those individual leaves and kind of wad them up and just slice them across like that into kind of large pieces you know the drill decide on the size and stick with it so i'm gonna go ahead and cut up two heads of escrow and what we're gonna need to do is wash those very carefully so i'm gonna put them in a big bowl of cold water and i did mine twice there's usually a lot of sand and siltness all right so we're gonna give that stuff a very thorough washing and then we're gonna blanch it very briefly in salted water so generously salt some water bring it to a boil and once it comes to a boil we're gonna go ahead and add our escarole and we're only gonna cook this for about two minutes all right it's not even really cooking we're just sort of wilting it a little now you see some recipes say boil it for like five or six minutes until it's kind of tender but i don't really like that all right this is a dish that gets finished under the broiler so i don't want to cook it too far here so just like two minutes and then we're gonna fish it out into a bowl and then to stop the cooking process we're gonna go ahead and run cold water over that all right you don't really need ice water just cold water will do like i said that's gonna stop the cooking and then we'll simply let that drain on the side until needed and it's on to the pancetta phase so in a big skillet with a little touch of olive oil i'm going to go ahead and crisp up some pancetta i'm going to use medium heat here pretty much throughout a lot of people especially in utica use prosciutto but i really do prefer the pancetta for this i like to get this fairly crisp to me you lose that beautiful caramelized pork flavor and it can get a little funky but i really do like the pancetta here and as you can see we're going to cook that fairly well and then what we're going to do when our pancetta or prosciutto looks like that we're gonna add some kind of hot pepper now i'm gonna use jalapeno because it's winter and i can't really get those nice summer hot long italian peppers but pretty much anything's gonna work here and obviously if you want to use something sweeter and milder like a bell pepper go for it but anyway you'll figure it out it's just peppers and i just gave mine kind of a rustic chop rustic being a euphemism for not caring what they look like and we're going to cook those in that hot pancetta oil for just a couple minutes just till they start to soften at which point we're going to add another mandatory ingredient a whole bunch of chopped garlic now be careful we don't want this to brown so i'm going to give this let's say a one-minute sizzle and then we're going to go ahead and pour in a cup of chicken stock or broth and we're going to go ahead and bring that up to a simmer and while we do i'm going to give it a couple pinches of black pepper and some salt as usual your job description will include adjusting the seasoning and as soon as that mixture starts simmering we are ready to finish the dish so to do that we're going to add our greens back in but before we do i'm going to add one bonus ingredient that is not in the original beans and i'm using cooked cranberry beans here also known as boralti beans i think that's what they are in italian so i'm going to stir those in those are obviously already cooked and then at that point we're going to go ahead and dump in our drained escrow and we'll take a spoon and we'll mix that up so everything's kind of evenly distributed or some might say distributed and then right here let's go ahead and turn off our heat and then the final step what really makes utica greens utica greens the graton topping so we're going to sprinkle in about a half cup of plain breadcrumbs do not use panko do not use anything fancy you just want very fine plain generic cheap breadcrumbs and what we're gonna do is we're gonna take our spoon and mix that in but not thoroughly i do not want full integration so you see how i'm using the tip of the spoon i don't want you pressing and packing everything down all right i want to be able to see a little bit of that breadcrumb on the greens on the beans all right so that looks perfect i can still see a little breadcrumb at that point i'm going to give it a little shake of red pepper flakes or cayenne i went with red pepper flakes i don't want to be pigeon holed and then after that little shot of extra pepper a tiny tiny dusting of extra bread crumb we're not going to mix this one in i just want to kind of dry the top off a little bit in preparation of the last couple ingredients which are some finely grated parmesan cheese of course we're using the parmesan or reggiano as we always do and we're going to give that a thorough dusting you pretty much want to cover the surface and at this point we're going to preheat our broiler to high we're going to finish with a light drizzling of olive oil and then that's going to go under a hot broiler until the top is golden brown and i'd love to tell you how long that takes but i can't depends on how far away you are from the flame and how hot your broiler is but you don't need times when you have eyes because you're simply going to look at it and you'll tell when it's done so i looked at mine here and i was like that's getting close but i think i want to go a little longer so i left it in another couple minutes i looked at it again and it looked like this and i was like hey that's done so i took it out i brought it into some marginally better light and that utica greens plus beans is done and let me tell you we've probably done at least four or five beans degrees type dishes on the blog and this not only is my new favorite but more importantly my wife michelle's favorite so this definitely got her stamp of approval and there's no mystery why it is so delicious so nutritious and so easy there's just nothing not to like about it and yes the original utica greens does not have beans but since beans with greens is such a classic combination it totally works and while i generally use this as a side dish in this case with some beautiful dried italian sausage it is certainly satisfying enough and flavorful enough to be its own main course but anyway like i said you make this on new year's day you eat this and then the rest of the year will bring you untold fortunes and how much specifically should you expect i can't tell you it's untold but not knowing is all part of the fun so i really do hope you give this a try head over to foodwishes.com for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual and as always enjoy [Music] hello this is chef john from foodwishes.com with hot bacon dressing that's right not only am i going to show you one of my favorite salad dressings of all time but we're going to show you a special new year's day salad of spinach and black eyed peas that actually brings you prosperity and good fortune alright more about that later right now it's all about the hot bacon dressing so i'm going to start by thickly slicing up a half a pound of good quality smoked bacon nice big pieces i'm gonna put that in a cold saute pan with a little bit of vegetable oil put that over medium heat and cook that crisp all right so we're doing two things here we're of course cooking the bacon but we're also producing an incredibly flavorful bacon fat infused oil to make the dressing with so we're gonna continue cooking on medium until the bacon is all the way cooked it'll look like that you know what crispy bacon looks like when the bacon's ready i want you to transfer it to a strainer set over a bowl we want both things we want the pieces of crispy bacon of course but we also want that oil underneath for the dressing all right so just reserve those two things we're gonna go back to the pan which is now empty and toss in our minced onion put it back on medium heat i'm gonna drizzle in about a teaspoon of that bacon fat with a pinch of salt and we're gonna saute those onions for about five minutes until golden brown all right once the onions are soft and sweet i'm gonna add some garlic i'm gonna saute that for one minute we don't wanna brown the garlic and then we're gonna add our vinegars so i'm gonna go with apple cider vinegar and rice vinegar we're also gonna add some water and because this is a sweet and tangy dressing we're gonna add some sugar so i'm gonna stir that in next in goes two heaping spoons of dijon mustard not the yellow mustard please get some dijon mustard i don't have anything against yellow mustard as long as it's only used on hot dogs all right once the mustard is mixed in we're gonna raise the heat up to medium high bring this up to a simmer okay at this point i'm going to grind in a whole bunch of black pepper because this dressing really should be nice and peppery and then we're going to thicken this up a little bit using some cornstarch so very simple a teaspoon of corn starch with a couple teaspoons of cold water all right mix it up go back over to your pan make sure you got the whisk in one hand and you're gonna drizzle in the cornstarch with the other and that's gonna thicken up really quickly all right like within a minute and it's gonna look like that at that point i want you to turn the heat down too low and drizzle in a third of a cup of our bacon drippings all right so that's that oil we cook the bacon in you're to stir that in because of the acidity of the dressing and because it's been thickened with the corn starch that oil that bacon fat is going to emulsify right into this beautifully and you're going to have this gorgeous thick glossy dressing all right remember the heat's on low last but not least we're going to toss in our cooked bacon and then it's pretty much done we're going to taste and adjust for seasoning by the way use a spoon nobody wants your grubby finger in their dressing especially twice all right so i checked mine not surprisingly it needed adjusting so i cracked in some more black pepper alright i gave it a shot of cayenne i like this dressing a little on the spicy side and a big pinch of salt make sure this has enough salt otherwise it will be flat and that is one finished hot bacon dressing all right our dressing is done and while it's still hot we are going to dress are spinach salad and as i said earlier this is a special new year's day salad greens and beans very traditional on new year's day they bring good luck you'll have to read the blog post where i explain but i'm going to add a handful of black eyed peas to this baby spinach you can use freshly cooked black eyed peas this is just canned that i rinsed and drained i'm also going to add in some sliced raw mushrooms and cherry tomatoes so obviously i'm just tossing one salad here but i'll give you the ingredients for six on the blog i'm gonna spoon over my hot bacon dressing and it is hot you can tell by the steam i'm gonna quickly stir that in now the dressing's hot but the salad is not really hot so you want to work quickly you want to toss it i'm going to put that in a bowl all right maybe put a little extra that hot dressing on there and that is one gorgeous gorgeous salad so anyway if one of your new year's resolutions is try to get more bacon in my diet in 2012 then hopefully this will help it was really really good smoky spicy sweet tangy there's nothing not delicious about it i mean if you haven't had one of these you have to try it's just as simple as that so go to foodwishes.com for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual and as always enjoy [Music] you

Channel: Food Wishes

Views: 148,917

Keywords: good luck foods, new year's day good luck, new years, nyd good luck foods, beans and greens, eat poor on new year's, porchetta, bacon-wrapped, beef tenderloin, roast tenderloin of beef, new years eve, utica greens and beans, black eyed peas, bacon dressing, spinach salad, how to cook, cooking, chef john, food wishes, new year's recipes, new year's day recipes, what to eat on new year's day, food, dinner, recipes, pasta e fagioli, pasta fasul, pasta fazool

Id: b7MNx32YCQM

Length: 35min 2sec (2102 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 26 2021