Bacon Buttermilk Pancakes with Basted Egg…and more Bacon – Inspired by The Buff Restaurant’s ‘Saddelbags’

I was watching Season 3 Episode 2 of Man v Food and my jaw dropped when I saw him devour the ‘Saddlebags’ at the Buff Restaurant in Colorado. The ‘Saddelbags, as described on the menu, is:

‘PANCAKES FILLED WITH YOUR CHOICE OF DICED BACON, SLICED SAUSAGE, OR DICED HAM, TOPPED WITH TWO EGGS’.

Now, it might sound a bit odd, but before you judge you must look it up on YouTube and then you will see how unbelievably delicious this breakfast looks. I will admit, I didn’t like the idea of sausage or ham, so I just used bacon because it’s similar to how I would eat French Toast.

So, within hours of watching the episode, I wrote my shopping list, got all of my ingredients from the supermarket, and went to bed that night excited to cook my breakfast the next day!

I found a simple recipe for buttermilk pancakes at Best Recipes which was fabulous. I followed every step exactly except I only used 1 tablespoon of sugar because I was going to be drenching the pancakes in maple syrup anyway…

http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/buttermilk-pancakes-L31.html

I found the recipe for oven-baking my bacon at About.com and that was also very simple and delicious. The bacon turned out super crispy; much better than fried bacon I think!

http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/breakfastcookery/ht/bacon.htm

And, I used this YouTube video to learn how to baste an egg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrXPLky2NyM
It was so easy, and so good! I’ve definitely been converted and wont be going back to fried eggs!

So basically, what I did was:

1. Got my bacon in the oven
2. Made my pancake mixture
3. Cut my bacon into little pieces, and saved one longer strip for plating up
4. Got my eggs, butter, water and pan ready to baste my egg
5. Began cooking the egg
6. Made my pancakes by pouring some of the mixture into a hot buttered pan and pressing bits of bacon onto the top side. Then flipping it over, letting it finish cooking
7. Served the bacon pancake with a basted egg, a strip of bacon and a good drizzle of maple syrup!
8. YUM!

Korean Barbecued Beef Tacos

I had never cooked Korean food or ribs before, so I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone and do them both at the same time. And I’m glad I did, because this recipe I found was fantastic – the meat was incredibly juicy and flavoursome and all the accompaniments went so well with the meat and were so fresh. And of course, they’re tacos, one of my absolute favourite meals!

I would definitely recommend giving this recipe a go, keeping in mind to leave out the spicy ingredients if you aren’t too good with spicy food, because these tacos definitely pack a punch (most of the spiciness comes from the sauce though, so you could change the sauce or just use it sparingly).

My meat took a while to cook because it was quite thick (about 10 mins each side). I think it was about 2 inches thick. So you could cut it in half to reduce the cooking time if you wanted to.

I found this recipe on the SBS Food website:  http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/15733/Korean_barbecue_tacos
But here is the recipe copy and pasted a too:

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg la galbi/flanken style short ribs (laterally cut thin slices of beef short ribs, available from Korean butchers)
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• ½ cup-3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp cooking sake
• ½-3/4 onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1cm piece ginger
• ½ peeled Korean pear, optional
• 1 green onions, sliced
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 3 tbsp sesame oil

Coriander-and-onion salsa 

• 1 Spanish red onion, chopped
• 1 bunch coriander, chopped
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar
• Salt to season

Korean soy slaw 

• 1 cup savoy cabbage, shredded
• 1 1/2 cup baby cos lettuce, shredded
• 1/4 clove garlic, minced, optional
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp kochugaru (Korean chilli powder)
• 2 tsp brown rice vinegar
• 1/2 jalapenos, finely chopped, optional
• 1/2 tsp roasted sesame seeds, optional

Korean spicy barbecue sauce

• 2 tbsp kochujang (Korean chilli paste)
• 1 tbsp corn syrup
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp brown rice vinegar

 

• Serve with 20-24 mini corn/ flour tortillas for tacos

Preparation

1. Wash the short ribs and soak in cold water for 30 minutes. Drain the meat using a colander and transfer to a large bowl.
2. Blend the onions, garlic, ginger, cooking sake and Korean pear (if using) in a food processor. Mix with the rest of the marinade ingredients.
3. Mix the meat with the marinade. Place in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight to marinate.
4. Combine all the ingredients for the spicy barbecue sauce. Set aside.
5. Combine all the ingredients for the coriander and onion salsa. Set aside.
6. Remove the meat from its marinade. Cook the strips of meat over high heat in a griddle pan, lightly brushed with oil, making sure the slices don’t overlap. Cook over medium heat until well caramelised, turning over once after about 4 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cut.
7. Cut the cooked meat away from the bones and into small cubes of roughly 1.5-2cm. Set aside and keep warm.
8. Combine all the ingredients for the slaw dressing. Just before serving, pour over the cabbage and lettuce.
9. Heat the tortillas individually in a dry frying pan on a high heat. Drape kitchen towel over tortillas to keep them warm.
10. Assemble a small amount of meat, slaw, salsa and sauce in each tortilla. Repeat with remaining tortillas, salsa and slaw.

Sticky Stewed Granny Smith Apples with Pecans and Raisins

Yum, yum and yum.

I was craving something sweet after dinner, but had no nice fruit, no chocolate, no dairy products of any kind… Basically my pantry and fridge were on the verge of being empty! But I managed to create this yummy dessert with some mediocre granny smith apples, maple syrup, pecans and raisins.

I probably would have never of made this dessert if I had some chocolate or yogurt lying around, so I’m thankful for having very little food and getting a bit creative, because this was delicious! The only thing that would have made it better would have been some natural yogurt or ice cream, but alas, I didn’t have any.

Ingredients

• 2 small granny smith apples, cut into small pieces (skin on or off)
• 2 teaspoons maple flavoured syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon raisins
• 1/3 cup water
• 5 or so pecan halves, broken into pieces
• 1.5 teaspoons of butter or margarine

Method

1. Place a saucepan on low-medium heat and add your butter/margarine
2. Rinse your apples, cut them up, and add to the hot butter. Stir for a minute
3. Stir your cinnamon, raisins, maple syrup and pecans into the apples and leave for a minute
4. Add your water and stir. Leave to simmer on low-med heat for 10 minutes or until it has gone sticky
5. Serve in a bowl by itself or with some yogurt or ice cream!