My trip to Utah and Fried Bacon, Potatoes & Eggs

Week before last I flew to Salt Lake City, Utah, to help lead a 2-day cooking intensive with two naturopathic doctors from Healing Solutions Pediatric & Family Centers. We made recipes from my two books, The Garden of Eating and The Ice Dream Cookbook. We cooked in a spacious Viking Cooking School that had almost everything you could want in a kitchen: multiples of most things, from measuring cups and spoons to mixing bowls, and from wire whisks and spatulas, baking dishes and half sheet pans.

Healing cooking
The theme was wheat-free, gluten-free, dairy free diets to help people with food allergies and intolerances, people with celiac disease, yeast overgrowth, kids on the autism spectrum or with other developmental problems. We taught participants about the whole foods philosophy, how to cook with multiple meals in mind, how to cook more how to eat well on a budget, and about some of the best kitchen tools and techniques. They learned about the benefits of three healing diets and how to follow them. They included The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), The Yeast-Free Diet (aka candida diet), and the GFCF Diet (gluten-free, dairy-free diet). We had 30 participants plus a few volunteers who helped in the kitchen.

I stayed with Mary, a former cooking assistant of mine, and her husband, Steve, who used to live in Gilbert, AZ. I met them when they were students at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, AZ, and we’ve stayed in contact by phone and email in the time since they graduated and moved to Draper, UT, a suburb of Salt Lake City.

Good time and good food
We had a good time and good food. My first morning there, Steve made a yummy breakfast of bacon cooked in a cast iron skillet with diced potatoes and bell peppers. When the bacon and potatoes were crisp, he transferred them to plates and cooked the eggs in the bacon fat (mmm! my favorite ways to cook eggs). It’s not like I’ve never had bacon, eggs cooked in bacon fat, or potatoes in the same meal! I just never thought of cooking the bacon and potatoes in the same skillet at the same time.

Steve served me 2 fried eggs (I like them sunny side up) on top of the potatoes with 2 pieces of bacon on the side. I added a garnish of minced scallions (my favorite table toppings), freshly ground black pepper, and leftover cooked broccoli foraged from the refrigerator (from the previous night’s leftovers)

We had fun listening to one of their favorite comedians, Jim Gaffigan, who talks a lot about food. He's actually known as the Bacon Comedian. To check out his stuff click here. He's great to listen to while you eat, after you eat, in the car, or anywhere, any time. Can't wait to hear more of his material. (Thank you, Steve! Veggies vegetables for breakfast?

I like eating leafy green vegetables for breakfast. I know it may sound strange to the uninitiated, but I’ve  been doing it at almost every meal, including breakfast, for about 20 years, so it actually seems strange not to have them on my plate. I’ve had cooking students who adopted this practice and after a week or two or three told me they actually craved vegetables at breakfast. At first you may have to use your mind to convince yourself to eat them every day. Leftovers definitely make it easy but freshly cooked greens are great too. Leftover salad also works for breakfast. Sometimes I have that.

To get you started and keep you going, thing of the bacon, eggs, sausage or meat as the condiment for the veggies! Eat a bit of the eggs or meat with a bite of the veggies. You can do that at any meal to make the veggies more appealing, to tone done bitter flavors, and help your taste buds adjust to eating more vegetables. Almost anything tastes better with some fat and bacon and bacon fat are actually good for you, despite what you may have been told more. (More on this in some upcoming posts!)

So anyway, when I got home, I wanted to make what Steve made so I could give you the step by step instructions and get some good pictures. And yes, I wanted to enjoy the crispy goodness of bacon and fried potatoes. Luckily I had some farm-fresh, pasture-raised eggs waiting for my in my fridge when I got home. If you live in the greater Phoenix area, check out the local farmers' markets to get the best eggs or contact Anya Owen at A bar H Farm, my favorite source!

Check out the bright orange yolks from truly pasture-raised eggs. They contain more carotenes, vitamin E and omega 3s than the omega-3 eggs from natural foods stores and the expensive organic and free range eggs sold in stores. >>>>>>>>

Where’s the bacon fat?
Don’t eve think of using turkey bacon here. You need the fat in regular bacon to thoroughly cook the potatoes. Too little fat and the potatoes will burn on the outside and the inside will remain raw and will take much longer to cook. Oh, whenever you cook bacon, save the pan drippings, they’re great for cooking eggs (scrambled, fried, or made into an omelet) and for roasting potatoes in the oven, among other applications.

Potato Warning!
Potatoes contain Solanine, a toxic glyco-alkaloid. Sublethal doses can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Higher doses can cause low blood pressure, fever, rapid weak pulse, hallucinations, delirium, coma, and death. Exposure to light increases the content of this toxin. Store uncooked potatoes in the dark––e.g., a closed paper bag or shoebox in the kitchen or pantry. Avoid buying or eating potatoes with green-colored skins or sprouts longer than 1/8-inch.

Stay tuned, I plan to blog more about the many benefits of bacon and bacon fat and some utterly unusual and delicious dishes to make from them! You’ll learn about some of the myths we’ve been force fed by the popular press about this traditional food.

Better Bacon, Eggs & Potatoes

Prep: 15 minutes    Cooking: 30 minutes    Yield: Serves 2

This recipes serves 2. If you’re cooking for one. Make the full recipe, but cook only enough eggs for 1 meal. You can serve the leftovers potatoes and bacon the next day and cook the eggs fresh for that meal. If you have leftover cooked leafy greens you can serve them the next day, just take them out of the fridge first thing in the morning to allow them to come to room temp.

Ingredients:
4 strips of bacon
1 medium (4 to 5 ounce) potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice, about 1 1/4 cups
1/4 cup minced red, yellow, or green bell pepper, optional
4 medium eggs (preferably pasture-raised or omega-3 variety)*
1 tablespoon finely minced minced scallions, chives, or cilantro
2 cups blanched broccoli or sautéed kale, collards, mustard, or turnip greens

1. Place bacon in a 10- to 12-inch skillet without overlapping the pieces. Cook over medium to medium-high heat. You can use a round or square pan. Cast iron’s the best, but you can use a heavy gauge stainless steel pan. Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes. When the bacon has released some of its fat, add the potatoes and optional bell pepper to the pan and reduce the heat to medium.
2. Continue to cook uncovered until bacon and potatoes crisp up. Once bacon gets crispy, you can place it on top of the potatoes, stirring them periodically with a metal spatula (pancake turner).
3. While bacon and potatoes cook you can steam, blanch, or sauté some dark leafy greens and/or slice some fruit to go with the bacon, eggs, and potatoes. Spinach, chard and broccoli cook the fastest. If you have leftover blanched veggies you can dip them briefly into lightly salted boiling water or sauté them for a couple of minutes in extra virgin coconut oil, ghee, clarified butter, or bacon fat (you save this whenever you cook bacon, right?).
4. Divide the bacon and potatoes between 2 serving plates (or stash half of each in a heat-proof Pyrex container for the next day if you’re cooking for 1). Leave the rendered fat in the skillet. Crack 4 eggs into a bowl and add them to the hot skillet. Cook until the whites set up and the yolks are barely set. (I like them sunny side up; flip them if you prefer over easy, but don’t overcook them. Runny yolks are more digestible.)
5. Transfer 2 to 3 eggs to each serving plates and add a serving of cooked greens. Garnish the eggs with minced scallions, chives, or cilantro and serve.

Variations:

•  If you’re eating only twice a day, very active, or trying to gain weight, you might need to figure 3 eggs per person or 3 strips of bacon and have fresh fruit on the side.
•  Replace the potatoes with peeled and diced red garnet or jewel yams or white sweet potatoes. (I made this for dinner a few hours ago and thought was delicious.)