Found this article on geekologie.com and thought I would share.
Anneke’s always saying she never gets flowers. Maybe I should show her just how much I love bacon and give her one of these! 
Flowers, as you may well know, are the key to a woman’s heart. And by heart I mean bloomers. But when you’re truly in love, crappy red roses simply will not do. Enter the bacon bouquet. It looks like flowers, but that shit is bacon!
Last night I got together with Terry Arif, an Algonquin College culinary student. Terry is competing in a culinary competition next month and asked me for help creating his dish. The theme or secret ingredient for this test is “pears”. I personally enjoy eating fresh juicy pears. I have never cooked with them aside from the obvious poached pear.
I suggested to Terry that we try and think outside the box, as most culinary students will no doubt turn to the safe route and do the classic red wine poached pear. I also suggested we try and incorporate the pear into as many parts of the dish as possible using different techniques.
Here’s what we came up with:
Terry and I were very satisfied with the outcome of the chop. The compote and glaze balanced the bold flavors of the rub we used and also showcased the pears. The rub included cumin, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, togorashi, coarse salt, black pepper and brown sugar. I might be missing some spices here as I don’t have the recipe with me @ this time. Side note, this was the first time I actually took the time to write down the recipe since Terry has to submit it for his competition.
Terry calls me a “Free Style Chef”!!! LOL
The chips on the other hand need more work. The Bosc pear was by far the best choice for this application. This pear has a very dense flesh that stands up well against the heat of the oil; also it isn’t as sweet as the Anjou pear so it makes for a better chip in my opinion. This was my first time making chips with pears; the texture was a bit on the leathery side. Maybe we need to cook them with less heat or even bake them. I have seen recipes that call for salting the veggie or fruit chip before frying. This would remove excess moisture, now that I think of it this might make them more leathery. We need to experiment more with the chips!
Check out my latest post on http://www.finediners.ca
Well things have been so busy in and out of the kitchen, I haven’t had a chance to sit down and write the follow up to Makin’ Bacon. Now that I have some spare time and have peaked your interest with the Sci-fi smoker, here’s the follow up.
I should have written this article first, as this was actually the first step, leading up to the Makin’ Bacon DIY smoker, but that article was way more fun. As discussed in the previous article, we purchased the pork bellies from Lavergn Western Beef in Navan Ontario – this place is a must stop for a foodie!