Potato Bacon Bombs

In honor of the inimitable Patton Oswalt, I created these delicious appetizers for last night's dinner party.

(I'm such a bad Jew.)



8-12 Red La Soda potatoes
24 uncooked shrimp
12 strips of bacon
1 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried rosemary

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Pour in the potatoes and boil them till they're al dente (stick a fork in them and check; the fork should pass easily through the potato without tearing it apart). Remove the potatoes and let them cool off, 5-10 minutes.

While you're waiting, take this opportunity to shred about 1 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese, or more if that's your thing. Then, pour the olive oil into a small bowl and mix in the rosemary, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

Now chop the potatoes in half. Carefully dig out the insides with a spoon using a circular drilling motion; set aside the insides for mashed potatoes or something. Bring some more water to a boil and cook the shrimp (tails removed) for about a minute.

Slice the bacon in half. Wrap each piece of shrimp in one half-slice of bacon, and place it in a potato-half. Do this for the remaining bacon, shrimp, and potatoes. Brush the bottom of each potato with the olive oil mixture and place each on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Top each potato bacon bomb with shredded cheddar cheese. Place the sheet in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Let sit, covered, for about 15 minutes before serving. Be careful when eating the potato bacon bombs; fatty juices tend to accumulate inside the bombs as they cook.

"This is so good, no wonder it's illegal!"

L.A. cracks down on the classic, delicious Sonoran (i.e. wrapped in bacon) hot dog.

I take exception to L.A. claiming ownership of the Sonoran hot dog, though. It's just as much an Arizona tradition, if not more so.

Pancetta and Garlic Encrusted Pork Loin

I watched Giada DiLaurentiis make something similar to this dish on the Food Network. Unfortunately my short attention span got the best of me and I didn't watch long enough to get the whole recipe. So I thought it would be fun to get some pancetta and pork loin and try to improvise the recipe. Here are the results!

Pancetta and Garlic-Encrusted Pork Loin

1 pork loin, about a couple of pounds worth (Costco sells a "two-pack" of loins, each about a foot long; you can use just one of those)
8-9 slices of pancetta
1 garlic bulb, minced
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. rosemary
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grab the pork loin and cover it in olive oil. Use a brush if you have it; otherwise just pour it over the loin with a spoon and coat it evenly with your hands. Spread the minced garlic all over the loin. Rub it, knead it, spread it, whatever, so long as the whole thing is covered in garlic. Spread the thyme and rosemary evenly on both sides of the loin. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Coat a cooking pan in a layer of oil, and place the loin in a cooking pan. Dip each slice of pancetta in olive oil, then lay it on top of the loin. Do this from front to back until you've covered the entire top of the loin in delicious bacon. Cover the pan and put it in the oven for 30-60 minutes, depending on the heat of the oven. Check on the loin periodically with a meat thermometer. When the temp reaches 155 degrees, you're done.

You can serve this straight or with a nice dijon mustard wine sauce.

I Want This Book

The Bacon Cookbook

" In this exuberant parade of pork fat, there is no doubting the flap copy when it states that Villas, former food editor for Town & Country, has been beguiled by bacon since he was a boy. However, Villas's statement in his preface that staunch vegetarians and non-pork-eating religious traditionalists are haunted instinctively by the sensuous, irresistible enticement is about as nutty as his Bacon-Almond Cheese Spread (made with cottage cheese and chives). Nonetheless, there's plenty good to be had in these pages. An introductory chapter explains the difference between Salt Pork and Pancetta, Paprikaspeck and Bauchspeck, and provides a thorough list of mail-order sources. Breakfast choices range from a nifty ole Bacon Scrapple to a rich French Cheese and Bacon soufflé. There's a BLT, of course, but most of his other sandwiches go to extremes with ingredients like Jamaican smoked fish. For those who sometimes eat vegetables, there is Lima Bean and Bacon Casserole, and several amalgams mix a menagerie of meats, as in the Spanish Chicken, Bacon, Meatball and Chickpea Stew. Of the six dessert recipes, bacon-wrapped figs work, but Bacon and Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles would be hard-pressed to create irresistible enticement in even the heartiest of carnivores."