GUEST POST: Cooking with BBotE in PDX (Part 1 of ???)

Today’s guest post comes from Jessica who keeps Portland, OR singing in many ways. Over the next several pieces, she’ll be sharing some of the recipes the posse up north have made with BBotE as an ingredient. I, meanwhile, will be over there in the corner extracting more ultracoffee, cocktail in hand. Enjoy their kitchen shenanigans and eat responsibly. – Herr Direktor Funranium

Hi. I’m Jessica, the slinger of BBotE to the fabulous caffeine-addicted city of Portland, OR. I’m known to the locals as the Caffeinatrix of PDX, and when I’m not slinging shots of BBotE out of test tubes and shot bandoliers, I’m a laboratory researcher, piratical performer with PDXYAR.org, singer/songwriter with the awesome geek band The PDX Broadsides, and, as of September, I’ll be a PhD student in biology. Sometimes I even sleep, but then I have more BBotE and everything is okay again.

JERBIKERS!! — Jessica, AKA the Caffeinatrix of PDX.
Photo by Meredith Gerber of Silhoutte Studios (Chicago, IL)

Portland’s a city of many things, including bridges, roses, and the highest number of strip clubs per capita, but the most relevant thing to this story that make Portland famous is our love for crazy random food creations. This often takes place in food carts (ever want to eat an enormous sandwich with fries on it, turkey and bacon wrapped in a waffle, or peanut butter and jelly poutine? We’ve got you covered!), but it’s even better when you’re playing with your friends in a big kitchen for a barbecue potluck, like we did for Memorial Day.

Of course, when you have a bottle of BBotE…things get crazy.

One of the four delicious BBotE experiments to come out of the kitchen this weekend was the brainchild of fellow piratical friend Houston “Biscuit” Oldland. Houston spent a considerable time in New Orleans and has seriously legit cooking chops, particularly when it comes to Bloody Marys and meat products. As he started whipping up a batch of candied bacon, he whispered, “Hey. HEY. Uh. Do you have any BBotE? Because we should totally do that.” “FOR SCIENCE!” I said, as we began laughing manically and scared everyone else out of the kitchen. GLORY COMMENCED.

BBotE Candied Bacon – Houston “Biscuit” Oldland

1 lb thick cut bacon (about 12 slices, we used Black Forest)

Baste sauce:

1 oz. BBotE (used Death Wish)

1/2 cup red wine (used shiraz, any cheap wine will do)

1/2 cup brown sugar (keep this at 1:1 with wine)

1/2 cup dijon mustard, (keep at 1:1 with wine)

Heat oven to 300F. Baste bacon.

Lay out on cookie sheets with sides or cake pans.

Cook 10 minutes, then baste again.

Baste every 5-10 minutes for about an hour.

Won’t crisp up, but they’ll be a little rigid at the end from the carmelization.

EAT UNTIL FOREVER. Repeat process until arteries completely harden.

Next time on Cooking with BBotE: what happened when BBotE met brownies. Spoiler alert: mind-blowingly delicious.