Lobster Fondue Mac with Crispy Bacon and A Giveaway from duBreton

I don't trust people who don't love bacon. Even my friends who don't eat meat will admit that the smell of frying bacon is enough to send them over the edge and those who were not always vegetarian can still get teary eyed over the memory of the taste. To me, bacon is a perfect food. It is salty, fatty, crispy, smoky and it is just as great with sweet as it is with savoury.

Honestly, even bad bacon is tasty but why not just go with GREAT bacon?



I was approached by duBreton to come up with a recipe using their product to celebrate International Bacon Day, which takes place this year on September 3.Since I am one of the 90% of Canadians who love bacon, I jumped at the chance. To to be honest, it was a struggle to narrow my ideas down to one recipe. I had made a version of this crispy coating a while back to accompany my first ever pressure cooker mac and cheese recipe (I also used it again on my second pressure cooker mac and cheese recipe  ) and I make sure to keep leftovers to sprinkle on top of simple pastas, risotto, salads and roasted vegetables. Smoky, crispy bacon, crunchy bread crumbs, some cheese - it's heaven. Since I had already made a similar recipe, I set out to find an alternate way to make it even better, using duBreton bacon. The idea of trying to replicate the flavour of cheese fondue had been rattling around in my brain for some time and the thought of smoky bacon and nutty swiss cheese with a hit of acidic white wine being kissed by a touch of buttery sweet lobster was making me swoon.

Lobster Fondue Mac was born.

Since everything is better with bacon, check out this infographic highlighting the way that Canadians enjoy their bacon:

DuBreton sells Certified Humane pork, which means the pig was raised without antibiotics, without crates and allowed to free roam because a happy pig is a delicious pig. The company actually sells a full line of Certified Humane pork products, but for now, we are dealing with their bacon. This Quebec company has been producing tasty pork since 1944 and they are now one of the leading pork specialists in both Quebec and Ontario with their eyes on world pork domination.



As well as being paid for coming up with the recipe, I was given some of the Organic Smoked bacon as well as the Rustic Farm Pork Black Forest bacon (also available in the Organic line) to play with and I found, for this recipe, the Black Forest was too lean and didn't crisp up the same as the Smoked, but, because it's so lean, the Black Forest is the perfect bacon to use when you are cooking the bacon IN the dish, like my Charros and it's my new, go to choice. The smoked bacon, on the other hand, I find is fattier and perfect when you want to get that bacon really crispy and crumble it up. The flavour was great and not overpowered by smokiness so we could really taste the pork flavour.



DuBreton's Facebook Page
#duBretonDelicious 

Not only am I sharing this amazing recipe with you, but duBreton is sponsoring a great giveaway as well. I will draw for the winner on September 3rd,  which is #InternationalBaconDay

*this is a sponsored post but, as always, my opinions are very much my own

* Contest open to Canadians only

Lobster Fondue Mac

The recipe is quite rich so a little goes a long way but you can easily double it with no changes in the cooking instructions

serves 4 

2 lobster tails

225g (8 oz) cavatappi or other hearty pasta

1 cup crisp, dry white wine (i.e. pinot grigio)

1 cup water

1 tsp kosher salt

1 clove garlic, grated

170 ml (3/4 cup) 2% evaporated milk

1 tbsp cherry brandy or liqueur (i.e. Kirsch)

100g Gruyere cheese

100g Emmental cheese

Ground black pepper

CRISPY BREADY TOPPING

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

100 g (1.4 oz) duBreton Organic Bacon (SMOKED)

1 clove garlic, sliced thinly

1 tbsp butter

15g (0.5 oz) freshly grated parmesan 

INSTRUCTIONS

LOBSTER:

1. Add 1 cup of water in a pressure cooker and set the two lobster tails on a trivet, shell side down. 
2. Steam on low pressure for 3 minutes, then quick release. 
3. Shock the lobster in an ice bath to stop cooking.
4. Remove shell and chop lobster meat and set aside.

CRISPY BACON TOPPING:

1. Fry chopped bacon in a small pan until it starts to get crispy
2. Pour off all, but 1 tbsp of fat and add in the garlic. Stir around for approximately 30 seconds, and then add butter.
3. Toss the bread crumbs in the fat, coating evenly and continue to fry crumbs for approximately 3 to 4 minutes until they are brown and crispy.
4. Grate parmesan over the top and fold in, cooking for another 30 seconds.
5. Remove from heat and set aside.

MAC AND CHEESE:

1. Add pasta, water, wine, salt and grated garlic in the pot of pressure cooker and cook for 4 to 5 minutes on high pressure. Quick release, hit cancel, and then hit the sauté button.
2. Bring remaining water and pasta to a simmer and pour in evaporated milk as well as the cherry liqueur. 
3. Simmer for approximately 3 minutes, and then turn off pressure cooker. 
4. Remove pot, add in the lobster and start to stir in the cheeses a handful at a time, stirring constantly until it’s all in, melted and creamy. 

FINAL:

1. Ladle the mac and cheese into a bowl and top each bowl with a generous handful of crispy bacon bread topping. 

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