Makin' Bacon

I don't cook many meat dishes these days but when I do I like to use bacon. For the recipe I made during my recent week off I decided to take on an old classic and made a spicy bacon roll.

I went back to where it all began with my choice of music to cook to as I listened to Dire Straits' final studio album On Every Street which was one of the first CD's I ever purchased towards the end of my G.C.S.E studies. As the slight but likeable country rock shuffle of the opening song 'Calling Elvis' gave way to the opening bars of the reflective title track I removed the fat from eight slices of unsmoked back bacon before slicing it into small squares.

In a shallow frying pan I fried the bacon and one diced white onion for around three minutes with two sprigs of parsley. I made sure I did not fry the contents of the pan for too long as I knew they would be baked for some time in the oven later on.

I then rolled out a ball of pastry which I had previously prepared using four ounces of margarine and eight ounces of plain flour. Once I had rolled the pastry into a large oblong I poured the contents of the frying pan onto it and spread them out until they were within two centimetres of the edge of the pastry.

I next dampened the four corners of the pastry with a small amount of water and joined them up so as the bacon, onions and parsley were encased totally.

I placed the roll on a greased baking tray and baked it in the oven at 190 degrees, 200 for non-fan ovens, for forty five minutes.

The results were highly enjoyable; the fact I had taken all the fat from the bacon left nothing but the unique taste than can only be obtained from eating quality bacon while the onions and parsley added the necessary extra flavour to the roll. The heavy pastry was complimented by having plenty of brown sauce with the roll as well as some steamed slices of carrot.

The roll immediately after cooking.

A cross section of the roll.

Delicious when served with steamed carrots.