For the Love of Food

I know I rarely post twice in a day, but I am so excited about this find that I had to share it with you!

So, one this I never mentioned is that for my birthday my mom gave me this awesome book: Food Styling For Photographers (if you buy it through my amazon store, a small percentage is donated to my blog!). I had been wishing for this book for quite some time now, and I ready through it quickly once I got my hands on it. It’s like a great novel for foodies…without being a novel at all. It is not just a book on food styling, but rather a book written for photographers who are not food stylists but need to food style for some reason or another.  There are lots of pictures, step by step explanations, and great lighting and camera tips.

That being said, there are exact instructions on how to style just about anything. However, while I learned a lot from this book, I don’t think I will be making margaritas out of Soil Moist granules anytime soon – even if they look fantastic. I like to stick to the edible type of styling, and there are plenty of ways to achieve that.

One food styling technique that caught my eye was how to style bacon (page 210-211 in book). It never dawned on me that most bacon is curly when styled and it always comes out flat when I cook it.

I am going to share with you just how easy it is to make this, and then share with you my recipe for baked potato chowder bellow!

To achieve nice curly bacon – that also tastes great to eat:

Preheat your oven to 177°C (350°F).

Take some aluminum foil and roll it into strips about about 1/2 and inch in diameter.

Using thick-cut bacon (I’m sure you can also achieve nice results with normal cut), layer the bacon over a few strips of aluminum foil so that the bacon sags in the middle.

Bake the bacon in the oven for anywhere from 8-20 minutes.  The thicker your bacon, the longer you will need.  I needed the full 20.  Just, use your best judgment to decide when they look done enough to eat.

Your bacon should look something like this – you can chose to have it darker if you like – it’s all about personal preference.  It may be a little dry, so after styling you can brush it with the glossy drippings.

Voi lá:

So simple and easy for beautiful great tasting bacon!  And, it brings great dimension to my baked potato chowder as opposed to the usual bacon crumbles!

Baked Potato Chowder

Ingredients:
4 baking Potatoes
2/3 Cup of Butter
2/3 Cup of Flour
3 Cups of Milk
3/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
2 Green Onions, chopped
12 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 1/4 Cup shredded Cheddar Cheese
200 grams of Sour Cream

Directions:
Preheat oven to 200°C (417°F).
Wash potatoes and prick them with a fork. Place in oven on a rack (do not wrap in aluminum foil or it will take longer). Bake for 1 hour. OR Boil the potatoes in water enough to cover them for 20-30 minutes or until cooked through (this works better with smaller potatoes). Remove from water, let cool and peel.
Depending on how you cooked the potatoes, either cut the baked potatoes in half and scoop out the pulp into a bowl and set aside. Or, roughly mash the peeled potatoes with a fork in a bowl and set aside.
Melt butter in a large pot over low heat, add flour until smooth, cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add milk gradually stirring. Cook until mixture starts to boil. Add potato, all but 1 tablespoon of green onion, all but 1/4 cup of bacon, all but 1/8 cup of cheese, and all but 1 tablespoon of sour cream. Mix well. Serve in 1 large bowl or in multiple bowl (feeds about 4-6 people).

Garnish with the remaining cheese, sour cream, bacon, and green onions.

Makes 4-6 servings.

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