BLTs

Yesterday, I was mildly gushing about bread and why I love making (and eating) it so much, and the idea of making BLTs for lunch over the weekend surfaced somewhere. True to form, I woke up (at 11.50am) with an itch to make some sandwiches, and almost immediately after shaping a loaf of brioche dough reserved for moresome peanut butter snackies tomorrow, started fussing about the kitchen.

I can't say that I was brought up in a very strong BLT (bacon-lettuce-tomatoes) tradition, because I wasn't- my childhood breakfasts were always unnervingly eggy, but I think BLTs are going to become a bigger part of my life now. There is something deceptively healthsome about how the lettuce and tomatoes disguise the fact that there is calorie-rich bacon lying surreptitiously within, and I am nothing if not the paragon of self-deceit.

The one claim to healthfood that I could find was, of course, the excellent bread. It was sweet, yeasty and wheaty from all that great wholemeal flour, with an incredible depth of flavour from the pre-ferment (in this case, a biga- a small portion of the dough left to steep overnight for added yum) I had included. 

Lightly toasted just to warm it up rather than to create palate-rasping wheaten scotch-brite and then filled with crunchy lettuce, tomatoes (which could have been fresher!), and oven-crisped bacon, this bread makes an excellent sandwich. The BLT was satisfying on so many levels that I don't think I need much sustenance for the rest of this busy Saturday.

A note on the bacon- for a few weeks now, I've been experimenting with ways to cook bacon apart from frying it, which I find makes the kitchen way too greasy way too early in the day. I have found some success with microwaving it (on a plate lined with paper towels on high for about 3 minutes), but it takes quite a lot of precision to crisp it. With today's BLT, I grilled the bacon with the overhead grill function of my oven (most ovens will have this feature) for about 3-4 minutes per side until there were some brown and crisp bits which is how I like my bacon. The best part is definitely the no-greasy-floor thing and, certainly, no lingering smell of bacon in my clothes and hair (not that it's a bad thing, the smell of bacon, but you get what I mean).

I suppose one could experiment with a whole range of ingredients, but I like the simplicity of bacon, lettuce and tomatoes (or ham, lettuce and tomatoes), with nothing but a squidge of mayo and maybe some black pepper for effect. My brother likes his sandwiches with slices of raw onion and olives, and I think I shall try that for dinner tonight, assuming no one has whisked off my remaining quarter of a loaf. 

Anyway, I'm off to spend the rest of my relatively unproductive recess week reading "The Other Hand" by Chris Cleave, which is a semi-depressing, generally uplifting novel, which kinda describes how the past 6 days of schoolessness have been for me.