3 Recipes to satisfy your bacon craving

Bacon can be used to add flavour, depth and texture to your dishes, plus it can be eaten at any mealtime or as a snack.

If you love it, you will be happy to hear that South African brand Eskort has recently launched a brand-new bacon offering – braai bacon – a complete game-changer.

This is the first product of its kind in the South African bacon market and it will transform the way you experience bacon.

In addition, they have also re-designed and packaged their remaining eight bacon products including back, streaky, shoulder, round, minced, diced, cuts, and lean diced bacon.

Below they have shared recipes that you can make at home using the products.

Bacon and sage shortbread

Serves: 4

Ingredients

200g Eskort minced bacon

125g butter

55g castor sugar

180g flour

1t salt

1 tsp vanilla

¼ cups sage

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

Heat a frying pan over moderate heat and fry the bacon until crispy.

Remove the bacon from the pan and allow it to cool down.

Place the butter, castor sugar, flour, salt, and vanilla into a food processor and blend until a soft dough forms.

Line a baking tray with baking paper and press the dough into the pan.

The dough needs to be 1cm thick.

Add the bacon and sage to the top and press it into the dough slightly.

Bake the shortbread for 20 minutes.

Serve

Remove the shortbread from the oven and let it cool down.

Serve this shortbread with your favourite selection of cheeses and of course some premium sliced hams.

Cheesy bacon corn dogs

Serves: 4

Ingredients

500g Eskort streaky bacon

250g mozzarella cheese cut into 3cm cubes

250g cheddar cheese cut into 3cm cubes

½ cups Eskort braai spice

2 cups flour

2 cups buttermilk

Oil for deep frying

Serving

¼ cup Sriracha sauce

1 cup mayonnaise

Zest and juice from one lemon

1 cup mixed herbs chopped

Method

Heat your oil in a large pot over high heat.

Start by putting one end of the streaky bacon on the skewer.

Add a block of mozzarella and fold the bacon back over the skewer and mozzarella.

Do the same with the cheddar until you get to four cubes of cheese on one skewer.

Combine the braai spice with the flour.

Dip the skewers into the flour then the buttermilk and back into the flour.

Do this with all your skewers.

Fry the bacon “dogs” until golden.

Remove from the oil and drain the oil on some kitchen towel.

Serve

Swirl the Sriracha sauce into the mayo with the lemon juice and the zest.

Serve the mayo on the bacon “dogs” and serve with the sauce and herbs.

Kale and spinach pesto tagliatelle

Serves 4

Ingredients

200g Eskort diced bacon

2 cup kale leaves

2 cup spinach leaves

1 cup basil

2 garlic cloves chopped

Zest and juice from 1 lemon

½ cup olive oil

Basil for serving

400g tagliatelle pasta (cooked)

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Fry the bacon in a frying pan over moderate heat until crispy.

Pour the bacon with its fat from the pan over the cooked pasta in a large bowl.

Place the rest of the ingredients into a food processor to make the pesto.

Mix the pesto through the bacon and pasta to coat the pasta well.

To serve

Serve the pasta with some extra basil and lemons.