Beans and Greens - Take 3

Following Saturday night's crowd favorite meal (Breakfast for Dinner!!), I had about 6 strips of cooked, thick-cut bacon leftover which I needed to use it before the children found it hidden in the vegetable drawer.  By the way, the question here isn't "Who ever has leftover bacon?"  The real question is "Why would anyone ever cook less than the entire pound of bacon?"    Since you know I love me some pork product in my otherwise vegetarian Beans and Greens, I decided to change things up (who me?  inconsistent?) and make a Beans and Greens dish that was prepared in the oven rather than on the stove top.  Here's what I did:

Chopped onion and potatoes

I placed a generous tablespoon of bacon fat in my roasting pan and heated it up in the oven at 400 for about 5 minutes.  Next, I added about 4 chopped potatoes and 1 diced onion to the bacon fat and roasted the vegetables for about 20 minutes, tossing the vegetables every 5 minutes or so to brown evenly.



The beginning of something good



Getting roasted and crunchy

Once the vegetables were where I wanted them to be, I added about a quart of chicken stock to the pan and let things get a little steamy. 


Steaming with bacon fat and chicken stock



Bacon which I eventually tore rather than cut

While that was happening, I attempted to chop the bacon, but was unsuccessful due to the dullness of my knife - a knife sharpening gift certificate would really be the perfect holiday gift, now that you mention it... Instead of chopping, I finally tore into it bare handed - hello, bacon fingers. Can you say finger-licking good?  I added 2 coarsely chopped, beautiful bunches of broccoli rabe to my roasting pan and turned off the oven, allowing the rabe to wilt in the still hot oven for a few moments.

 

A generous crunchy bacon garnish 

Ladle into a bowl, garnish with some crunchy bacon and grated cheese and yet another triumphant Beans and Greens pairing to add to your repertoire.