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by Emily

A Very Southern Potato Salad

Down here in Texas it’s already feeling like summertime. Days have been in the 80s-90s, which means long afternoons of day drinking and barbecuing. The other weekend I decided to make a potato salad for a backyard barbecue party, but I wanted to do something a little more exciting than your average white potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and celery. (You will never find celery in my picnic foods, actually! It’s the bane of my existence.) I was inspired when I found some beautiful Texan collard greens at the store.

One thing (out of the katrillion things) I love about Austin, that you might not expect if you’ve never been here, is how strongly this community promotes buying and eating locally. I decided to take these greens and incorporate them into a potato salad celebrating all my favorite aspects of southern sides… namely, sweet potatoes, collards, and pork fat.

Sweet Potato Salad with Collard Greens, Caramelized Onions, and Bacon

by BS

Endless Bacon

Yes, we know, half of you are soooo tired of hearing about bacon. We don’t know what’s wrong with that half of you. For everyone else, all of ES’s best bacon can now be found in one place:

Endless Bacon.

Bookmark EB for all your piggy needs, like:

100 Ways to Use Bacon	Whiskey Caramel Bacon Bark

Bacon Streusel Cupcakes	How to Make Homemade Bacon

Bacon Poutine Potato Skins	Bacon Plantains

Still breathing? Check out all of our bacon recipes, bacon lists, and bacon-y gossip at Endless Bacon.

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by Emily

Your Mom’s So Fat, She Wrapped Her Burger in Bacon

I’m shocked to be alive and writing this to you. Not only did I somehow survive the liver assault that is SXSW, but I also survived the most intense burger I’ve ever eaten.

Your Mom’s Burgers in East Austin specializes in cute language (condiments are called “bling”) and huge burger patties stuffed with all sorts of rich deliciousness, named after celebrities. After an afternoon of day drinking in the sun, I was starving and ready for some meaty indulgence.

I treated my arteries to the Willie Nelson: a 1/2lb burger stuffed with American cheese, tossed in honey BBQ sauce, wrapped in bacon, topped in a giant onion ring, covered in more special BBQ sauce, and served between two slabs of Texas toast. A cross shot:

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by BS

March Madness 2012: America’s Best Drunk College Food

While the rest of you were obsessing over your brackets, Endless Simmer has been evaluating OUR favorite part of college: the food. Yep, we’re talking about that greasy, cheesy, meaty, bacon-y, over-the-top late-night goodness that can only be found in one place: college.

After much exhaustive research, and with March Madness just about to tip off, we’re ready to present our second annual list of all 68 NCAA tournament teams, ranked by their best drunk college food.

68. Montana: Hoagieville Cheese Fries

This esteemed establishment claims to have invented the idea of putting “taco cheese” on top of French fries. And yes, they are proud of that.

Hoagieville; Missoula, Montana (Photo: Hoagieville)

67. St. Mary’s: Chili Cheeseburger and Chili Fries

It’s like the drunk college version of Portlandia. How do you save a subpar burger? Put some chili cheese on it. How do you save some mediocre fries? Put some chili cheese on it.

Nation’s Giant; Moraga, California (Photo: Michelle N.)

66. Kentucky: MegaHo Burger

This triple-decker burger comes complete with gravy, cheese, jalapenos, mushrooms, bacon, tomato, pickle and lettuce. Only ranked so low because we have not confirmed that you can eat this and still walk out the door alive.

Tolly-Ho; Lexington, Kentucky (Photo: Tolly-Ho)

65. St. Louis University: The Slinger

A St. Louis tradition that is widely available at 24-hours establishments, although we find it hard to stomach that anyone would eat this before 3am: two fried eggs, a hamburger, a mound of hash browns, a sea of chili and a handful of cheese.

Courtesy Diner; St. Louis, Missouri (Photo: Zack Minarick)

in Bacon / Cheese / Featured / Lists / Pig 8 comments

by BS

Super Snacks: Poutine Potato Skins

At Endless Simmer we’re a little obsessed with all thing poutine. We eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We haven’t figured out how to turn it into a dessert just yet (any ideas??) but breaking news…we now have poutine as a handheld appetizer.

The idea for poutine potato skins came when I saw that Mile End — the champion of our tour de poutine — was offering these as a take-out Super Bowl snack. I made my version for Super Sunday as well, but I’m pretty sure they make sense for March Madness, too. Or St. Patrick’s Day. Or Easter Sunday. Or a random Monday morning.

These aren’t actually so different from regular potato skins; you’ve just got to pair the spuds with gravy and cheese curds, the other two elements of the holy trinity that make up poutine. The biggest hurdle, of course, is finding fresh cheese curds. In New York, I tracked them down at Saxelby Cheesemongers. For the gravy, I decided to go a little more American than the dark gravy usually found on Montreal poutine, and went with a white bacon gravy. Since I had to cook up bacon strips to produce that gravy, in the end I crumbled them up and added that to the top of the skins as well, because…yeah, I don’t have to explain myself there.

Poutine Potato Skins

in Bacon / Cheese / Endless Bacon / Featured / Pig / Recipe 1 comments

by forkitude

Lodge Cast Iron Goes to the Printing Press

I can attest to the durability and sturdiness of cast iron. It was with a huge cast iron pan that I injured my shoulder last year, while tossing fingerling potatoes, sizzling hot from the 500-degree oven, during a particularly busy Lenten fish fry dinner service. Still, from enameled cast iron to that nice, seasoned, Lodge pan, anything cast iron gets my vote.

And Lodge is the cast iron standard. If you don’t have a Lodge cast iron in your pan collection, go buy a Lodge.

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by Emily

Deep-Fried Avocado = Love

It’s no secret that we love avocado here at Endless Simmer. We also love ridiculous fried things. Hell, we’ve even attempted a marriage of the two, although the results were not pretty. As a dedicated ESer and food lover, I’m always on the lookout for yet more avocado creations to embrace, and I just experienced something that will forever change the way I look at sandwiches.

At Gourmands in East Austin, sandwiches are king. And by “king” I mean “GIGANTIC.” I took a chance on my arteries and ordered the Second Deadly Sin: Smoked turkey, bacon, swiss, fried avocado, sprouts, and pesto.

Yes, fried avocado!!! See that crispy, brown thing in the bottom left corner of my mountain of sandwich? FRIED AVOCADO.

I know it might not look like much from this picture, but I assure you, this is a thing of wonder. The best qualities of fried shit: crisp texture, warmth, salty grease — combined with the best of avocado: creamy, cool richness. Smashed onto a ton of meat. What’s not to love?! I hope more restaurants jump on this bandwagon.

in Bacon / Cheese / Fowl / Pig / Restaurants / Sandwich / Trends 5 comments