Crocus and smoked bacon
Spring is in the air. The mornings are lighter, and the fields at the back of Trinity College are a purple blaze of crocus plants. I didn’t eat any of them, though I watched a moorhen contentedly nibbling on them. I had something different in mind for lunch. It was a smoked ‘bacon’ I picked up in Normandy last week. It was unlike any other smoked bacon, in that it was not in rashers. It came in slices of about 3.5 inches diameter, and totally lean except for a tiny sliver of white fat at one edge. It had been smoked in beech wood, with a little glucose syrup. The other difference is that you don’t cook it – the smoking has already done that.
I had it with a crunchy salad of lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, spring onions, anchovies, olives, and with a little feta and bleu d”Auvergne cheese. The ‘bacon’ was very delicate, without the heavy aromatic reek you sometimes get with smoked food, and with an agreeably chewy texture. Decidedly different, and a very pleasant change.