Friday, September 6, 2013

Bacon, egg, cheese and tomato? Oh, yes!

Hello, breakfast! Or lunch. Or dinner. Or mmmmmm bacon.
Bacon and eggs are good friends, right? And bacon and tomato are part of a classic sandwich. Add some cheese and an English muffin, and you've got a breakfast sandwich people will be fighting you for.

Let's take just a second to talk about cooking bacon. There are all sorts of methods - microwave, oven, stovetop ... Which do you choose?

I know some folks say that cooking in the microwave or in the oven is more efficient, but for some reason, I like cooking it in a pan on the stove. Maybe it's tradition or maybe I'm just stubborn.

One problem with cooking bacon in a pan is that it tends to curl up. The way to solve that little problem is with a bacon press - sometimes also known as a grill press. You can use that press to flatten or hold down things other than bacon, like when I used it to cook chicken on a grill. In that case, I cooked the chicken on my outdoor grill, but it would be just as good indoors on a grill pan.

Too much bacon in the pan? Nah.
Besides flattening foods (or in the case of bacon, keeping it flat), the press helps cook food faster and a little more evenly. The idea is that you heat the press while you're preheating the pan - or the grill - and when you put the press on top of the food, it cooks that food from both sides at once.

Mmmm. Crisp bacon!
If you don't want the bacon swimming in grease while it's cooking, you can use a grill pan rather than a frying pan or skillet. The bacon fat (oh, lovely bacon fat) drips down into the grooves of the pan, so your bacon is frying instead of turning into confit.

And then, of course, save that bacon fat - it's good for cooking other things.

Bacon, Egg, Cheese and Tomato English Muffin Sandwich

So good!
For each sandwich:
2 slices bacon
1 egg
1 slice cheese (I used colby - use what you like)
1 slice tomato
1 English Muffin, split

Cook the bacon until crisp. Cut in half or thirds, to fit the English muffins.

Cook the egg in an egg ring that will make it fit on the muffin. Cook it any way you like - scrambled, over easy, sunnyside up - or any other way.

Keep in mind that this is a sandwich, so an egg with a slightly soft yolk would be fine, but you probably don't want it completely runny. I opted for a soft yolk, but not super-oozy.

Or, if you prefer, poach the egg.

Toast the English muffin.

Now, stack it up! Put the cheese on the bottom half of the muffin. If you want that cheese melted, you can pop it in the microwave for a few seconds, or in a toaster oven - or whatever works for you*.

Bacon goes on top of the cheese, and then put the tomato on top of that. Put the egg on top of the tomato. Put the muffin top on, and serve.

Repeat as necessary.

*Or, you can assemble the sandwich then heat in a sandwich press - I used one that's specifically made for breakfast sandwiches like this.

Good Cook provided me with the bacon press as part of their Kitchen Experts program.
Yum