Smoked Bacon Lardons 250g

Inspired by Chef Valentine Warner
"Lardon is a French term for small batons of cured streaky, well-fatted bacon, normally smoked, that tend to be matchstick height at most and 1cm in width, although on occasion they can be considerably larger.

Lardons are important in cooking as simply replacing them in stew with postage size stamps of thinly cut bacon, as is so often the case, and such pieces will dry and dissolve in a such a longer cook. Lardons are juicier and give more fat content and structure to a good stew, pie, or salad and when cut-off the block are as versatile in shape as one needs.

Including in a quiche Lorraine, here are some of my favourite uses for lardons:

Fried and mixed into a salad of bitter frisée lettuce (curly endive) or dandelion leaves with a sharp, mustardy vinaigrette, croutons and a soft-boiled egg makes for an easy Paris café style lunch.

In an onion and mustard omelette, they are very delicious.

Alpine macaroni calls for the lardons to be sautéed and mixed into a Fontina or aged gouda cheese and cream sauce with raw garlic added at the end. Believe it or not and the addition of apple sauce on top with crispy onions is nothing short of epic.

A rabbit pie is not a rabbit pie without lardons (or apple and hard boiled eggs... in my view) as while the wild rabbit needs the additional fat from the bacon, the taste of the two meats complements each other beyond well.

A cep mushroom, apple, and lardon pasty (made with rough puff pastry) is a fine thing for an autumn day in the field.

Braised in red wine and beef stock with snails added and popped into puff pastry is a Burgundian joy.

Oeufs en meurette is a French classic, the lardons combined into in a strong butter and wine enriched beef or veal jus with pearl onions and button mushrooms then spooned over two poached eggs on toast and all scattered about with a little parsley.

When using old bread whizzed up into crumbs and combined with capers and fresh parsley, garlic, lemon zest and the inclusion of a few lardons can make a great stuffing for a whole cod or large trout.

Lardons allow for more vegetable focussed soups or stews to contain just a little very flavoursome meat and in short are great for padding out kitchen budgeting.

Cooked with tomatoes, red wine, shallots, garlic, and fresh parsley - a wonderful sauce is made to braise some chicken legs in or indeed for tossing with some cooked snails

Tartiflette is cold weather food not to be overlooked. Cream, white wine, Reblochon cheese and lardons cooked up with potatoes in this glorious gut-sticker of a classic.

So too when combined with Gruyère cheese and cream and a quiche Lorraine certainly would be a pale imitation without our cubed smoked friends.

Lastly, and thanks to a certain Mark Hix visiting me in Norway; take a cleaned scallop and return it to its lower shell. Add a raw egg and some fried lardons, a little butter, with some freshly chopped garlic, grated nutmeg and cracked black pepper and then pour single cream overall. Pop in the oven for a few minutes. Delivers a breakfast of champions - especially alongside an aquavit-laced coffee!"