Bacon Cherry Pepper Relish

This is a garnish that I have been making for a number of years. The end result gives you a nice balance of sweet, spicy, salty and sour. Depending on what peppers I'm using, normally a mixture of fresh and pickled, is how spicy it will be. When I first made it I used hot pickled peppers as a garnish for my broccoli and cheese soup and the result was spicy but complimentary to the soup, I changed the recipe a little bit for this to make it more versatile. This particular recipe uses cherry peppers which tend to be sweet, salty, lightly acidic, and not too much heat. If you want a spicier relish you could change the pickled peppers or use fresh hot peppers instead of red peppers. Additionally to being a garnish for a soup, this is a great accompaniment to sandwiches as well. Enjoy.

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Ingredients

• Bacon 6 strips

• Pickled Cherry Peppers 8 ea

• Red pepper, fine diced 1/4

• Red Onion, fine diced 1/4

• Brown Sugar 1 cup

• Sherry Vinegar 1 cup

• Avenue Spice 2 T

Method of Procedure

1. Preheat your oven to 275 degrees.

2. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper and place your bacon on top without it overlapping*

3. Cook your bacon for around 25 minutes checking it regularly and rotating the pan. Pour the rendered fat off into a jar and save it for any number of things. The bacon won't be crispy when you pull it out, but as it cools down it will become crispy. If you wait until it is crispy while hot, you will have overcooked it and dried it out a bit.

4. While waiting for your bacon to cook, fine dice your peppers (both fresh and pickled) and red onion.

5. Once cooled fine dice your bacon (you want all of the cuts to be about the same size) and save any of the bacon fat you have available.

6. Get a saute pan hot and add your onions, bacon, cherry peppers, and red peppers.

7. Saute until softened (around 5-10 minutes) on medium high heat.

8. Add your brown sugar and avenue spice and continue to cook, while stirring.

9. Continue to cook, while stirring, until the brown sugar starts to caramelize.

10. Add the sherry vinegar and cook until the vinegar has cooked out of the pan.

*The benefit of cooking the bacon at a lower heat and in the oven, is that you can do other things and not burn it. While cooking it you can remove the fat and save, because it is a great cooking oil to have on hand.