MIKEY BELL

I really hate it when food writing gets a little bit smutty and uncouth because there’s no need.

But I also understand that – ‘I’m about to give you a meat rub that will change your life’ – is a sentence that is both smutty and uncouth yet wholly necessary at the same time.

Let me explain.

Luckily, it needn’t have been a concern, because my toxic trait is that I always make more of any one thing than I will ever need, so I had a big pot of it remaining in my cupboard. What started as a little addition to some ribs when I was pottering in the kitchen has since been:

• pressed into the oiled skin of a chicken before roasting
• stirred into salted butter to place on top of a hot steak
• sprinkled on hot vegetables midway through the cooking time
• scattered on salted popcorn
• stirred through some hot BBQ sauce for some chicken wings to be dipped into
• scattered on to some cheese inside a grilled cheese sandwich

But below is where I saw it really come alive, and that was pressed into some bacon rashers to create a wonderfully candied, almost jerky-ed bacon.

As I have laid out quite specifically this year, I’ve been hellbent on trying to eat better, which for me, a lazy person, just means salads and soup, and while yes I have slipped one or twice with the odd piece/loaf of bread, I have stuck as close as I can to my promise. I did indeed make a soup, a very simple (and Welsh) leek and potato soup, for that matter. A recipe I had no intention of sharing on this site, but for shame sake I have included it here.

It could have stayed pale and interesting, that bowl of soup. I am usually more than happy with nothing but a  humble bowl. However, in the aftermath of an indulgent year and still experiencing indulgence withdrawal, I’m still feeling like a soup is not complete unless it is covered in something. So my hand trembled to the cupboard, I saw the pot of meat rub, and I remembered that we had bacon in the fridge.

And you know what happened next. I don’t have to spell it out.

Wonderful as a snack, wonderful in a sandwich, but of course, in the name of me just doing my best with healthy eating these days… crumbled up on top of a soup.

The recipe below is so barely a recipe, but I could not contain it to myself, so I had to write it down somewhere, and I chose here. For shame’s sake though, I have included a recipe for a very simple and humble soup that accompanied the bacon jerky bits, because I’ve lured you here for salty sweet bacon bits, I may as well throw in the vegetable bit that came under it.

Not that I’m ashamed of this soup – as a Welshman, I was raised on the damn thing and still think there is very little in the world that offers the same succour and comfort as a bowl of creamy leeks and potatoes.

Makes enough for 4 – 6 servings

1 tbs caraway seeds

1 tbs paprika

1 tbs ground cumin

1 tsp garlic powder

½ tsp black pepper

½ tsp salt

80g soft brown sugar

1. In a dry frying pan, toast the caraway seeds on a medium heat for about 2 minutes, just shaking the pan now and then. Don’t keep them on the heat too long, you don’t want them to burn.
2. Once toasted, put them into a pestle and mortar and crush them as best as you can.
3. Add the seeds to a bowl or jar and add the remaining ingredients, stirring well to combine.
4. The rub is ready to use as you see fit, but keep any leftover rub in an airtight container in the cupboard for up to 2 weeks.

Serves 4 – 6

1 tbs unsalted butter

1 tbs olive oil

4 leeks – washed and cut into slices

2 cloves garlic – roughly chopped

600g potatoes – peeled and roughly chopped (Maris Piper are a good shout)

700ml chicken stock (or vegetable)

1 tsp hot yellow mustard (optional)

100ml full-fat milk

To serve

A handful of chopped parsley

A handful of bacon roasted in the above meat rub, cooled, and broken into crumbs

1. Heat the butter and oil in a large pot on a medium heat, adding in the leeks with a little salt and cooking for about 10 minutes until the leeks have softened but not browned.
2. Add in the garlic and cook for a further 1 – 2 minutes until the garlic warms up.
3. Add in the potatoes with a little further salt and some pepper (I like white pepper here – lovingly called school pepper in our house – but black would be fine) and cooking for a few minutes.
4. Pour in the stock and add the mustard, if using, and stir. Bring the pot to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and keep it gently bubbling for about 30 – 35 minutes until the potatoes can be crushed tenderly with your spoon against the side of the pan.
5. Remove the pan from the hob, carefully blend until smooth with a stick blender. You could keep it slightly chunkier if you want, blending only half of the soup (removing half before blending and then adding back in once blended) but I like it the way my mam would’ve served when I was a kid, which was fully blended.
6. Add the pot back to the hob and add the milk, stirring through. Reheat the soup, and taste for seasoning, adding more salt or pepper as needed.
7. Serve the soup with a handful of fresh parsley, this bread (cough cough), and some smoky, burnished, crackling pieces of candied bacon. This can be achieved by literally patting the above meat rub into some pieces of bacon and putting them in the oven for about 30 minutes (so basically the soup’s cooking time!) and then it’s ready when you are.