The Ultimate Hangover Cure = The Bastard's BLT

There are nights when I tend to drink a little then there are most nights when I drink a lot. If those nights correspond with a weekend I am going to cook something that makes me feel better and wallow. This is a stark contrast to the typical weekday bender which leaves me forced to crawl out of my door in a button up, nursing a thermos full of coffee, and crunching ibuprofen before 740 AM. Clearly the former is a better alternative to the latter.  One of my favorite cures and the image that made all things pork-able and gave me the idea to pursue a week full of my unholy love for pork is a BLT. There are many iterations of BLT’s and there is a colorful history of versions, upgrades, and modifications to my personal favorite.

My Classic BLT is served on lightly toasted soft white sandwich bread, slathered with Mayo,  topped with butter lettuce, and thick salt & pepper hot house tomatoes. I like freshly cut thin sliced cheddar cheese and 3 pieces of hot bacon fresh from the skillet with its grease mixing into the cheese as it melts. That when combined with the right amount of greasy bagged potato chips and a correctly paired carbonated beverage normally means I can leave my house fully functional regardless of if I’d been bathing in bourbon or sipping free Cristal from a titty fountain.

This past few weeks has been an exceptional drinking experience even for me. The amounts and combinations of liquors and the hallucination inducing sleep deprivation finally steered me to my hangover food true north. My Mecca of BLT goodness. A BLTCOE if you will. A smoked bacon, heirloom tomato,  2  cheesed, caramelized onions, bacon grease fried egg, drenched w/ homemade chipotle mayo,  on a bed of mixed greens, and sandwiched between Parmesan crusted Ciabatta. 

 

Hangover averted!

  It's a fairly simple setup and you immediately use the bacon grease to make the fried egg. It's a win-win kinda deal. 

I'm not gonna give you a recipe for the mayo. I use the Joy of Cooking or the Julia Child version. If I use some leftover oil from my garlic confit I'm halfway to a bitching aioli. 

1 tblsp butter or Canola oil

1/4 C fresh grated Parm

1 Egg

3 slices bacon

spring mix

1 med heirloom tomato 

salt & pepper 

3 slices smoked bacon
2 tblsp carmelized onion goodness

2 slices artisan break preferably a sourdough or a Ciabatta 

Steps:

1. Fry bacon in a non-stick skillet over med heat 

2. In a second skillet warm to med add the bread and start it toasting

3. Slice the tomato and slat & pepper to taste

4. After the bread has warmed on one side, flip and add the parm evenly between the two pieces on the heated side. After a minute warming the unheated side return parm side down to toast

5.  Once bacon is finished fry your egg in the bacon grease. 

6. Combine everything once the parm is browned, your egg on top is the absolute last thing to go on the sandwich. I like to go: Mayo, greens, tomato, cheese, bacon, egg.

this one was even luckier because I just happened to have some caramelized onions sitting around to go on top of the egg. Pretty much best ever. 

not a bad start to a sandwich

You've got to love and respect the BLT. I'm upset that it gets diminished to being some subpar sandwich. This is the pinnacle of sandwichery. So, next time you're head feels like some stoned out hippie's old bongo drum and you've got a charlie horse in your calf cause the closed thing you came to drinking water was pounding back whiskey shots give the good  'ole BLT a go. You won't regret it. Bacon and Grease and other fried goodness make everything better.

Here's the final product with some okra I paired it with. If I'm hungover you can be damn sure that where's there's water and ibuprofen there's going to be something fried as soon as I can make it to the kitchen. 

I also made some fried Okra. It was a pretty fantastic recovery meal. 

Now with proof! Telegraph article says bacon sandwich cures hangovers! Okay, it's not definitive proof but it's good enough for me. Next time you're going out binge drinking don't forget to pick up some bread and some bacon for the morning after. You'll thank me for it.