Heaven Wrapped in Bacon

This summer, forget the traditional backyard barbecue. Wrap your barbecue in bacon.

A friend invited me to a Swine and Wine dinner party tonight. She supplied the bacon and wine. I had to bring something to wrap the bacon in -- and beer, because drinking wine with bacon seemed wrong on a fundamental level.

At the store, I debated getting sausage, but then I remembered a story a friend told me about trying to cook a bacon-wrapped sausage: The bacon burned and the sausage was still raw. Seeing as how this was my first foray into bacon-wrapping, I opted to go small (if anyone has tips on how to cook a sausage wrapped in bacon, please share).

I chose precooked, medium-sized shrimp from  the seafood counter at Whole Foods. Sarah, my fiancee who eats neither pork nor seafood, made the suggestion -- she picked a winner.  I also grabbed a sixer of Firestone Double Barrel, a personal favorite.

At the party, there was an assortment of other bacon-wrapped foods awaiting the grill: asparagus, dates stuffed with almonds, salmon and avocado. It is California after all.  Other guests didn’t really get it: Besides me and one other guy, no one brought something to wrap the bacon in. So if you do decide to throw this kind of barbecue, emphasize that point. The bacon gods know there should have been some red meat to throw on the grill.

The guy who “got it” and I manned the grill, and for the most part, the sailing was smooth. The salmon cooked a bit quicker than the bacon, but we had the oven on standby at 350, and just tossed the salmon and anything else that was ready in there while the rest of the food cooked.

For the shrimp, I used a half-strip of bacon to wrap each, then skewered three shrimp together. The dates and asparagus cooked quickly -- the shrimp was the longest of the bunch, probably about 10 minutes.

The bacon was the star, but every bite added a different complexity: The almond-stuffed dates had the double punch of saltiness, the salmon added a smooth fishiness, and the asparagus exuded sweetness while providing a satisfying crunch. As for the shrimp, they were the perfect size and the texture played nicely off the crisp bacon.

Another guest did get the idea, to an extent: They brought doughnuts from Psycho Donuts in San Jose. Polishing off the meal with one of those was pure heaven -- except for the fact there was no bacon on them.