Garlic Bacon Broccoli

The title of the post is just about all you need to know about this dish. It's basically some fried brocolli, with garlic and bacon as the main additional flavors.

But with such a simple dish, the key elements are in the particulars of the preparation. And the most important thing for preparing delicious fresh vegetables in a stir fry type situation is to not overcook them. I've heard tales of woe about childhoods spent trying to choke down some mushy, bland, blanched or steamed broccoli. So sad.

This dish converted my husband - who was one of those tragically subjected to disgustingly prepared vegetables in childhood and thus led to believe they are not good - to accepting that a dish like this (read: one made from mostly a head of broccoli) can be an entire meal or main course. We had ours with some couscous from a box. Way easy. Also, vegetables cook very fast making this a good meal to end a busy day.

I did some detailed documentation of the process, because I like when food blogs just show you with pictures. I'm not good at following written recipes.

The main dry/cold ingredients you need, aside from a head of broccoli, are:

• vegetable oil (or whatever lesser-flavored oil you prefer)
•  sesame oil
• red chili flakes
• some bacon, we had 4 slices from the neighborhood charcuterie, a thing we actually have now that we live in San Francisco

 Have your prep cook chop that brocolli and garlic.

Meanwhile, start cooking the bacon and if you feel so inclined, make this couscous from the box. It's just a matter of boiling water.

Around this same time, as the bacon is heating up, put 1 part vegetable oil and 2 parts sesame oil  in a pan and heat on highest possible heat.

Only when the oil is very, very hot, do you add the broccoli. It should make a loud sound and oil should pop when the broccoli hits it.

Toss the broccoli in the oil to coat, and add some cracked black pepper and salt to taste.

If you happen to notice, like I did, that your broccoli has dried out a little bit in the fridge over the last few days since you bought it, splash some water into the pan. It should be so little water that it all boils away completely. Toss the broccoli in the water and you'll get some minor steaming action.

Once it has turned bright green, don't stir for a minute, and you will get a nice browned edge on the broccolis.

Once it seems juuuuust about done, add your chopped garlic.

Also add a pinch of crushed red pepper.

Continue to cook for about 1 minute, until garlic becomes fragrant. In the meantime, your prep cook should have placed your cooked bacon on a paper towel to cool, and then chopped/torn it up into bits. The last step is to toss the bacon bits into the broccoli and serve!

Simple and delicious, folks.