Cooking with Beer, Version 2.0: Beer-Battered Bacon

Yes, I know. This sounds disgustingly gluttonous. And the end result is fit for a glutton -- but not disgusting in the least. Crispy bacon surrounded by a thin, crunchy tempura-like beer batter made with Penn Pilsner. To cut the richness, I stirred up a cool, tangy bleu cheese dressing with yogurt, chives, and some Spanish bleu I had in the fridge. Works great with the bacon.

Here's the recipe:

Beer-Battered Bacon

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dredging
12 oz. Penn Pilsner
1 egg yolk
salt, pepper and cayenne pepper, to taste
1/2 lb. thick cut bacon, cut into two inch pieces (slab bacon would work best, but my grocer was out so regular thick strips made do)
Peanut oil, for frying

1. In a large skillet, fry bacon pieces until lightly crispy. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate; cool. While the bacon is frying, heat a few inches of oil in a large pot until it reaches 375 degrees.

2. For batter: Whisk beer into flour, adding half the bottle at a time. Once combined, add egg yolk, salt, pepper and cayenne.

3. When bacon has cooled, dredge in flour, shaking off excess flour. Coat dredged pieces in batter, working with no more than six pieces at a time.

4. Carefully lower battered pieces into oil, working in batches of a half dozen or so. Fry until lightly golden, about 3 minutes. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate and enjoy.

Note: Beer-battered bacon quickly devolved into beer-battered everything, as we had some batter left over. From our experimentation, we gleaned that this batter also works great with cauliflower, asparagus, hot dogs and bananas -- possibly the best combination. The banana, cut into fourths, melted inside the lightly crunchy coating, making for a delicate, cream puff-like dessert. The saltiness of the batter contrasted well with the super sweet banana.