The fry-up has always appealed to me, in particular the bits that stay put at the bottom of the pan, the crusty scrapings that brown rather too much. I call them “the pan-stickings.” One of potato and duck fat is a deep-winter supper of immense pleasure; another of herb-speckled sausage meat and zucchini. This is robust cooking, crisp edged and flecked black and gold. It is not for those days when you want something genteel or elegant. This is the sort of supper to pile on a plate and eat with a cold beer. The latest of my fry-ups is extraordinary in that two generally sweet ingredients come together to produce a deeply savory result. The key here is not to move the ingredients around the pan too much, letting them take on a sticky crust while allowing them to soften to a point where you can squash them with little or no pressure. The caraway seeds, which people tend to either love or hate, are entirely optional.
Recipe information
Yield
serves 4 as a side dish
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Melt a slice of butter in a shallow pan, cut the bacon into short strips, and let them color lightly in the butter. Peel and coarsely chop the onion, add to the pan, and cook with the bacon until translucent but not browned. Cut the pumpkin flesh into manageable pieces and add to the pan, turning from time to time until golden in patches and almost tender.
Step 2
Core and coarsely chop the apples, but don’t peel them. Stir them into the pan and leave to putter gently until they are on the verge of collapse. Avoid stirring too much, which is likely to mash the softening pumpkin. Finely grate the zest from the lemon and add it to the pan with the juice, the caraway seeds, and a little salt.
Step 3
You should end up with a pan of highly fragrant, tender pumpkin, onion, and apple on the verge of collapse. Serve alongside something meaty or, as I usually have it, as a main dish in its own right.
