Peameal Bacon and Asparagus Pockets

I have posted before on various ways that I use my home cured peameal bacon.  Peameal bacon can be used pretty much the same way as you would use ham.  It does a different flavour and texture than ham but it is still a good substitute for ham.  Peameal bacon is either sliced and fried or left whole and baked.  Frying gives a bit of browning that adds to the flavour.  It is important to not overcook peameal bacon regardless of the method you use.  Once cooked it can be used hot as is as the meat main, in soups and chowders, and in casseroles or peameal bacon can be used cold in sandwiches, wraps and salads.

Sometimes those little bits of left-overs can help create an interesting dish.  I had a little peameal bacon left over from baked peameal bacon earlier in the week.  I cut it into cubes then added fresh asparagus cut into pieces and shredded cheddar cheese to create a filling for phyllo pastry pockets.  Brushing the pockets with butter would have given a nicer result.   The end result were tasty pockets that were a little on the messy side eat.

Phyllo pastry dough gives a lovely, flaky texture perfect for appetizers.  I buy the dough pre-made as it is rather time consuming and tedious to make from scratch.  The dough is quite fragile to work with because it is so thin.  The dough has to be thawed for about 5 hours in the refrigerator then rested at room temperature before using.   The filling should be made before opening the dough.  Melted butter is brushed or sprayed between the dough layers that are formed into various shaped filled pockets.  Phyllo pastry dough can also be cut into smaller squares then brushed with butter and layered into muffin tins to form a flaky tart shell ready for filling.