My favorite restaurant in Chicago is Avec. My favorite dish on the menu is the chorizo-stuffed medjool dates with smoked bacon and piquillo pepper-tomato sauce. I have yet to meet anyone who has not loved these dates. They are sweet, salty, spicy and tangy. It’s a party in your mouth.
While the dates, chorizio and bacon are replicable, their sauce is not. I have been trying for about 2 years to get my sauce close in flavor. While experimenting with tomato sauces one day I added two tablespoon of Harissa to pot and it was a spicy tangy sauce that complimented the dates wonderfully. Since then, I have been making my own version of Chorizo stuffed dates with bacon. Instead of piquillo pepper-tomato sauce, I hug my dates with a Harissa Tomato Sauce.
If you like spicy you will love this appetizer. I recommed making a double batch, they are addictive.
Ingredients:
12 pitted medjoole dates
6 oz Mexican chorizo
6 slices of bacon (sliced in half) (you can use turkey bacon)
1 cup of tomato sauce
1 tablespoon of Harissa
makes 6 servings
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Slice dates in half, and open them up and remove pit. Pinch off pieces of chorizo, and place them into the center of the dates. Close the halves of the dates, and wrap a half-slice of bacon around the outside. Arrange in a baking sheet or dish.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the bacon is crisp. Turn dates over after the first 20 minutes for even cooking.
While dates are cooking, bring 1 cup of tomato sauce to a simmer. Mix in 1 tablespoon of harissa.
Place cooked dates in a serving dish and top with tomato harissa sauce.
Enjoy!
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