Fashionable Food: Sausage-Stuffed Dates

Who’s making it and how you can make it yourself

By Lessley Anderson

Where It’s Being Made

Laiola, San Francisco
What they call it: Bacon-wrapped Medjool dates stuffed with house-made chorizo, $12

Laiola makes its own spicy sausage from pork shoulder and back fat, chili powder, smoked paprika, garlic, ginger, black pepper, and the North African spice mix Ras el Hanout. Then the restaurant fills pitted Medjool dates with the cooked sausage, wraps the dates in bacon, and skewers and grills them. The appetizer is finished with a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar.

“If you pit the dates yourself, wear gloves, because your hands get sticky,” recommends Chef Ron Pei.

Also Spotted At

Savoy, Asheville, North Carolina
What they call it: Housemade lamb sausage stuffed dates with mint, $7

Avec, Chicago
What they call it: Chorizo-stuffed Medjool dates with smoked bacon and piquillo pepper-tomato sauce, $9

HOW TO MAKE IT

If you’re using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 30 minutes so they don’t burn. Cut some Medjool dates (as many as you want to eat!) in half lengthwise and pit. Fill each half with a nugget of cooked chorizo, wrap in uncooked bacon, and skewer. Heat your broiler to high. Place the skewers in the broiler on a baking sheet and cook for five to seven minutes, turning halfway through. The dates are done when the bacon is nicely rendered and browned. Keep an eye on them, because everybody’s broiler is different.

Trendiness is the same, whether it’s food or fashion. The popular kid busts out his old moccasins, looks groovy, and before long the shoes are being sold at Hot Topic in the mall. A chef puts chicken on a pizza, blows people’s minds, and 10 years later Domino’s is all about chicken pizzas. Here’s our guide to what’s surfacing on menus across the country, and how you can make it yourself. Or in other words, what your mother-in-law will be bringing to her book club in 2015.

Lessley Anderson is senior editor at CHOW.