I haven’t posted in forever. There are so many things I want to write about that I don’t know where to start. And there’s this whole global pandemic thing, which is making “normal” seem like an alien word to me these days. So…baby steps. People always ask me for this recipe, but there isn’t one. As with many of the things I cook, I don’t really have a recipe with amounts of ingredients, because I always just kind of make it from memory.  But since that’s not very helpful, I tried to cobble instructions together. Here’s what you need…

• soy sauce
• whole water chestnuts
• brown sugar
• bacon
• round wooden toothpicks

I usually figure one 8oz. can of water chestnuts per 4-5 people, but it really depends on what else you’re serving.  People eat the heck out of these, so I always err on the side of making an obscene amount. Miraculously, there are never any leftovers no matter how much I make; they get eaten until they’re gone.

Drain water chestnuts, then soak overnight in a mixture of 2 parts soy sauce to 1 part water.  Make sure they are completely covered by the liquid.  You don’t have to soak them overnight, but they need to soak at least 8 hours, 12-16 is better, 24 is too long.  

One hour before you’re ready to assemble, put tooth picks in a bowl and cover them with warm water so they absorb moisture and don’t burn up completely during baking.  Put some brown sugar in a bowl and keep the bag of sugar handy for refills.  You’ll end up using however much you need, but you want to avoid cross-contaminating the bag.  

Cut your bacon strips in halves or thirds, depending on how long/thick they are.  Each strip needs to be able to wrap around a water chestnut and overlap ends enough to secure with a toothpick, but you don’t want too many layers of bacon or the inner layers won’t get crisp.  I find thick cut bacon can take too long to crisp up, but thinner bacon can fall apart in the wrapping process.  Often times, I will use a rolling pin to flatten thick cut bacon a bit, which usually means I can get 3 pieces to wrap from an average strip of thick cut bacon.  But you’re going to have to wrap a few pieces to get the hang of it and decide what feels easiest/best with the bacon you’re using.  

Drain the water chestnuts but do not rinse them.  Sprinkle brown sugar (a light dusting, probably about a teaspoon) on one side of a piece of bacon, put one water chestnut on top of the sugared side, wrap bacon around chestnut so non-sugared side is on the outside, and secure with a tooth pick.  Remember that the bacon will shrink during baking, so don’t stretch the bacon too thin or wrap it too tightly, or it will come apart and unwrap from the chestnut when it bakes.  (Honestly, it took me a couple batches until I got the hang of it.)  Repeat until all your soaked water chestnuts are wrapped.

At this point, you can cover the rumaki and keep in the fridge until you’re ready to bake, up to 24 hours.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Place rumaki on a wire rack over a sheet pan (or in a sheet pan lined with tinfoil or parchment paper) and bake for 30 minutes or until bacon is desired crispness.  This can take an hour or more if you like them really crispy, depending on bacon used and overall size of batch.  You’ll want to check them after 15 minutes and might need to flip them over once or twice to keep them from sticking, especially if you’re not using a wire rack.  Once they get close to where you want them, check them every couple of minutes because they’re fine, they’re not done, they’re fine, they’re still not done, they’re fine, OMG they’re burnt.  

Remove from oven and try to let them cool before stuffing your face with them.