Fat

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Growing up in the 90’s we were told fat was a villain, but of course we know now that it’s actually essential to human survival. In Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat we’re given the good advice to not add fat to your cooking, but to make better use of what you do have.

I had two good takeaways from this chapter:

  1. Pair your fats from the region you’re cooking from

  2. All good texture comes from fat

I haven’t decided yet what I want to cook inspired by this chapter, but now that Lent is over there’s a good chance it might be pie crust.

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SALT, FAT, ACID, HEAT: Ceasar Salad

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My first cooking experiment from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat was Caesar salad. One of my cooking rules is to not spend hours in the kitchen, but there’s also something decadent about leaving work on time during a busy week and making your own mayonnaise.

That’s how the recipe started- with homemade mayonnaise. It was just an egg yolk and olive oil, but it took a while. The recipe called for wrapping a bowl in a towel and whipping 3/4 of oil a drop at a time. I have my limits. I used an immersion blender. I was rewarded by a yellow liquid that looked nothing like mayonnaise. My bad, but I had used so much olive oil I wasn’t about to give up.

For the dressing the recipe called for whole anchovies mushed up, but I relied on my trusty anchovy paste. Other than that I made the recipe as written still using my immersion blender. The salad itself was simple- just some romaine with croutons. SFAH had a crouton recipe, but I was trying to clear out my kitchen and just used some leftover burger buns, more olive oil, and a garlic herb mix.

I didn’t have high hopes, but this was delicious! There was leftover dressing and it is being jealously guarded as a chicken marinate for later. I will be making this all summer!

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Salt

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The first chapter in Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat is all about salt. Nosrat says In almost every case, anything you cook for yourself at home is more nutritious, and lower in sodium, than processed, prepared, or restaurant food.” and I like this book already.

This chapter was like a very delicious chemistry lesson. I loved the reminder that salt isn’t just what’s in the shaker. It’s also cheese, capers, and anchovies. Yum. I’ve been a vegetarian for a bit now, but I’m not ready to give up anchovy paste yet.

This chapter didn’t have any recipes in it, but it did make me hungry for a Cesar salad. So, that will be my experiment tomorrow. (I assumed making Cesar dressing from scratch would break my money and time budgets, but it doesn’t sound too bad. In theory. We’ll see.)

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Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat

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Last year when my cooking felt stagnant I went back to basics and cooked from The New York Times Cookbook. I was feeling bored in the kitchen again lately so I decided to read and cook through a book I got as a gift a few years ago- Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat.

There are a few mental ground rules I’ve had to set for myself when I do something like this:

  1. No pricey one time use ingredients

  2. Adaptable for vegetarians

  3. Can’t take hours to cook

I can’t wait!