The lovely and amazing narfna was my CBR10 Book Exchange gifter last year. She shopped from my wish list and bought Salt Fat Acid Heat. I love cooking and cookbooks. I have worked as a chef professionally, but all my training has been at home and ad hoc in bakeries and small food shops. Samin Nosrat’s training has been in some of the best kitchens in the world. When I read how she got her job at Chez Panisse I was horribly jealous and thought, “You can do that? You can just ASK for a job?” In my next life, I am going to ask for the things that I want. If I don’t get them, fine, but there are an awful lot of things I haven’t gotten this time around because I didn’t think to ask. So there’s the big life lesson in this review, right up top.
The smaller life lesson in this review is don’t wait for the perfect time. I wanted to review this book after making a big feast and holding a dinner party. I would get feedback from other people to share with you! I am still waiting to review my favorite cookbook, Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons, after using it to make such a feast. The reality is I don’t have that kind of social circle and with my current social circle I would have to do a lot of culinary juggling to meet everyone’s dietary needs and restrictions. Instead of waiting for the perfect time I am doing what I really need to write a review: cook a couple recipes from the book.
Season food with the proper amount of salt at the proper moment; choose the optimal medium of fat to convey the flavor of your ingredients; balance and animate those ingredients with acid; apply the right type and quantity of heat for the proper amount of time—do all this and you will turn out vibrant and beautiful food, with or without a recipe.”
I am a good cook and I enjoy cooking, which is not a given. When I plan a menu, I think about the flavors, textures and colors of the food I plan to serve. I taste my food as I cook, but the only one of Nosrat’s four elements I have ever had at the forefront of my mind when I cook was heat: which cooking method will get me the result I’m looking for? As I’ve read the book and watched the 4 episode Netflix series, I’ve paid more attention to how I cook food. CoffeeShopReader reviewed this last year and was unimpressed with the recipes themselves. They are the least interesting part of the book, and I’m looking at them more as examples of how to use the principles Nosrat is teaching.
I am (sort of) making two dishes from Salt Fat Acid Heat, instead of following the recipes exactly, I am using the techniques on dishes I make already. I am applying Nosrat’s techniques and principles from the Buttermilk Marinated Roast Chicken (page 340) and Chicken with Lentil Rice (Page 334) to The Chunky Chef one pot Greek chicken and rice dish. I’m pairing it with Nosrat’s Broccoli Rabe with Ricotta Salata (page 264), with some changes. Ricotta salata is the kind of cheese known by foodies. I like it. It is a firm, mild but salty cheese that can be crumbled or shaved. But, I don’t have the time to go across town to the fancy cheese shop to buy ricotta salata, so I’ll be using easily acquired grocery store feta cheese. I’m also using lacinato kale instead of broccoli rabe, because the kale was $.79 a bunch vs $2.99 for the rabe. I like kale and it benefits from a long cook.
Salt.
Nosrat doesn’t state quantities of salt to give, and explains why. It makes sense, but can be initially frustrating, especially if you grew up in the 1970s and 80s when salting food was a no-no. The biggest change for me was salting the chicken as soon as I got it home from the store. From reading through the section on salt and through the recipes I noted when she added salt and I noted what two potentially aggressively salty ingredients – kalamata olives, which would cook with the chicken and rice, and crumbles of feta, which would top the kale – I would be using.
Fat.
Olive oil and fat from the chicken skin.
Acid.
Buttermilk in the marinade. I was also lucky, a friend brought me some delicious Meyer lemons.
Heat.
Stove top in a cast iron Dutch oven and a cast iron skillet. High heat for browning the chicken. Long cooks at a medium to medium low heat. There will be no crispy chicken skin.
Process.
The original recipe calls for olive oil as the binding agent for the marinade. I subbed out 2 tablespoons of olive oil for a cup of buttermilk.
Marinade:
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried minced onion
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
zest of 1 lemon
2-ish tsp sea salt
1/2-ish tsp black pepper
1 cup buttermilk
4 bone-in, skin on chicken pieces
I marinated the chicken for about 24 hours, shaking it occasionally to distribute the marinade. As I would with any stove top chicken dish, I browned the chicken in my cast iron dutch oven for 7 – 8 minutes on each side. Browning the chicken at a high heat renders the fat out of the skin. After the chicken had cooked on both sides, I set it aside on a plate, added the onions and a pinch of salt to the pot and turned down the heat. In both Salt Fat Acid Heat recipes, Nosrat calls for slow cooking the onions. My house smelled amazing as the onions slow-cooked.
The Greek chicken and rice recipe does not call for the addition of kalamata olives or artichoke hearts. I consider that a grave mistake, and have rectified it. Once the onions were soft and tender, I added the rice, garlic, oregano, pepper and a pinch of salt and sautéed for about a minute. I added (too much) chicken stock, and returned the chicken, plus the collected juices, to the pot. I also added the olives, artichoke hearts and sliced Meyer lemon. I put the top on and turned to the kale.
At this point, in a cast iron skillet, the onions (with a pinch of salt) had been browning for about 20 minutes and were soft and fragrant. I had already prepped the kale leaves, so I put them in the pan with a big pinch of red pepper flakes and another couple punches of salt, which I added a little bit at a time as I stirred the kale to distribute the oil. I covered it and stirred occasionally for about 20 minutes. At this point, I stopped the cooking process. The recipe calls for an additional 10 minutes, but the kale was done. Now came a technique I had not seen before, and I wish I had. When I was finished cooking the kale, I cleared a spot in the center of the pan, added a little olive oil and then 3 minced garlic cloves. I let it sizzle for a few seconds, until I could smell it, and then I stirred it into the kale. Genius. Pure genius. It was so delicious.
Lessons.
I ate my dinner standing at the counter because walking to the table would take too much time. It was so delicious. I went into a food coma. The brightness of the lemons and the saltiness of the olives infused the rice. I knew the chicken would be moist, but it also almost melted in my mouth. I love lacinato kale and the way that I have cooked it in the past is similar to the recipe I was working from. Adding little bits of salt during the cooking process deepened the flavor in ways I was not expecting. Adding minced garlic at the very end of the cooking was also a revelation. I did make a mistake. The proportions I was using for the rice to liquid ratio were for cooking the dish in the oven. When I have cooked this dish in the past, I reduced the liquid by a quarter. I forgot to do that this time and the rice was a little mushy. A lot of what I did to cook these two dishes are things that I can do every night. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or patience on most nights to cook onions for 20 minutes before I start cooking everything else. As much umami as they add to the dish, it’s just not realistic. However, I can make a big pot of caramelized onions to add to dishes. I’m going to try that. One of the changes I immediately made to my habits at home was seasoning meat as soon as I get it from the store. I have noticed it makes a real difference.
This truly is more a book about cooking than it is a cookbook. The recipes don’t look that interesting until you start following them. It’s like the difference between reading a play and watching a performance.
Big thank you to faintingviolet for editing my review. All errors are mine.