I was given this beautiful book for Christmas this year! It is full of wonderful things I want to make. For instance: brown butter ice cream, country-style terrine, salted butter tart, and the slow roasted pork belly with fennel and rosemary. However, I started with the duck fat biscuits with cracklings on page 141.
It seemed like a pretty simple recipe. After all, there were only 7 ingredients. Flour -check. Baking powder -check. Sea Salt check. Chopped chives... hmm -tarragon? Sure why not. Duck fat... uh no. But I do have some chicken fat that I skimmed off the top of some chicken soup last week. It has a few herbs and other stuff kind of mixed in but it should work. Poultry cracklings... never heard of such a thing. Oh well, why let that stand in the way of a delicious recipe. We'll just skip that part and continue on. And finally, milk. Well shoot, none of that either. But wait! I've got a pint of fresh raw cream.
Okay, let's see here. Of the seven ingredients, I'm going to omit one, and substitute 3 of the remaining six. Sounds like a plan to me! Whipped it together, popped it in the oven. It turned out so divine that I'm not sure if I'll ever make the recipe the way it was written. Or then again I might -depends on what's in the fridge!
So how do you cook? Pinches and dashes or cups and tablespoons?
Don't forget to note your changes in the margins! Your biscuits sound heavenly. I've made pie crust with chicken fat, too, for pot pie. It is a bit soft for this, but if you work fast, it is delicious!
ReplyDeleteUggg... I usually do make notes in the margins, but this is such a beatiful, new book... I'm not sure I can make myself do it! Pot pie sounds good right about now. A good way to use up those bits and bobs leftover from smoked turkey!
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