Food for Thought: Alison Roman’s Dining In

Even though I am a huge fan of Alison Roman’s recipes in the New York Times, I resisted buying her cookbook,  Dining In. Why? Because her salty kitchen essentials, the first items in the book, were all head nodders, things that are already in my pantry at all times: anchovies, capers, fish sauce, kosher salt, parmesan, olives, preserved lemon… well, actually not that last one, so I read on. And found many of the recipes are like what I throw together when I have ingredients and want to combine them in a tasty way.

But…. She’s got a recipe for “Crunchy Chili Oil” which is like Chili Crisp, but without the picture of the Grumpy Housewife on the label. (By the way, the original Grumpy Cat died last week… but I digress.) And makes her own Zata’ar. And her own Everything Bagel seasoning mixture. Interesting.

But what finally sold me on Dining In was her Crispy Chicken Legs recipe in which she comfits the legs in a bath of olive oil then uses the leftover oil, now flavored with chicken fat and herbs, to make other recipes. Yes, you could do the same thing but you haven’t, right? Check it out.