Avocados with Everything by Alison Roman

I grew up in sunny Southern California, where citrus is cheap and avocados are aplenty. Californian cuisine is famous for finding creative ways to incorporate avocados into just about any recipe (and charging you an extra $3 for it too). My aunt and uncle who live in Redlands have a backyard full of avocado trees, and a few times a year we’d come home from a visit carrying a large grocery bag full of unripened avocados. We’d wait patiently for at least a week, checking them every morning to see if they were ready for a bowl of guacamole yet. Those were special days. 

I’ve only been to New York once, and there I ate the best bagel I’ve ever had. An Everything bagel, toasted, with chive cream cheese. My breath smelled awesome for the rest of the day. I’m a sucker for anything super salty and umami-y, so naturally the Everything bagel is my favorite. (Since going Gluten-Free, I tried to make my own sourdough bagels with Everything-but-the-bagel seasoning. Sadly, my attempt thoroughly failed. I’ll try again someday with a different recipe.)

Combine my hometown and one of my all-time vacation spots, and what do you get? Avocados with Everything! Half an avocado, sprinkled with lemon juice, and Everything seasoning. Eat with a spoon for breakfast, lunch, or a snack. It’s ripe with nostalgia. 

79 recipes cooked, 146 to go.

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Decidedly Not-Sweet Granola by Alison Roman

Alison has two granola recipes. Kinda-sweet and Decidedly not-sweet. Both are really good.

In my previous granola post, I outlined my criteria for an excellent granola – because yes, I do have standards. Anyone serious about granola should. I will use my developed criteria to develop this rather not sweet granola. 

1. Every good granola recipe has an X factor. 

This granola has 2 X factors: 

Soy sauce (I’ll admit this made me hesitate. Would I like soy sauce on my granola? Would it be too savory to put on my plain yogurt? But it balanced well with the tiny bit of maple syrup, far better than I anticipated! And at least it wasn’t fish sauce!)

Aleppo pepper (the perfect amount of heat)

2. Every good granola recipe is also a template. 

So this recipe did not have as many options listed in it as the Kinda-Sweet one did. I think the spices and maple syrup to soy sauce ratio is non-negotiable. The flavor balance is what gives this granola its namesake. The egg whites must also stay the same - they give the granola its signature crunch. But she does list quite a lot of seeds to put in the granola, half of which I could not find or could not eat (gluten intolerance). In this way, it’s a template. I used: rolled oats, raw pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds, white sesame seeds, fennel seed, aleppo pepper. I did not use: sunflower seeds, buckwheat groats, black sesame seeds, nigella seeds, or caraway seeds. 

3. Every good granola recipe makes a lot of granola. 

Once again, this made plenty of granola – enough to last me and my friend Molly about 4 days in Colorado. It could have sustained us longer, but hey, we were hungry from all the physical activity! We ate this on its own, and with plain goat’s milk yogurt (if you haven’t yet, try it, find it at TJ’s) and a dash of maple syrup. 

In summary, I’d say this is another good granola recipe. Savory with a kick, and begging for a drizzle of maple syrup. 


76 recipes cooked, 149 to go.

Eggs and Kale Fried in Chicken Fat by Alison Roman

I love fried eggs. I have since the morning in college that I saw Sarah (a personal hero of mine) dip her toast into the runny egg yolk pooling on her plate. I grew up in a household that cooks egg yolks until very dry. So I had subscribed to the dry egg yolk idea myself. Until Sarah unashamedly revelled in the goodness of a runny yolk and declared it her favorite breakfast. All of my assumptions about eggs went straight out the window. If Sarah can enjoy a bright yellow pool of yolk, you bet I can too. From that day on, I’ve made only over-easy fried eggs, and I always have them with toast. 

Alison Roman has succeeded in upping over-easy fried eggs’ ante by swapping the typical olive oil or butter with chicken fat. To my fellow fried egg lovers, let me tell you, this substitution will rock your egg world. 

“Where does one acquire chicken fat?,” I initially wondered. Never fear, Alison’s got you covered. Yesterday I posted about Crispy Chicken Legs with Tiny Potatoes. Well, the cup and a half of olive oil used to cook the chicken legs can be strained and saved for this very purpose! This leftover oil can be used for other cooking needs as well. For example, I used it to make a batch of Alison’s Roasted Tomato and Anchovy Bucatini a few days ago. 

Just the act of re-heating this oily fat in the pan releases so many irresistible smells - salty chicken, poached garlic, a hint of rosemary. My mouth watered before the eggs were even cracked from their shells. Both the kale and eggs are fried in the fat separately. The kale only spends about 4 minutes in the pan, until it begins to crisp at the edges. The eggs spend about 3 minutes over medium-high heat, making sure the yolks remain full of runny goodness. 

I can’t recommend enough the power of a piece of homemade sourdough bread to drag across the yolk. I imagine a homemade english muffin would have the same effect. 

The crispy chicken recipe yielded about 1 cup of fat. This egg and kale recipe only requires 4 Tbsp, so there is enough for several breakfasts more. I will savor every drop.

42 recipes cooked, 183 to go.

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