I love this everything about this dish. I am big fan of the Catalan dried fruit, pinyons, and spices flavor profile. And I also love the very good description of this cooking technique, half braised/half confit, which I also do when cooking a whole duckling and other poultry. Now I can credit my neighboring Catalans! Thank you for sharing this, Elisabet!
Oh Kate, it's such an honor to hear you liked it! I never thought about how a "rostit" differed from a "roast" until talking to my English husband one day. I love this technique, it feels so homey to me ❤️
Lard gives you quite a flaky pastry cos the large fat crystals help create a more open structure.
The only thing is, you need to ask the butcher for leaf lard (that's taken from around the kidneys and loin). Lard from other sections could give your pastry a rather gamey smell 😝.
It also depends on how you "clarify" the fat during rendering. But for pastry, it's usually better if you can get hold of leaf lard 😊.
You might find this vid interesting - a Chinese chef demonstrates how to render and clarify the fat to get what's called "snow lard" . Among other skills, would-be brides in China were once judged on how snowy-white and fragrant they could get their lard 🤣.
We're going to put in a special order for what they call Old Mother Hens around here - these stand up way better than the puny young chooks sold in local supermarkets, which would fall apart after less than an hour.
I love this everything about this dish. I am big fan of the Catalan dried fruit, pinyons, and spices flavor profile. And I also love the very good description of this cooking technique, half braised/half confit, which I also do when cooking a whole duckling and other poultry. Now I can credit my neighboring Catalans! Thank you for sharing this, Elisabet!
Oh Kate, it's such an honor to hear you liked it! I never thought about how a "rostit" differed from a "roast" until talking to my English husband one day. I love this technique, it feels so homey to me ❤️
This looks great! And love that you saved the rendered bacon fat. We save ours in a mason jar every time we cook bacon, and we go through a lot of it!
Thank you Lou! At first I panicked a bit when I couldn't find lard, but later I thought "I can just fry some bacon"!
When in doubt, fry bacon!
We make a lot of crackling, so we usually have plenty of lard on hand. Everything tastes better fried in lard 😝. It's great for pastry too.
Exactly! Great tip on using it for pastry!
Lard gives you quite a flaky pastry cos the large fat crystals help create a more open structure.
The only thing is, you need to ask the butcher for leaf lard (that's taken from around the kidneys and loin). Lard from other sections could give your pastry a rather gamey smell 😝.
I had no idea that different parts of the animal gave different flavors to the fat! Thank you for sharing!
It also depends on how you "clarify" the fat during rendering. But for pastry, it's usually better if you can get hold of leaf lard 😊.
You might find this vid interesting - a Chinese chef demonstrates how to render and clarify the fat to get what's called "snow lard" . Among other skills, would-be brides in China were once judged on how snowy-white and fragrant they could get their lard 🤣.
https://youtu.be/HTyzuxpPXus?feature=shared
Oh this sounds absolutely delicious! The recipe's going right into our Cook Next list ☺️.
Yay! Let me know if you cook it and how you like it! 🥰
We're going to put in a special order for what they call Old Mother Hens around here - these stand up way better than the puny young chooks sold in local supermarkets, which would fall apart after less than an hour.
Oh wow! Sounds great! I'm sure the tough meat will benefit from the braising 🥰
You’ve made this very doable for me, where cooking French was just a dream. Sundays are for rest and chicken w prunes, and you had me at piñons.
So happy to hear that! Let me know if you make it and how you like it! 🥰
This sounds/looks delicious!
Thank you so much Brian!
This must have been the wonderful smell that was coming from your unit. It looks like the holidays.
Haha! I’m glad you could sense it too! 🥰