Last Saturday we had the pleasure of welcoming into COOK the author of the wildly popular cookbook Dining In, Alison Roman. Alison previously was the Senior Food Editor at Bon Appétit Magazine and BuzzFeed, and her work has appeared in the The New York Times, Cherry Bombe, Darling and Lucky Peach. After enjoying four courses straight out of her cookbook, COOK guests went home with a signed edition of Dining In as well as big smiles on their faces.  Taking a simple approach to cooking, Alison focuses on making recipes “highly cookable” and that is exactly what she demonstrated in her evening class.  Read on to see the beautiful dishes she prepared and learn more about Alison Roman and her cookbook!

Spring Pea and Radish Salad with Lemon and Anchovy

To start the night off Alison mixed together a vibrant salad with pops of color and a salty, garlicky (and slightly funky, in a good way) dressing. Watermelon radishes always help liven up any dish, and with this salad, they offered both texture and some bright red flair. Pea shoots lent an elegant and fresh finishing touch to this super spring-y salad.

The secret ingredient and real key to this salad is the anchovy dressing. While Alison loves anchovies, the main purpose in having them in the salad to start and the entrée at the end of the meal was to show guests how to use one ingredient multiple times in different ways. Knowing what to shop for, and how to use something more than once in your home kitchen is something Alison likes to teach people. As she stated in class, her recipes are “highly cookable” not only in terms of cooking execution, but also the ingredients are fairly easy to find and can be used in multiple recipes. While this anchovy dressing really made the salad sing, just wait until you read about the anchovy butter…

Crispy Farro with Green Garlic, Sausage and Greens

Next, came a hearty bowl of ancient grains, sausage and greens. Taking sausage out of its casing is one of Alison Roman’s favorite things to do in the kitchen. She explained that one of the first things she did in her home kitchen with her mother was take sausage out of its intestinal casings. So making this sausage and grain bowl for our guests was like old times for her!

Alison said the best way to cook the sausage for this recipe is to use a wooden spoon to break the meat into smaller bits in the pan.  This will cause the sausage to have more surface area, cooking it faster and giving it a crispier texture that pairs well with the farro. Be sure to save the sausage fat that is rendered out! Alison is a big fan of one stop shopping, using every bit of your product.

If you aren’t familiar with farro, it’s an ancient grain that is similar to rice or barley, but has a nuttier flavor. When purchasing farro from the market, Alison said to avoid packages labeled “pearled” or “hulled”. This means the outer layer and the bran has been removed, and although this will allow it to cook faster, the results will be mushier in comparison to non-hulled farro.

Anchovy Butter Chicken with Croutons

And here it is… the anchovy butter! There is a hilarious story behind the anchovy butter chicken recipe that Alison shared with us at COOK.  While cooking dinner at a friend’s house, Alison asked her friend to rub the chicken with butter. There was a bowl of butter out, but there was also a bowl of anchovy butter on the counter. Her friend accidentally put the anchovy butter on the chicken instead of plain butter. The best part, her friend’s father was eating dinner with them and said not to serve any anchovies because he hates them… but, you guessed it, he loved it!  This recipe is a great way to cook for a crowd, “just throw two chickens on a sheet tray and go!” Alison exclaimed.

This rich, fat-glistening chicken deserves some carbs to absorb all that flavor. For this reason, Alison made some rustic croutons just way she likes them: hand-tearing loaves of bread into large chunks. Fresh bread crumbs are near and dear to Alison, so much so that in her cookbook Alison gives five different recipes for fresh breadcrumbs! After tossing them in the residual chicken fat and some herbs, she put them in the oven to crisp up a bit.

Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies 

And of course… the cookies! Five minutes before class started someone had already asked about “the cookies.” These viral sweets became an internet sensation, creating a devoted following of crazed cookie monsters. Lucky for our guests, Alison included the cookies in her COOK menu, even giving guests boxes of extra cookies to take home! To prepare the dough, she started off by chopping up Guittard chocolate bars (her preferred brand). Alison stated to use chocolate that you would want to eat on its own, not your standard baking chips. Once she had her play-doh like consistency dough ready, Alison rolled it into logs and refrigerated them so they would be cold enough to slice towards the end of the meal. While slicing the logs into cookie discs, Alison noted to use your free hand to put pressure on the top of the knife to cut through the chocolate chunks without breaking the cookie round.

In the end, the cookies (and Alison herself) gained 16 new fans. Guests were charmed by Alison’s cooking, her wry humor, her personal anecdotes and many kitchen tips. Come into COOK today to get your own copy of Dining In to see for yourself how delicious and simple Alison Roman’s recipes are. Alison was kind enough to sign a few copies before she left, so hurry in before they’re all gone! We are open for retail Tuesday – Sunday from 12-5 PM, unless class is in session.