Sunday, March 21, 2010

io

About twenty years ago, I was at Matt's house watching the remake of The Blob. Kids today with their Netflix and Amazon and internet, they don't get it. We didn't even have Blockbuster. We had a video rental joint in town, about the size of a classroom, and the selection didn't change very often. We rented the Halloween and Nightmare On Elm Street movies over and over again. I've seen Platoon a lot.

Anyway, Matt's mother had picked up Cape Cod Sour Cream and Dill potato chips for us. This is a very vivid food memory for me, that's why I remember the movie we were watching. They were just so damn good -- the combination of dill, sour cream, and potato ... it was just awesome. They don't make those chips anymore, and I wish to hell they did.

Cause the thing is, I'm not a fan of dill very often. I don't eat many pickles, and never buy dill pickles. Once in a while I buy fresh dill thinking "oh I'll find something to do with this," and I never do, except on the rare occasion when I make a dill vinaigrette to have with roasted asparagus and potatoes.

Reason I'm bringing this up is dill pollen is fantastic. It has a strong dill flavor that's far more complex than the dried dill or dill seed, and easier to use than fresh dill. I find myself looking for excuses to use it -- using it instead of paprika on deviled eggs, adding it to ranch or onion dip for Buffalo wings, adding it to salad dressings. And every time, I go "damn, that dill pollen is so good" -- exactly the way I reacted to those potato chips a billion years ago.

Spicy fried chicken with dill pollen

This week, Meat Sunday is spicy fried chicken with dill pollen.  Two chicken thighs marinated in hot sauce and dill pollen, battered with flour and salt and dill pollen, fried, and dusted with more dill pollen and salt.

Spice and dill don't seem to be combined often enough, except when dill is part of the ranch dip served with Buffalo wings, which is pretty indirect.  I think I may play with that.

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