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Savoury Baklava

Yesterday afternoon, Agathe, my poissonnière, wandered into the kitchen with too much time on her hands. She quietly watched us prep, but I noticed that she seemed eager to get our attention. A giddy glee bounced her weight from one foot to the other.

Unable to resist, she finally screamed, “Mise en place!!? HAH! More like “MISERY en place!”

Agathe grinned at us, still bouncing. We glared back. Kali quietly finished slicing chives before acknowledging her with a glance. Zao cocked his head and scratched his back with a spatula, sizing her up. Time passed.

“Agathe,” I finally asked, “how long have you been waiting to use that one?”

Agathe cackled shrilly, turned, and bounced out the door. We stared after her.

“That didn’t make any sense,” a commis finally moaned. “We’re not prepping the mise en place. We’re not even working near it. In fact…”, he glanced around, “…it’s not even in the kitchen at the moment.”

And it was not. We had rolled it out back, along with the other nonessential equipment. In its place, we had assembled a prep line focused on breaded chicken strips. That evening, we were to cater a party for the terminally-ill children of Happy House Recovery Point. This was a condition of my recent parole.

Now, the counselors from HHRP had prepared us for a thing or two about children and cancer. First, children do not like chicken skins. Children do not like chicken skins because chicken skins taste like chicken. We’re conditioned from the time we can stuff our gobs with Cheerios that chicken is supposed to taste like a watery blob of protein that goes down quietly with Cheerios. But skinful chicken actually tastes like chicken. And 6-year-olds with malignant, intracranial neoplasms scream like all other 6-year-olds, who don’t like the taste of chicken. Unfortunately, it’s not socially-acceptable to seat dying children in the corner with a mouthful of liquid chicken skin until they come to their senses. So off the skins came. And quite a pile they did make, for lots of picky, sickly children were hungry.

But every cloud has its lining and every idiom has its day. A ruddy glut of chicken skin and my inherent dearth of patience inspired our very popular savoury baklava appetizer.

Let’s see how it’s made.

A piece of savoury baklava on a wooden cutting board with a piece of arugula in the foreground

Arrange your chicken skin in an unappetizing pile on waxed paper. It should look unappetizing so that you work quickly while it’s cold. Melt some butter, chop some pistachios, and pray that you have orange blossom water.

A baking dish, a measuring cup of pistachios, a bottle of orange blossom water, a small white bowl of melted butter, a cutting board, a brush, and a pile of chicken skins on wax paper

Stretch the chicken skin across a shallow dish.

A chicken skin stretched across the bottom of a small, rectangular baking dish next to a pile of chicken skins; a measuring cup of pistachios, a bottle of orange blossom water, and a brush are on a cutting board nearby

Brush the stretched chicken skin liberally with butter. Repeat this process of stretching skins and slathering them with butter until the shallow dish is half full. This requires optimism and two to three skins.

Butter being brushed onto a chicken skin stretched across the bottom of a small, rectangular baking dish next to a pile of chicken skins; a measuring cup of pistachios, and a bottle of orange blossom water are on a cutting board in the background

Toast the chopped pistachios and toss them with a few drops of orange blossom water. You can substitute rose water at the expense of your baklava tasting like old church lady. That cost-benefit analysis is up to you. I use orange blossom water.

Pistachios in a pan, being poured onto a chicken skin stretched across the bottom of a small, rectangular baking dish

Repeat the stretching/slathering process until you fill the shallow dish (about three more skins, no more optimism).

A small, rectangular baking dish full of stretched chicken skins; a bottle of orange blossom water, a brush, and a small white bowl are in the background

Soak the dish in olive oil and bake for 50 minutes in an oven preheated to 350°C. De-warm the oven and let the dish rest for 10 minutes. With a very sharp knife, partition the baklava into two-bite stratifications.

A piece of savoury baklava on a wooden cutting board with a piece of arugula and a small ball of something white behind it

Plate with arugula and a ball of foamed lardo. Enjoy.

I eventually fired Agathe. I’d forgotten about her in the frenzy that followed the popular announcement of our baklava. She delivered flawless fish, but her humor was idiotic.