Tag: biscuits

Cornmeal Biscuits

Cornmeal Biscuits

Instead of the usual corn tortillas to go along with our homemade chili verde, I thought cornmeal biscuits were a good idea. At first, cornbread floated through my mind, and then I thought of biscuits . . . why not combine the ideas together?

Cornmeal Biscuits

Preheat oven to 425 F.

3/4 c. butter, unsalted, finely diced
1 1/2 c. unbleached flour
3/4 c. yellow cornmeal
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 T. white sugar
1/2 c. chopped, fresh sweet pepper (I used pale, green Hungarian)
1/2 c. corn, fresh or frozen
2/3 c. buttermilk (or thin yogurt)

Combine dry ingredients – flour, cornmeal, salt, soda, cream of tartar, and sugar – in a bowl. Blend in, as for pastry, the butter, until combination resembles coarse meal. Stir in the pepper and corn. With a fork, stir in the buttermilk.

Check biscuits for consistency, adding more flour or buttermilk as you think is necessary.

Create a ball out of dough and knead briefly on floured board.  Roll out biscuits, about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, on floured board, using 2.5 inch biscuit cutter.

Place on baking sheet. If you want, brush tops with extra buttermilk. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven quirks, until lightly golden. Cool on wire rack.

I got a nice baker’s dozen, but YMMV.

Kitchen Sink Cooking

Cooking and baking can be “gotta follow the recipe to get it right” or “just throw it all together and hope for the best” in approach.  Every culture and country has its national dish for leftovers all thrown together.  When I was growing up, it was called “mish-mash” and usually had egg noodles, onions, sour cream, and whatever else was lying around.  The Japanese have, I think (if I understood a friend correctly) “okazu,” which is mostly rice, with leftovers.  Hash is another variant.  Anyway, you get the idea:  use it up if you got it!

For some things, you don’t really need a recipe, just ingredients.  Granola is perfect for this.  Tonight, I did need some cooking / baking skills for chicken pie.  The mish-mash side was chicken and vegetables.  Leftover roast chicken, potatoes, corn cut from the cob, red pepper, onion, celery, and carrots.  Sauteed the chopped up stuff in a bit of oil and butter.  Boiled up new potatoes (diced), about 3, and then saved some liquid.  Into this, I threw some sour cream (natch!) and homemade chicken broth.  After sauteeing the other stuff in the pan (which would then go into the oven), I sprinkled the mix with some flour, stirred it up a bit, and then poured the potato water / sour cream / chicken stock over it.  Season with herbs and spices.  I like rosemary, sage, thyme, garlic, pepper, and bay leaves.  Sometimes a lot of celery seed is also good.

Next step:  biscuit dough.  1 stick butter, about 3 c. flour, a T. of powder, and a bit of salt.  Add pepper if you like, or sage or parsley.  Use your hands and fingers to rub the flour and butter together until crumbly.  Add about 1 1/4 c. milk or cream (I had neither, so mixed up the rest of the sour cream and some water), dump it in, stir it up briefly, knead out on a floured board, shape into a lump, and roll out, adding flour as needed.  Roll from center out, making a circle about the diameter of the pan you will be putting into the oven.  Fold into quarters, transfer to pan, unfold, slice into it for venting, pop into the oven.  Oven is preheated to 400; bake about 1 hour.   Prep time – about 1 hour, so about 2 hours total.  

Virtuous little housewife, ain’t I?