A Broad Reference

Hi it’s Gwynie again. Astrid asked me to do a guest post on my shortcakes/biscuits, which I find damn fine (all modesty aside). I always look it up in "Best Recipes" but sissy pointed out that I've changed the proportions, ingredients and method to better suit my idea of what a biscuit should be- and this in itself merits an entry (plus then I can just use the kitchen computer to check). To me this is a spring dish to go with all the lovely fresh fruit coming in but you could also have clotted cream and jam (yes I cheat and make these instead of scones). I whipped these up for family dinner the other night to go with fresh strawberries and they were a hit.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees

Baking requires a commitment to accuracy. Measure out the following

125 g all purpose flour

125 g cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tps salt

3 tbsp buttermilk powder*

1 stick unsalted butter (8 oz) or omit salt if using salted butter (straight from the freezer and cut up into 8 pieces)

¾ cup water or milk*

*Note if you use buttermilk as the liquid you can omit the buttermilk powder and milk/water but I find the powder gives the best reaction with the raising agents.

I like to use a food processor for speed, less handling of the dough and keeping things cool. To be precise, I weigh everything but in a pinch you should whisk the flour before using a "1 cup" to scoop and then level. Pulse 2/3rds of the butter with all the dry ingredients to a fine cornmeal and then add the last of the butter and pulse till it’s coarsely chopped and odd pea sized. I then add the liquid, pulsing as I go to bring it together. It will be a moist dough. I flour the counter top liberally, turn out the dough, sprinkle with more flour and smoosh the dough together into a rough 1 inch high round (don’t knead too much or your biscuits will be tough). This time I roughly cut it and made triangles (scone style) to lower the amount of kneading but my sister much prefers when I use the round biscuit cutter (1 ½ inch is best, dipped in flour each time). I try to do only 2 rounds to cut the biscuits out and discard the rest since anymore than that the dough bakes tough. I use a cast iron skillet but you can use a baking tray or whatever is handy in your baking world, and bake at 450 for 10 minutes. I like my biscuits break off with soft sides so I space them so they’ll expand and touch but you can space them out 1 inch apart for a firmer bake. You can brush the tops with milk or butter for a glossy finish, but a golden matte is equally pleasing to the eye (and easier).

I also prepared the biscuit dough ahead of time, cut them out and placed in the pan and baked within 2 hours of making them- timed just before dinner had finished so that they were warm straight out of the oven.

Posted by Misty at 10:38 AM | Permalink

At family dinner this week, I cooked BBQ pork ribs. Everyone loved them so much, that they asked for the recipe to be posted. It's kind of a standard marinade for me, mostly random things that I have in the fridge. But repeat performers, so I guess less by chance and more by design. One of the things you can do to short circuit the looong marinade time is making up batches of marinade/ribs and freezing them. That way when you take out a batch to defrost, it's already spent the requisite time.

Marinade for ribs (4 hours+)
2 T Fish sauce
1/4 C Fruit juice
1/4 C Hoisin sauce
1/4 C Oyster sauce
1/4 C sake/rice wine
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 C cilantro (leaves and stems) finely chopped
2 T ground ginger
1 fruit optional (macerated) use for school nite method

Grind all the ingredients and check. Should be salty but not overpoweringly so, adjust if necessary with more fruit juice to taste. Allow ribs to marinade for at least 4 hours.
Overnite- 24 hours is better.

Memphis Spice Rub for BBQ baby back ribs
2 1/2 T hot chili powder (medium heat)
2 T ground cumin
1 T ground coriander
1 T brown sugar (optional)
1/2 T paprika
1/2 t black pepper
1/4 t cayenne pepper
3/4 t oregano
Dust onto ribs.

The Low Slow method- if you have 4+ hours. everyone kept exclaiming on how tender and tasty the meat was. Like other roasting projects, indirect heat makes the difference for tender, succulent and juicy meat. You can do this with a smoker too, but our neighbor's environmental allergies makes it tough to smoke for extended periods. Mostly I do this in the oven and finish on the grill.

Heat the oven to 275 degrees. I don't bother to remove the membrane- it hold the ribs together as they tenderize. Lay the slabs membrane side down and roast for 4 hours. The result is fall-off-the-bone meat. Different thicknesses of ribs cook at varying rates, so keep an eye out and start testing about 3 1/2 hours, some can go over 4 hours depending. Ribs should be flexible but meat will still hold together if lifted with tongs. Competition cut is two ribs with meat on either side of the bone. You should be able to pull them apart but still have a densely toothsome quality.

School nite method- if you have 2 hours.
Add ground fruit (apple or pear are my most favorite options) to the marinade. The enzymes help tenderize the proteins. Higher heat makes for a less tender quality but still flavorful and fun to eat.

Heat oven or grill to 350, and roast for approximately 2 hours. Start checking for doneness around 1 hr 45mins. I found that wrapping in foil (see High priestess of crackling) leads to gray limp soulless meat. So unless you need to use the meat juices for something else, there is no point for that.

If you have less than 2 hours, you should be cooking something else besides ribs!

Posted by Misty at 04:55 PM | Permalink

Just a neat look at the snow pack in the Sierras that feeds water to Northern California. Arnie "canceled" the drought but it still looks pretty bleak to me. Altho did anyone else see the double rainbow on Saturday nite? Not only was it pretty, it was very unseasonal to have any kind of rain in our area in July. I'm not complaining but it makes me wonder a couple of things:
Is this a new weather pattern for our region?
If it's raining here, where is it not raining? Coz I think we have their water...

Posted by Misty at 12:41 PM | Permalink