Biscuits and Gravy

I both need to work on my photography skills and it is also not the most photogenic dish in the world.

I came late to the wonder of biscuits and gravy.  It was not something that I grew up with.  I know that my mother made pancakes on occasion.  She probably made french toast.  Our family tradition was pfannkuchen.  But that is definitely a different post.

The first time I tasted biscuits and gravy was on vacation.  We had escaped from LA and headed north, to the redwood forests.  It was the weekend that my youngest son turned one.  We went all the way up to Eureka, in Humboldt County.  Eureka is... not exactly a vacation spot.  I picked it because I vaguely remembered it being pretty when I had driven through there with my father years before.  It was.  It was also not very developed, the timber trade had wound down decades before.  There was an old cookhouse on Samoa Island.  We went there for breakfast with our two little boys.  Meals were served family style and it was there, on a foggy morning in August that I first tried biscuits and gravy.

It was a revelation to me.  The fluffy biscuits and the creamy, salty, sausage studded gravy.  I am not a big fan of sweet for breakfast and biscuits and gravy was perfect.  If I saw it on the menu, I would get it.  Biscuits are not a huge love of mine, so this was significant.  Sometimes it was horrible - dry, heavy biscuit with gluey gravy with no sausage in site.  Sometimes it was transcendent.  Yet for all of the things that I cook, I never made it at home.  I don't really know why.  I may have been hung up on the biscuits.  I never even thought to attempt them.  I saw and interesting recipe on pinterest and the rest is history.  I use refrigerator biscuits.  Maybe one day I will try my own, but for now these work fine.  I also use maple sausage.  I think this started because one time it was all I had.  It gives the gravy a little sweetness that balances out the salty.  I also cut up my biscuits before pouring the gravy on top and serve it in a bowl.  It isn't pretty or healthy but it is delicious.  And an ultimate comfort food.

Sausage Gravy:

16 ounces bulk maple sausage

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup flour

1 cup milk (more if the gravy is too thick)

salt and pepper to taste

Brown the bulk sausage in butter and break up.  Sprinkle flour on top and stir until incorporated.  Cook until browned.  Add milk until desired consistency.  Season with salt and pepper.

Pour over biscuits.

 

A Change in Purpose

 It surprised me when I flipped back to this blog and saw that my last post was in 2012.  It also made me a little happy because I still use all three of the recipes that I posted.  I think that I have even referred people back to it when they ask for a recipe.  Okay, when they ask me for the spring roll recipe.

2012 seems like a lifetime ago.  So many things have changed.  Where I live (hello, Southern Oregon), what I do (most of the last 9 years spent in nursing school), how many kids I have at home (two down, one to go).  I still love to cook, how and when and where have changed though.  I have tried to scale back my cooking to fit our family of three.  I admit that I don't really cook at all on the days that I work.  I do 12 hour shifts and I have at least a half hour commute.  I also am currently working nights.  That will change in August but for now, it is just not an option for me.  When I am home, it is still relaxing for me to go into the kitchen and putter around.  My grandmother used to use that word and I didn't quite know exactly what it meant.  I do now.  I chop vegetables, grate cheese, make stews and broths and freeze them.  My mother will be moving in with me in a few months and that will change things yet again.  Until then, while on nights, I eat an embarrassing amount of fast food or cafeteria food.  

My mother has a complicated relationship with both food and cooking.  When I think of growing up and foods that were touchstones, I have come to the realization that very few of them were ones that my mother made.  I was going to say none of them but then I realized that her bread is one of them.  When I was very small, my mother used to bake bread.  It isn't really the taste that I remember but the smell.  All the other things are things that my grandmother made.  Meatloaf, porcupine balls, potato soup and yes, consommé rice.  I did come to the realization that my grandmother was very much a cook of her time.  If there was a mix or a shortcut, she took it.  It makes me intensely happy that I have taken those recipes and made them my own and that my children get intensely nostalgic for them.  That is one of the best compliments out there and one that gets me back to the kitchen, even when I am tired and I don't want to.

I have collected cookbooks and recipes all of my adult life.  When Pinterest arrived, I was right there.  I have, literally, thousands of recipes.  A couple of years ago, I really started to see the futility of this.  There is no point in having thousands of recipes that you never use.  Particularly when you very rarely follow a recipe exactly anyways.  I go through spells of editing but it is a huge job.  There is a certain amount of experimentation too - I don't need 50 chocolate chip cookie recipes if I have one perfect one.  In order to get to the perfect one though, you have to try a lot of them.  I'm working on it.  

My last issue, and the biggest one at this moment is my own weight and health.  I am heavier now than I have ever been.  I have health issues that go along with it.  I am at least 25 pounds heavier than I was in 2012.  My problem is, I don't want to get bypass surgery.  I look at different diets and they make my heart sink.  There is no joy in either the eating or the making of the food.  I will never be able to maintain that.  I know how to cook and I know what I like.  Why can I not use that to get healthier?  There is actually anecdotal research into this.  There are cultures that celebrate food, both the making and the eating that do not have obesity problems even close to the US.  And they do not follow the same Spartan diets that we attempt in this country.  Eating is a joy, as it should be.

Mai's Spring Rolls (sort of)

I grew up in a couple of different states but all of them were complete white bread.  When I was growing up I considered fried rice at Chinese restaurants to be exotic.  Then, in high school, I met my husband.  Not only did he grow up in several different countries but his mother was Vietnamese.  Needless to say, my children are MUCH more adventurous than I was at that age.

We love spring rolls.  Who wouldn't?  Unlike Chinese spring rolls, Vietnamese spring rolls are mainly meat.  They are deep fried and traditionally wrapped in lettuce and dipped in a fish sauce dipping sauce.  I've made the dipping sauce but it smells up the entire house.  I've been married for close to 15 years and I had attempted them over the years but I had never been truly successful at it, but more on that later.  Two years ago my inlaws came and spent about a month with us.  My mother in law, Mai, showed me a few tricks and, voila, spring rolls.

I have made them may times in the last two years.  It is a favorite birthday request, I've also made them for school parties and neighborhood parties.  One of our traditions is that we don't do a big Christmas dinner, instead the kids help me make spring rolls and wontons.  People ask me for the recipe a lot.  I will say that this is one of THOSE recipes.  I don't have actual amounts for, well, anything really.  Most of it is to taste.  The more you make them, the more you get a feel for how you like it and what the filling should look like.  During my years of experimentation I did discover that even the not quite right ones still disappear without complaint.

Here you go:

For the filling you need:
- Country Style, Boneless Pork Ribs - Cut into large chunks and frozen slightly.  This was about 3 pounds
- Shrimp - This was about 1 pound.  Doesn't matter what size.  If you don't like shrimp you can substitute crab or chicken or turkey
- mushrooms, I usually buy a 8 ounce container
- green onions
- several cloves of garlic
- a couple of carrots
- fish sauce
- sugar
- salt
- pepper (I happened to use white pepper this time)

First, the mushrooms.  I just throw them in the food processor.  Mai uses a knife.  I'm not that patient.
Before:

After:

I started using the country style ribs because ground pork is not always available and its often a weird texture.  Mai actually asked the butcher at the Asian market to grind it for her and he did.  I tried that at Albertson's and guy didn't quite laugh at me but he wanted to.  I freeze them a little because it makes them easier for my slightly ancient food processor to grind up.  My food processor is also little so I do it in batches.

Before:

After:

Last task for the food processor is the shrimp.  I take the tail off and don't even defrost them.  Put all three in a big bowl:

Add minced garlic, grated carrot, sliced green onion:

Now for the seasoning.  A quick note about fish sauce.

I know its scary.  I know it smells absolutely horrible.  It really does add something undefinable to the finished dish though.  Unless you have a fish allergy, use it.  I've used both Thai and Vietnamese fish sauces.  I can't tell the difference, I know that some probably can.  I buy mine at the Asian market but I've seen it at regular markets too.

I forgot to take a picture of the various seasonings.  I add a couple of Chinese soup spoons of fish sauce, some salt, quite a lot of pepper and about a tablespoon of sugar.  The sugar balances the flavor and helps with the browning.  After that, mix it all together:

Let it sit for at least 30 minutes or so to let the flavors blend.

One of the best things that I learned from Mai was about the wrappers.  For all my earlier attempts at spring rolls, I used rice paper wrappers.  Rice paper is stiff and brittle.  It has to be soaked in water to become pliable and they never, ever, ever fried up right for me.  When they are done right, they are divine.  However, they are a bitch and a half to deal with.  Here is the cheat:

There are a couple of different brands, all found at the Asian market in the frozen food section.  Won ton/egg roll wrapper are not the same thing.  After you defrost them, you peel them apart.  They are extremely flexible and easy to work with and they fry up beautifully.  I still prefer the rice paper spring rolls, but only if the person making them is not me.

Now you are ready to roll them up.

Lay one wrapper out on an angle.

Add approximately 1 heaping tablespoon of the filling in the bottom corner.

Bring the bottom corner up and wrap it around the filling.

Fold both sides over and roll tightly, from top to bottom.  I use a little water to wet the end and seal it.  I don't know that this is necessary all the time but I live in the desert and everything dries out fast.

All that is left is to fry them.  I always fry outside on the burner on my barbecue.  It saves me from driving my husband insane.  They deep fry so you need a couple of inches of oil.  Bring the oil to about 350 degrees.  Fry until golden and cooked through.  Usually about 5-7 minutes.  My kids fight of who gets to try one to make sure that they are cooked through.

I serve them with sweet chili sauce.  Not as authentic as fish sauce dipping sauce but much easier and not as smelly.

Caramelized Onions

I promised.  I use these for EVERYTHING.  It started because I never liked onions as a kid.  When I moved out and actually started cooking for myself, I discovered that I liked the taste that the onions gave but the pieces still made me gag.  I used to buy the dehydrated onions and rehydrate them.  That does get expensive though and it doesn't work in all recipes.  I discovered that I didn't mind onions as long as they were cooked to death.  This, of course, took a lot of time to do right.  It also smelled up the house and drove my husband insane.

When I stopped working, I would do large batches of onions every once in a while during the day.  The smell does still kind of linger though.  Finally, inspiration struck.  The slow cooker.  The slow cooker works perfectly because, well, its slow.  I've tried cooking onions at a higher speed but I end up with a burned mess.  The low heat seems to give them the time to develop really good flavor too.  I plug in the slow cooker outside, which appeases my husband, but it does make the cooking times vary.  I live in Southern Nevada.  In the summertime, its only slightly cooler than hell.  It effects cooking times.

This is all it takes.  I use 1 five pound bag of sweet onions and 1 stick of butter.  You can substitute the onions, regular onions might take more time to caramelize.

In goes the butter.  I have this awesome little crockpot that I got from my grandmother that is perfect for this. Its more like an electric skillet than a regular crockpot but I've done this in a regular crockpot too.

Dice the onions and just throw them in on top of the butter.  I wouldn't do it in the food processor because you will end up with onion juice, but it doesn't have to be a perfect dice either.

Five pounds of diced onions.  The butter is still solid, so you don't even have to stir.

Turn in on high.

This is after about 3 hours.  I stir every couple of hours.  If it starts looking dry, add a cup or so of water.  You don't want it to burn, just caramelize.

This is after about 24 hours.  I never added any water to it.  I didn't really do much of anything to it so even though its a lot of time, its next to active time.

This will last a couple of weeks.  If I have a recipe that calls for onions, I take this out of the fridge and throw in a spoonful.  I don't really know how long it would keep - mine never lasts more than a couple of weeks.

Consomme Rice

My kids also call this spicy rice and dirty rice.  Its definitely NOT dirty rice in the Southern sense.  Consomme Rice was something that my grandmother always made when the family would get together.  I have no idea where she got the original recipe.  The original recipe was simply butter, onions, Minute Rice and Campbell's Beef Consomme.  I don't buy Minute Rice.  Rice was the one thing I had no idea how to cook when I got married.  I married a man with an Asian mother though and the first time I brought out that box of rice, he laughed his ass off.  I learned to cook rice.  Fifteen years and three children later, I buy Jasmine rice in the twenty pound bag at the Asian market.  What scares me is that we actually use it. I also added the sausage because we eat it as a meal instead of a side.

So...

Consomme Rice

1 pound of hot Italian sausage, either bulk or cut the links into small pieces
3 cans beef consomme
caramelized onions, or 1 minced onion
vegetable oil
long grain rice - I use Jasmine but I think any long grain EXCEPT Basmati will work.  Basmati never works in this recipe, I don't really know why.

Hot Skillet, a couple tablespoons of cold oil.  Brown the sausage and crumble it until it looks like this:

Add a couple of spoons of the caramelized onions:

If you are using the raw onion, this will take a little time.  This would be why I cheat.  Pour the consomme into a measuring cup, add water until it measures 6 cups.

Add three cups of rice to the meat/onion combination:

Then pour the consomme/water mixture over the rice.

Lower the temperature to Medium Low and cover the pan.  Cook for 30 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender.  I usually give it a few extra minutes because the rice starts to stick to the bottom and the crispy, sticky rice is delicious.

Thanks Grandma!

Beef and Barley Soup

This has been a weird winter, even here in Southern Nevada.  Believe it or not, it gets cold here.  Usually.  Still, highs in the 50's are cold when you get used to 115 in the summertime.  Its a good enough excuse for me to make soup.  I love soup, in most of its many incarnations.  This is a simple soup that I can make in very little time.  I also have a tendency to use this as a leftover soup - I can clear out all sorts of leftover vegetables and no one complains.  I have three kids.  Lack of complaint is practically a ringing endorsement.

My secret for a soup that takes little time to come together is my pressure cooker.  I use regular stew meat from Costco, which usually takes a bit of cooking to become tender.  My pressure cooker lets me do it in about 30 minutes cooking time.  Here you go:

 - 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of cubed beef - I usually use stew meat.  I love cutting up blade steaks but I'm cheap.
 - 2 cans of beef consomme
 - chicken stock
 - 1 can beer
 - tomato paste
 - salt and pepper
 - carrots
 - green beans - I'm very, very flexible with the vegetables, I thought about throwing some kale in this batch but didn't.
 - vegetable oil
 - caramelized onions - I make these myself and I promise to document it the next time I do it.  I would say 1 diced onion should do it.
- 1 cup pearl barley

Quick note about my pressure cooker.  I love my pressure cooker.  I started out with a smaller one when I only had one child.  The one that I currently have was my grandmother's.  She got it for her wedding back in 1953.  I know there are newer ones, with better safety features but I'm emotionally attached to mine.

I heat the pressure cooker, add cold oil then brown the beef that I have seasoned with salt and pepper.  I literally just learned that if you use a hot pan and cold oil stuff doesn't stick.  I had no idea.

While the meat is browning, I chop up the vegetables.  I did actually take a picture of this but can't get the damn thing to rotate.  I cut the fresh green beans in 2" pieces and the the carrots in chunks.  I don't like to do them too small or they turn to mush.

The browning takes a couple of batches but you get a pan that looks like this:

Remove the beef to a bowl.  Add the onions and tomato paste.  If you are using the raw onion, cook the onion until softened.

Add one of the cans of consomme and deglaze the pan.  Return the meat and any accumulated juices, the carrots and the remaining can of consomme.  Add the barley to the pan:

Finally add the can of beer.  My poor neighbor, every time I make this, I ended running over and grabbing a beer.  Of all the forms of alcohol, I just am not a fan of beer.  This is one of the many reasons why Pam always gets soup...

Put on the lid and let the pressure cooker heat until the pressure is high enough.  On my model, the weight on the top starts jiggling.

Once the pressure is up, I drop the temperature down to low and set the timer for 25 minutes.  Let the pressure cooker rest for 15 minutes or so, until you can open the cooker.  It should look like this:

The meat should fall apart like this:

Add the green beans and about 2 cups of chicken broth.  The barley absorbs a lot of the consomme when it cooks and you need something less salty to add anyways.  Sounds weird but the chicken broth works perfectly.  Bring it to a boil just long enough to cook the green beans, about 5 minutes.

Yummy deliciousness: