Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Oh and talking about grits, something that wasn't brought up that we do a lot is what I call dinner grits. When we wants grits to use as a base for some protein for dinner (e.g. pork chops, chicken, etc), we use stone ground grits. Then, instead of cooking them in water, we cook them in chicken broth. Finish them with a bit of heavy cream. Makes that quite creamy and rich. It really changes the flavor of them and can stand up to a protein.
How do you make biscuits? Do you have a special trick, advice, or method that is a sure fire no-miss method? I tried something new yesterday and have to say, two batches later, that this method has been very good to me.
My current biscuits recipe (moving target at times)
Preheat oven to 450 - you want that oven nice and hot and ready to go before you make the biscuits.
2 cups self-rising flour (I use White Lily)
3/4 cups milk (or 3/4 cups buttermilk plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk)
5-6 tablespoons frozen butter
All-purpose flour for flouring your board (using self-rising for this will make your biscuits taste bitter)
A light colored sheet pan (dark sheet pans burn the bottom of your biscuits)
Place two cups of the flour into a bowl and fluff you flour. I usually just use a fork for this but you could sift this two cups into the bowl to ensure it's fluffed. Grate (with the large holes) 5-6 tablespoons of frozen butter into the bowl. Use your hands and gently toss the grated butter through the flour. This will instantly create that pebbly consistency you need. If you toss too much or too vigorously, you run the risk of having your fat melt or break down and the result is hockey puck biscuits! Make a well in the center of your flour mixture, pour all the milk in at once. Take a fork and moving from the outside in, mix the flour. The dough will be lumpy and very sticky - that is good.
Get your bread board ready. Sprinkle it with all-purpose flour and make sure to get a bit on your hands as you're about to handle the super sticky dough. Turn the sticky dough out onto the board. I take about two passes of folding the dough onto itself and then pat out to about 1/2 inch thickness. Remember the biscuits double in size when cooked so that should determine the thickness of your dough.
Since my mother has all the good biscuit cutters and I'm a lazy chef, I dip a water glass jar in the all-purpose flour for my cutter. When you cut the biscuits, do NOT twist. Your biscuits will not rise. Instead press down firmly. You can wiggle but do not twist. I can't stress how important this is. This was my problem for years til I figured it out.
Take the biscuit and put it onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Try to get as many as you can out of this first pass; these will be your fluffiest biscuits. Take your scraps and gently pat into 1/2 inch thickness again. Cut more biscuits.
Bake in the 450 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. The large variation is because this depends on the size of your biscuits. You should start checking on them round the 10 minute mark. When the tops are golden, they're done.
Now, after taking them out, I take the rest of my frozen butter stick, melt that, and brush it on the tops of the biscuits. That makes them pretty and even a bit more buttery. Enjoy.
One of favorite ways to eat a biscuit is to split open a hot biscuit right from the oven and drizzle with wildflower honey - manna from heaven right there!
Now these are Southern biscuits. The ones that are a bit dense but still "fluffy". They do get a nice crust with a hint of saltiness because I use butter. You won't get those peel away layers with these. To get those layers, that requires folding and painting with softened butter on those layers. Maybe I'll post that one in the future too - hubby likes those with soups and stews.
Yes chicken stock with grits and the quality of the grits does make all the difference (even though I have used the Quaker product in a pinch and the guys ate it -- cheese and bacon can make anything taste better).
Clearly I love talking about food so I have a great recipe that's easy but seems complicated. If you need a casserole to take to someone or want to put together something 'elegant' but easy, here's your answer. This comes out of an old Junior League cookbook of my mother's from the 70s.
Chicken Wild Rice Casserole
1 cup of wild rice (I just use the whole box of the Uncle Ben's Wild Rice and that's just fine for this)
1/2 cup onion, chopped (I usually just chop a whole medium Vidalia onion)
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 6 oz cans of mushrooms pieces and stems (yes, I know, but it's easier with just the canned stuff here)
Chicken broth
1 1/2 cup milk
3 cups chicken, cooked and diced (again, I just approximate the amount here - it's a casserole, you can do that!)
1/4 cup pimento, diced
2 tablespoons parsley
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 blanched almonds slivers (I usually buy two of those small packages of slivered almonds and that seems to be just the right amount)
I would suggest making this in a 9x13 pyrex dish.
Cook the rice and set aside. Cook onion in the butter until tender but no brown (you want a good sized skillet for this because eventually everything else will be mixed into this pan). Remove from heat. Whisk in the flour; use a fork or flat whisk for this but you want it to be nice and smooth. Drain the mushrooms, reserving the liquid into a measuring cup. Add enough chicken broth to the reserved mushroom liquid until you have 1 1/2 cups. Gradually stir into the flour mixture (yes it's still off heat at this point). Stir in your milk. Now, put it back on the stove at about medium and stir until the mixture thickens. Now, add the rice, mushrooms, chicken, pimento, parsley, salt, and pepper. Place this mixture into the casserole dish. Sprinkle the top with the almonds.
Two choices here, freeze or refrigerate until ready to use. OR bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
So easy but so good. The almonds toast and ready add a wonderful nutty crunch to this rice casserole.
That gravy sounds really good. I am going to have it make it sometime. I bet it would be good with some sausage crumbled in it and served over Southbel's biscuits!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
