What’d You Do Last Weekend?
With a little extra pastry cream and a simple crepe batter, try your hand at a gateau de crepes, also known as mille crepes.
Biscuits and Gravy
I made biscuits and gravy for years - every weekend religiously, along with a pot of coffee from my Pyrex percolator (the science experiment of coffee makers). I know the recipe for both by heart, and I hadn't made them for years for a lot of different reasons. After recounting my recipe last night at a birthday party, Todd suggested I make them once again - and instead of nasty old Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage, I made them with bacon from our piggy.
Because I'd made them for so many years, I had some tricks I relied on heavily - and even though it's been quite some time since I made them, I hadn't forgotten a thing. Recipes are below, but here are some notes:
- Put milk for the gravy into a heavy-bottomed saucepan on low heat before you start making the gravy. This will ensure it's hot by the time you reach for it. Cream isn't necessary (even though it's called cream gravy) - but if you must have it, only use about a tablespoon at the very end to loosen up the gravy and add a little richness. Trust me, the gravy has plenty of fat already.
- Don't use a non-stick pan to make the gravy. You want the sausage (or bacon, in this case) to stick mightily to the pan and brown pretty well. This is what the flour will stick to when it starts to brown. Make sure you put the meat into the pan when the pan is cold, not hot. If you wait until the pan is hot, the meat won't stick, even if it's not a non-stick pan.
- Put the biscuits into a hot oven just before you start the gravy. If your timing is right, the biscuits will come out about 1 - 2 minutes before the gravy is done, allowing them time to firm up on the bottom. This will make it easier to pull them off the foil.
- The biscuit recipe is pretty basic. You can easily turn this dough into sweet or savory scones just by the addition of sugar or herbs and cheese.
- Gravy doesn't really keep well but the biscuits will. They're really good in the toaster oven the next morning.
Quick Drop Biscuits (this recipe came from the Joy of Cooking, a long time ago)
1+3/4 c AP flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 - 6 T cold butter (if using unsalted butter, up the salt to 1/2 - 3/4 tsp)
1 c cold milk
- Preheat the oven to 375.
- Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter (to pea-sized bits) and return the whole bowl to the fridge to rest and chill for about 5 minutes.
- Remove the bowl from the fridge and pour in the milk all at once. Stir quickly to incorporate (but do not overstir).
- Drop mounds of the sticky dough onto a foil covered baking sheet. (I make mine a little larger when baking for biscuits and gravy, so this makes 6 total)
- Bake until the tips start to turn golden, about 10 - 12 minutes. (I've been known to adjust the heat to 390 to speed things up a bit and increase the browning). Remove from the oven but leave on the pan until you're ready to eat.
Cream Gravy
Pork of some sort, uncooked (either breakfast sausage or bacon)
3 - 4 T flour
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper
~2 c milk, scalded (see note above)
Salt, to taste (about 3/4 tsp)
- Place the pork into a cold pan and turn on the stove to medium-high heat. Start to move the meat around, making it stick to as much of the surface of the pan as possible. Cook until browned, or as much fat as possible is rendered from the meat.
- Pour off the excess fat, leaving about 2 T in the pan. Remove most of the cooked meat from the pan and reserve it for later.
- Turn the stove to medium (or medium-low) and return the pan to the stove. When the oil is hot, sprinkle the cayenne pepper in. It should sizzle and foam a little bit. Grind black pepper directly into the pan as well (I usually do 10 - 12 turns of the grinder, a pretty hefty amount). Stir the peppers into the grease and start to scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen the stuck-on bits. Add the flour to the pan and keep scraping the bottom to mix the flour with the pan drippings. This should be thick, but not dry. If it is dry, add a little grease back to the pan.
- After a minute or two, you should have a fairly dark roux and the flour should be cooked through. It will be bubbling, but shouldn't be so dry that it starts to burn. (The biscuits should be out of the oven by now , if you're trying to time things)
- With a whisk, carefully and quickly
begin to add the scalded milk to the hot roux. This will bubble and spatter until all of the milk is incorporated, so work quickly to bring the gravy together. Cook on medium-low to low for a minute or two, and the gravy will start to thicken. If it has not thickened, keep cooking the milk down until it begins to take on a gravy consistency. - With the gravy off the heat, taste for salt and whisk in as necessary. Return some of the reserved cooked meat to the pan and stir to incorporate. Serve immediately with hot biscuits.
