Tag: main course
Biscuits and Gravy
Biscuits and Gravy
Biscuits and gravy are a breakfast staple of the South, dating back to post-revolutionary war when food supply was short. The gravy is dairy based, made from the drippings of pork sausage, seasoned with black pepper. The sausage gravy drenches flaky buttermilk biscuits, making this the ultimate breakfast comfort food.
Ingredients
Pork Sage Sausage
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp ground sage
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Sausage Gravy
- 1 lb pork sage sausage
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1/3 cup flour
- 3 cups whole milk
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Mix together all of the sausage seasonings.
- Mix in with the ground pork. Set aside.
- Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Sauté the onions for 5 minutes. Add in the garlic and cook for another minute.
- Add in the sausage and brown for 8 minutes.
- Whisk in the flour and cook for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the milk. Season with salt and pepper.
- Reduce the heat to medium and continuously whisk for 5 minutes until the gravy has thickened.
Buttermilk Biscuits
Who doesn’t love a good buttermilk biscuit? They are extremely easy to make and are much more cost effective than buying them frozen or in a can. Plus, they taste so much better made from scratch. Once you give this recipe a try, you’ll want to dig up The Colonel’s corpse and show him what a real buttermilk biscuit is.
Equipment
- food processor
- rolling pin
- biscuit cutter
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 8 tbsp cold butter cut into small cubes
- 1 cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
- Add the flour mix and the butter to a food processor. Briefly pulse 6-7 times.
- Transfer to a bowl. Pour in the buttermilk.
- Mix until a dough forms.
- Lightly dust a clean surface with flour. Roll out the dough to a 1” thick slab.
- Using a biscuit cutter or a small bowl, press out biscuits. Make sure to press straight down and not twist the cutter. This allows the biscuits to rise. Repeat this process until all the dough is used up.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the biscuits on a baking sheet.
- Bake 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool on a rack.
Pine Nut Encrusted Catfish
Pine Nut Encrusted Catfish
Pine nut catfish is a popular recipe of indigenous tribes of New Mexico and Arizona. The pine nuts get toasted and ground with cornmeal, flour, and spices. Then catfish is dredged in the mix and fried in oil. If pine nuts are too expensive, walnuts or pecans are a suitable substitute.
Equipment
- Spice grinder
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 cup corn meal
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Dry toast the pine nuts in a small skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes until golden brown. Let cool.
- Grind the pine nuts in a spice grinder. Mix the ground pine nuts with the flour, cornmeal, cayenne, cumin, and salt.
- Dredge each of the catfish fillets in the pine nut/flour mix.
- Heat up a 1/2” of vegetable oil in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Place the catfish into the oil.
- Fry for 4-5 minutes a side until crispy.
- Place the catfish on a rack to drain any excess oil.
Ground Corned Beef Burger
Ground Corned Beef Burger
I’ve seen restaurants make a reuben burger where they make a regular beef burger topped with a couple slices of corned beef, swiss, and sauerkraut. So what. Doesn’t impress me. How about turning chuck roasts into corned beef, grind them, and make a ground corned beef burger? Well I did it, and it was next level. It will take 10 days to brine your chucks. I decided to use chuck instead of brisket because of the price point. Chuck is half the price. It has the same amount of fat content as a brisket. Once it’s ground, it won’t make a difference at that point. Once you cook the patties, they turn pink like a corned beef. I topped the burgers with everything that you’d put on a reuben. Any ground corned beef that doesn’t get cooked can be wrapped in freezer paper and tossed in the freezer for later use.
Equipment
- large bin for brining
- meat grinder
Ingredients
- 1 gallon water
- 1 cup salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp pink curing salts
- 8 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 tbsp allspice berries
- 1 tbsp whole cloves
- 4 bay leaves
- 5 lbs beef chuck roast
Corned Beef Burger
- hamburger buns toasted
- Swiss cheese sliced
- sauerkraut
- thousand island dressing
Instructions
- Mix all of the brining ingredients together in a large bin.
- Place the chucks in the brine. Allow to brine for 10 days.
- After 10 days, remove the chucks from the brine and pat dry.
- Cut the chuck up into pieces to fit through the grinder.
- Grind the chuck through twice.
- Form the ground corned beef into patties.
- Place the patties on a griddle over medium high heat. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Flip the patties over.
- Top the patties with slices of Swiss cheese. Briefly cook some sauerkraut along side.
- Top the patties with the sauerkraut.
