Tag Archives: cast iron

Biscuits and gravy

baking, breakfast 5 Comments

Wondering what to do with all those biscuits?

Wondering how to add a few calories to your breakfast?

Allow me.

These are really super easy to make (along with, uh, everything else I ever blog) and are such comfort food for breakfast!

Biscuits and gravy

Ingredients

  • 1 pound breakfast sausage
  • 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
  • 1 can evaporated milk or about a cup and a half of milk (I guarantee nothing with skim milk; I’m a whole milk kinda girl)

Instructions

  1. Brown up the sausage till it’s crumbly and completely cooked — no pink! — then evaluate your sausage grease situation. I put all the sausage on a paper-towel lined plate so I can see what I’m working with. You want to end up with about three tablespoons of grease left in there; drain off anything in excess of that
  2. Turn the burner to medium or so and sprinkle in three tablespoons of flour; whisking to combine. Pretty soon your mixture will look super thick and you’ll want to sock me one because this can’t possibly be right, but it is! Stay with me
  3. Now pour in your milk and keep whisking! Remember that flour doesn’t hit full thickening power till it’s bubbling (unlike cornstarch), so don’t give up; in just a couple minutes you’ll have gravy
  4. Now add back in the sausage and serve over your hot biscuits

This dish may or may not cause a Yankee to propose do you. I’m just sayin’.

Biscuits

baking, breakfast 2 Comments

We’ve seriously never talked about how to make basic biscuits? This is mind boggling to me.

This is one of those recipes I make by throwing stuff into a bowl; I very rarely measure this at all, so I had to go back and make these again and actually pay attention. The sacrifice! I make pretty small batches of this because I make small biscuits and I make them pretty often, so there are always more on the way; the recipe is easily doubled.

Biscuits

Ingredients

  • 1 cup AP flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. instant/bread machine yeast (you can certainly leave this out; I like the little extra rise and the flavor of it)
  • 1/4 cup cold butter, shortening, bacon drippings (seriously) or any combination thereof
  • 1/2 – 3/4 cup milk or buttermilk (see instructions)

Instructions

  1. Combine flour, salt, baking powder and yeast in a bowl or in the work bowl of a food processor, then cut in butter with a pastry blender or fork, or pulse in the food processor till the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal
  2. Slowly add milk, gently stirring with a rubber spatula or your fingers; add just enough so that it turns into dough
  3. Turn onto a floured surface (I do it right on the counter lately); knead it four times, folding it back over itself as you go. FOUR! Then STOP, no matter how much fun it is. Overworked dough = unhappy biscuits
  4. Roll and cut out biscuits and bake at 400F till just starting to brown on top; I do these in a cast iron skillet, but any kind of dish or baking sheet with a little butter in the bottom works just fine

September, 2011 update: be sure to check out the lovely Fearless Homemaker’s version of these too — are those not the prettiest biscuits you’ve ever seen?

Lazy woman’s peach cobbler

baking, dessert 6 Comments

This recipe comes from my great grandma, who maybe named it thusly? Or maybe that was always its name? Either way, it is, indeed, one of the easiest desserts you’ll ever make.

Lazy woman’s peach cobbler

Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup flour
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 cup milk
  • 3 cups fruit (cut up; don’t drain)

Instructions

  1. Combine sugar, flour, baking powder and salt; cut in butter like you’re making biscuits, or pulse in a food processor, then stir in milk till well combined
  2. Pour batter into a buttered cast iron skillet or baking dish and top with fruit and its juice
  3. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes; sprinkle sugar on top for the last few minutes of baking

Saving a cast iron skillet

tools 12 Comments

Remember when I wrote a cautionary tale about cast iron? Allow me to review:

Rust is not your friend.

I know. This is shocking news to you all.

I’m happy to report that picture up there is all the same pan. A bit of an improvement, yes?

The folks at Lodge told me that I should have this pan sandblasted. Being stubborn determined, however, I went at it with some sandpaper and did the best I could. It was not great, and the pan went back to live at the bottom of my pantry while I sulked about it thought of another plan.

Then last week we took a road trip to “Chagganooga” (so sayeth Kiddo) and I obviously could not resist swinging through South Pittsburg on the way back up to Nashville. At the Lodge factory store they had this little rust eraser thing sitting on the counter for a couple bucks — worth a shot, right?

Y’all. It’s a miracle! The rust just fell from the skillet and the pan without even that much elbow grease involved. A MIRACLE I TELL YOU.

So the next step was to re-season it in the oven, then put it to work. The perfect first job?

Bacon, of course.

This one will need a lot of use to start to start getting dark like my generations-old skillets, of course, but we’re certainly off to a better start now.

Chicken Française (lemon chicken)

lunch, supper 3 Comments

This recipe originally came from here, but has lived in a binder in my kitchen for years now. This is good chicken. Man catching chicken even. It’s crispy and juicy and lemony and fabulous. I gave this recipe to my sister a few years back and she’s married now. SEE?? Try this:

Chicken Française (lemon chicken)

Ingredients

  • 1-2 pounds boneless chicken breast halves or thin chicken cutlets
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp plus 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp plus 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice plus 1 whole lemon, thinly sliced

Instructions

  1. If using chicken breasts, pound to 1/4 inch thickness between two sheets of plastic wrap (I hate pounding chicken so I use the thin cutlets)
  2. Combine flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a shallow dish, and dredge chicken, patting to evenly coat with flour mix; set aside
  3. Beat eggs in another dish and set aside
  4. Heat oil in heavy skillet (preferably cast iron, of course) over medium heat until hot but not yet smoking
  5. Working in batches, dip floured chicken into eggs, making sure chicken is well coated, then let excess drip back into bowl; carefully ease chicken into hot oil and cook, turning once, till both sides are golden brown and chicken is cooked through — this will take about three minutes a side or so
  6. When cooked, transfer chicken to paper towel lined plate and tent with foil or put in the oven set at its lowest setting (i.e. a very slow oven — does anyone still say that?)
  7. After all chicken is fried and set to keep warm, pour oil out of skillet (I use an old coffee can for the oil), then set the pan over low heat and melt the butter in the skillet
  8. When butter is melted and stops foaming add wine, chicken broth and lemon juice. Crank the heat up a bit and boil, uncovered, stirring to release all the yummy brown bits that are stuck to the bottom of your pan. Season with remaining salt and pepper (1/4 tsp. of each)
  9. Remove paper towels from chicken plate, then spoon sauce over chicken; top with sliced lemon and serve