Drop Biscuits

I've been asked for the recipe for the drop biscuits I made in a fit of late evening hunger the other day, so here it is. It's pretty much from the Joy of Cooking (1997 edition, not the 75th anniversary piece of crap), except I use a bit more salt.




DROP BISCUITS

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup milk (or buttermilk). May need up to 1.25 cups to get the right consistency
1 tsp salt
2.5 tsp baking powder (note change from above)
6 Tbsp cold butter, cut into chunks

1. Preheat oven to 450 (note temp increase from above)
   
   
2. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder.
   
   
3. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until fairly coarse.
   
   
4. Stir in one cup of the milk. If it isn't fairly wet, use a bit more milk. It should be like a very thick batter, fairly wet and sticky.
   
   
5. Using 2 soup spoons, put blops of dough on the sheet about the size of a tangerine. Or a small tennis ball. Or a drop biscuit. You should get ~ 12 drop biscuits.
   
   
6. Bake for about 12 minutes or so until golden brown.

Walnut Caramel Shortbread Cookies

I'm not totally happy with these; I certainly could use a better caramel for the topping, but this one is quick and easy, and that's what I was looking for on holiday cookie day. The shortbread took something over 30 minutes to bake up to the right color.


Walnut Caramel Shortbread Cookies

SHORTBREAD
2 Cups Flour
½ Cup Sugar, powdered or granulated
1 Cup Butter
¾ tsp Salt

WALNUT TOPPING
14 oz Sweetened Condensed milk
½ Cup Whipping cream
1½ Cups Walnuts, chopped

CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE (optional)
½ Cup Chocolate chips
1 Tbsp Shortening

Shortbread

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Sift together flour and salt in a small bowl.

3. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium, cream butter until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add sugar, and continue to beat until very light in color and fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary, about 2 minutes more.

4. Add flour mixture, and beat on low, scraping bowl if necessary, until flour is just incorporated and dough sticks together when squeezed.

5. Press firmly on bottom of 13x9-inch baking pan. Prick all over in even intervals with a wooden skewer or fork.

6. Bake until firm in the center and just starting to color, about 30-50 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack, and let cool completely.

Walnut Topping

1. In heavy saucepan, combine sweetened condensed milk, whipping cream and vanilla. Over medium-high heat, cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cook and stir until mixture thickens, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in walnuts.

2. Spread over top of cooled shortbread.

3. Cut into triangles.

Chocolate Drizzle

1. Melt chocolate chips and lard together. Drizzle over top of cookie triangles, or in the pan before cutting. First option is better.

Chili Recipe

OK, as promised, here's my basic chili recipe, with the base sauce and my own chili seasoning.

Chili American

2 Tbsp Vegetable oil
Aromatics and Seasonings

1 Large Onion, diced
1 Red bell pepper, diced
1 Green bell pepper, diced
1 poblano pepper, diced
1/4 Cup Chili Seasoning (Mark's)
1 Tbsp Cumin, ground
1 tsp Salt (or more...taste and adjust!)
6 cloves Garlic, minced

The Stuff

2 lb Ground beef
28 oz Canned diced tomatoes
2 15 oz cans Red kidney beans, drained
1 qt Chili Colorado sauce
12 oz Full bodied beer
2-4 Tbsp Chipotle puree (to desired heat level)

1. Heat vegetable oil on medium In a large heavy pot (Le Creuset is ideal),

2. Add onion, red and green bell pepper, chili seasoning, cumin, and salt, and cook until vegetables soften and give up some of their liquid, about 8 minutes.

3. Add garlic, mix, and cook for 30 seconds.

4. Add ground beef, and cook until no longer pink, about 10 minutes

5. Add diced tomatoes, Chili Colorado sauce, kidney beans, and beer. Stir well to combine.

6. Simmer for 30-45 minutes to reduce to appropriate thickness.

7. Cover, and cook on low heat (just bubbling/simmering) for 45 minutes.

8. Uncover, and simmer for about 30 minutes more.

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Chile Colorado Sauce

A basic red chile sauce for use in Mexican style cooking.

2 Quarts chicken or vegetable stock
1.5 lb tomatoes, quartered
1.5 lb onions, quartered
8 cloves garlc, chopped
8 oz New Mexico chiles, dried
4 Guajillo chiles, dried
2 Chipotle chiles, dried
4 Ancho chiles, dried
1 Tbsp Salt

Make the "Soup"

1. Put stock, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and salt into a stock pot, bring to a boil, and boil for 15 minutes.

2. While mixture is boiling, remove stems from the chiles, and tear into pieces. They technically do not need to be seeded, as the seeds will be removed when put through the food mill. I tear them in half crosswise over the wastebasket and most of the seeds just fall out. But if you really want to do a more thorough job of it, knock yourself out, especially if you don't tolerate capsaicin heat. But if you don't, why are you making this sauce anyway?

3. Add chile pieces to the boiling mixture, cover, and remove from the heat. Let stand 30 - 60 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Pureeing and Straining

1. There are three methods from this point on, depending upon your equipment.

2. METHOD 1:
This is my preferred method, using a Kitchenaid mixer with a food strainer attachment. Set up the Kitchenaid, and process the "soup". Done. Q.E.D. Best method.

3. METHOD 2:
Puree mixture in food processor or blender (in batches)
Put mixture through food mill with finest disc to remove skins and seeds.

4. METHOD 3, the Extremely Primitive Method:
Puree the mixture however you can...blender, food processor, immersion blender, whatever. In batches, press through the finest mesh strainer you have...chinois, mesh strainer, whatever, pushing the puree through with a wooden spoon. This method is insanely labor intensive, and should only be used by Mexican grandmothers who can make it taste better than I ever could this way, or those who enjoy the Martha Stewart Paradigm [MSP for short. The MSP means that you are willing to expend 300% additional effort for a 3% improvement in the quality of the final product ].

5. Taste for seasoning; adjust as necessary

Servings: 8
Yield: 2 quarts

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Mark's Chili Seasoning

Modification of Paul Kirk's basic chili powder recipe. Note what's not in it...salt. That's so salt can be added separately and the dish seasoned properly to taste. Commercial chili seasonings have salt in them, so don't use this as a recipe substitute without knowing there's no salt in it. One final note: It's labeled "chili seasoning" instead of "chili powder" so it's not confused with chilE powders, or the ground up dried pods of various chile peppers. Seasoning is a better term for a mix of spices and herbs. "Chile" is a pepper. "Chili" is the meat dish.

1/2 cup Ancho chili powder
1/4 cup Smoked paprika
2 Tbs Chipotle chili powder
4 tsp Cayenne powder
2 Tbs Garlic powder
2 tsp Onion powder
2 tsp Oregano. ground
1/4 cup Cumin, ground
2 Tbs Coriander, ground
2 Tbs Black pepper
1 tsp White pepper

1. Mix everything together.

Yield: 1.5 c


Tips
I'm not done with this one yet. I'll be trying the addition of unsweetened cocoa powder and espresso powder.

Duck

I've been off/on again trying to come up with a good approximation of the roast duck you can pick up in any asian grocery store (the first approximation is, I don't really mind if the head has been removed). I want to avoid the step of inflating under the skin with a pump a la Peking Duck*; I think that's ridiculous.

My latest try was Tyler Florence's recipe:
Tyler's Recipe

Didn't get the nice crispy skin; I think it's because (per his instructions), I "basted periodically with any remaining glaze" - I did so every 15 minutes. As a result, the skin was nicely colored but not crisp. I even had let it dry in the fridge over night, although that was for purposes of time. Also, using his chinese 5 spice based dry rub led to a mottled appearance, which I didn't care for.

It's still tasty, and I'm going to make some steam buns filled with the duck meat, some green onion, and plum or hoisin sauce tonight. But this sure isn't going to be my go-to recipe.

Next, I might try an amalgam of this technique except putting the spices in the steaming liquid and the glaze rather than a dry rub, and do the "5 hour roast duck method" ('Amazing' Five Hour Roast Duck) to see if that'll give me the crispy skin I want.

I'm starting to wonder if there's something goofy with my oven...everybody else who reviews these recipes says they're getting crispy skin.
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* When I was in Beijing (formerly Peking) a few years ago, and had Peking Duck** there, I made the mistake of calling it...Peking Duck. In somewhat of a huff, the waiter explained to me that since the glorious people's revolution, there was no such thing as Peking Duck. Only Beijing Duck, and would I please not be so insulting for the rest of the meal.
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** The dish, as opposed to the variety of bird.