Biscuits and gravy

Biscuits and gravy is a popular breakfast meal in the United States, especially in the South.
It consists of soft dough biscuits covered in thick "country" or "white" gravy, made from the drippings of cooked pork sausage, white flour, milk, and often (but not always) bits of sausage, bacon, ground beef, or other meat. The gravy is often flavoured with black pepper. In some parts of the southern United States this is also called sawmill gravy.
My friend and colleague Steven introduced me this great American breakfast and I think the story from Nelson’s Safe-On-Food á la: “Do you guys have any biscuits?” … “You mean crackers?” we will never forget and will always reminds me to Steven.
The Steven’s recipe based on recipes of famous American cook Paula Deen.

Ingredients I. (biscuits):

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, frozen, shredded
3/4 cup milk

Directions I. (biscuits):

1. In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Cut butter into mixture until it begins to look like cornmeal.
2. Make a well with flour mixture and slowly add milk into the middle. Knead dough with your fingers and add milk when necessary.
3. Roll out dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to desired thickness. Cut into 1 inch thick biscuits and place on backing pan.

4. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown at 200°C/400°F.

Ingredients II. (gravy):

1 pound bulk breakfast sausage
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
Salt and pepper

Directions II. (gravy):

1. Cook sausage in a frying pan.

2. When done, sprinkle over flour and fry for about 5minutes and stir constantly.

3. Add milk and stir occasionally while the gravy comes to a simmer and thickens. (Be sure to scrape up any brown bits that might be stuck to the bottom of the pan, that's where the flavour is.)

4. Check seasoning and serve over biscuits.

Home made Head Cheese

The time before Christmas was, is and always will remind me holidays and time spent with my grandparents. My grandma is celebrating today her 80th birthday and though we can’t be physically together right now, we are very close each other. My grandpa was butcher and with grandma they taught me lot of tricks and cooking and baking skills.
My grandpa taught me slaughtering and how to process meat from beginning till end with lot of interesting home made specialities. I’m very thankful for this skills. Unfortunately I do not have enough time and space to create all his recipes but some of them I can present with simple kitchen stuff too.
In the honour of them both I would like to present my grandpa Mojmír his classical Head Cheese. The taste and smell going from basement to the roof of my Canadian house totally remind me the time of my childhood in small village of Lukavice, The Czech Republic.

Ingredients:

1 pork head
1kg pork shoulder
1 pork knuckle
1/2kg pork side
1 pork tongue
10 bigger garlic cloves
10l water
1/2 cup salt
1 handful ground black pepper
1 handful marjoram

Directions:

1. Clean head and other meat put into a large pot with cold water with salt and cook for at least 4 hours until all meat is soft.

2. Take all meat out of broth and let partially cool down, then cut the lean pieces into cubes.

3. All other remaining parts and shapeless meat (incl. fat, skin and garlic) pass through meat grinder direct to the broth. Add some salt, pepper and marjoram. Make sure the taste of the broth is slightly over salted (meat will take the salt by cooling and the taste will be optimal. I kept just about a half of the broth to make white pudding “jitrnicový prejt” (see next recipe).

4. In this stage I needed to make an experiment. In Czech you would go to the store and buy a special sleeve to fill head cheese into, but I didn’t find a source here. So the improvisation went ok with empty 2l PET bottles from soda water. Fill about the half of the bottle volume with meat cubes, fill the remaining of volume with the broth, apply closures and let cool down (best outside or in the fridge) over night. Turn the bottles regularly so the content won’t sediment.

5. Serve with bread or with onion rings and sprinkle of vinegar.

Lobster Mushroom with garlic

Great and easy recipe form North American cuisine.

Ingredients:

1lb Lobster mushroom (Hypomyces lactifluorum)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
5 cloves garlic
1/4 cup butter

Directions:

1. Clean and slice Lobster Mushroom.

2. Slice garlic as well.

3. Mix everything with oil and let roast in a pan for approx. 20 minutes till almost all liquid evaporate.

4. In the end add 1/4 cup of butter and let melt, but not overburn (just about 5 minutes).
     
5. Serve with rice and delicious white wine.

Breakfast Buns and Rolls

Ferment:

350mL lukewarm water
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp baking yeast
- all ingredients mix in measuring glass or deeper bowl and let arise (about 20 min.)

Dough:

4 cups flour
2 tbsp salt
ferment
- all ingredients mix in bigger bowl or food mixer into nice and smooth dough. Attention: different brands of flour can have different moisture content – so it is necessary to have about 100-150mL lukewarm water ready to finalize nice, smooth and elastic dough.
Dough can be store wrapped in a foil or Ziploc in the fridge up to a week and it is possible to make from this kind of dough not only buns and rolls but (see below) pizza as well (other recipe).

How to finalizie buns and rolls:

1. Split dough into about 80g buns

2. Roll the buns with a roller

3. If you are making rolls – so roll the shorter end



4. If you are making twists or knots – so rol the longer end



5. Before baking it is necessary to smear buns with water. I advice to use baking paper.

6. … and aletrnatively garnish with poppyseed, caraway or coarse salt.

7. Bake about 20min at 180°C (350°F)