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.

Guacamole

Is a traditional Mexican avocado-based dip. According to the information guacamole was made by the Aztecs as early as the 16th century and after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, guacamole became popular in Spain and the whole world. Thank to my friend and colleague Rolando who made it for me and thought me the recipe I can presented to you the excellent taste of Summer in the middle of Winter. Have fun and enjoy!

Ingredients

3 ripe avocados
2 cloves garlic
1 jalapeño
1 tomato
1 small onion
lime juice
handful fresh cilantro
salt

Directions

1. Smash garlic with some salt.

2. Clean jalapeño and cut into small cubes.

3. Mix jalapeño and garlic with salt and lime juice in a bowl. Use fork to press and mix.

4. Add tomato and onion cut into a small cubes.

5. Mix and add cilantro.

6. In the end add avocados and smash with potato smasher or mortar and pestle.

7. Serve with corn chips.

Christmas Sauerkraut Cream

Sauerkraut Cream was, is and always will be serve as a Christmas Eve lunch at 12:00. Of course it is no dogma to be serve anytime during the year – it is very simple and very tasty lunch. Just for explanation of my own nomenclature – I do differentiate two different kind of soup containing sauerkraut: 1) Sauerkraut Cream (today’s recipe) – is white, creamy consistency, very simple to make and very tasty and 2) Wallachia Style of Sauerkraut Soup – is red, contains paprika, smoked pork and sausage – very tasty as well and my recipe will be published soon on my blog too.
I would like to wish you all Merry Christmas and thank you for all your nice e-mails, wishes and comments. Have a great Holiday!

Ingredients:

2 cups sauerkraut (with juice)
1 hard boiled small potato
2 cups cream
1 tbsp flour
1 hard boiled egg

Directions:

1. Bring sauerkraut to boil. I do usually use the one in jar. The raw one will need some more time – depending on your preferences of crunchiness.

2. Add hard boiled potato (cut into cubes) and mix four with cream and pour over. Cook for couple of minutes.

3. Serve with hard boiled egg, add some salt and event. black pepper (but it is not necessary).

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.

Lutika from Mikulov

Mikulov is beautiful small town in the south of Moravia (founded in 12.century – check this: http://www.mikulov.cz/photogallery/photo-album/?contentId=84387) on the border with Austria where live part of my family and which I always love to visit on my ways to Europe. Thanks to my relatives Jarka and Vasek taste Mikulov for me as well like “Lutika”.
To describe Lutika is quite easy – it taste like Mexican salsa with touch of Czech. Uncle Vasek always used to say: “… it is so good you can eat it by its own – because it taste so mild, or like a side-dish as mustard or on your fresh made toast – because the end is piquant”.
I would like to present you today the recipe for Lutika. It is very easy and the result is great! It is quite seasonal recipe of late summer or fall, but you can make couple of jars anytime during the year – as I did too on my birthday…

Ingredients:

2kg tomatoes
5 hot peppers
1kg red mild peppers (can be green or yellow too)
1/2kg onion
8 cloves garlic
120g sugar
300ml vegetable oil
200ml vinegar
2 tbsp salt

Directions:

1. Prepare all vegetables, clean, cut in pieces.

2. Ground everything on a meat grinder.
 
3. Put vegetable into deeper pan and cook for about 30 minutes. Then add sugar, oil, vinegar and salt and cook for another 90 minutes until the volume shrink on about half.

4. Let cool over night and serve or put into small jars. You can eat it immediately or sterile.

Ginger Beef (Geung Ngao Yuk)

Of course it does exist many variations on Ginger Beef recipes and according to Wikipedia Ginger beef was a common menu item in Chinese restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area as early as the 1960s. In modern times it has become quite popular in the western Canadian province of Alberta. Calgary-style Ginger Beef was invented in between the late 1970's to early 1980's by Peter Mang, a chef in Calgary's Yum Yum Tree.
The ingredients can depend on where it is featured, but generally consists of deep fried strips of beef coated in a dark sweet sauce that is reminiscent of other Asian sauces based on vinegar and sugar (e.g., the Japanese teriyaki). It also contains flavours of ginger, garlic and hot peppers.

Ingredients:

2 beef steaks
2 rhizomes ginger
4 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 clove garlic
2 eggs
4 tbsp rice or potatoes starch
1 large carrot
1 daikon
1 green onion
2 cups vegetable oil
2 tbsp white vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp water
1/2 tsp crushed hot peppers

Directions:

1. Cut the steaks into a strips.

2. Peel and shred one ginger, press the juice direct on the meat strips.

3. Mix well with mashed garlic and 3 tbsp soya sauce. Marinate for couple of hours or over night in the fridge. 
 
4. When the marinate time is over, beat eggs with starch and pour over the meat strips and mix well.

5. Deep-fry in parts in Wok or in a suitable frying pan, let the oil drip on paper-towel.

6. In a mean time prepare vegetable: carrot and daikon peel and with peeler slice into very thin long slices; green onion cut into thin rings and the second ginger peel and shred.

7. Sir-fry.
 
8. Add the sauce prepared with 2 tbsp white vinegar, 1 tbsp dark soya sauce, 2 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp crushed hot peppers and 4 tbsp water.
  
9. Add the fried beef strips and stir-fry shortly.

10. Serve with rice.