brunch

Hot Fruit, OR Why Brunch Food Should Be Made a Week in Advance.

January 5, 2016 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com Leave a Comment

My friend Matty & his wife Suzette live in a precious Mississippi Delta town called Cleveland, home to Delta State University and probably fifteen-thousand people. They’re entrepreneurs, and advocates for education and the community, and generally all-around fun people. They LOVE Cleveland, but Matty’s one complaint (until a year or so ago) was that if you wanted brunch on a weekend, you had to drive 2 hours to Memphis or Jackson. Let’s be honest here.. no matter how awesome a rural community’s food culture is, brunch is the ONE meal that small town versions of dives, restaurants, and clubs just CAN’T often compete with their big-city counterparts…even in the south. Which means that if you live in a smaller town, and like to entertain, hosting a brunch for your friends rather than a dinner party is always a super great idea. Still not sure? Let me sell you…

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Biscuit Quest Attempt #2… Bon Appetit

February 5, 2014 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com Leave a Comment

I’m not gonna lie, these biscuits turned out pretty well. Flaky, buttery, thick enough to serve with a slab of canadian bacon or egg…. Bon Appetit‘s Pies and Thighs biscuits didn’t disappoint me as I continued the search for the world’s perfect biscuit. (Ok, obviously this is NOT an objective category, but I have a flavor/texture/look combination that I’m going for here, and I won’t stop until I find it.See other attempts with Flying Biscuits here and Sister Shubert ones here.) The people in my family aren’t really buttermilk biscuit people, but it’s definitely a southern food group all on it’s own, PLUS the photo in BA just looked SO GOOD and pretty close to my vision of perfection so I needed to try it.

What I learned: In terms of what I’m personally shooting for, these biscuits were a little too buttery, but the texture was divine. When I try this recipe again, I could probably use shortening and solve the buttery issue pretty quickly… FYI, Bon Appetit DID NOT LIE when they said they’d found the secret to tender, fluffy biscuits… and the secret is this: don’t over-mix. Want more that just a secret? Keep reading.

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chicken on flying biscuits

July 30, 2012 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com 2 Comments

boone and i have a road-trip tradition (if you can call it that). if it’s 10:31am OR if we’ve just passed an exit it’s a given that i’ll turn to him and say, “hey, we should get a chicken biscuit.” which sets off a crazy craving for one AND is at that moment, totally impossible.

i have the worst timing.

just thursday we watched adam richman’s (of man vs food) new travel channel show as he searches for the best sandwich in america and he highlighted a chicken cheddar biscuit from time out, some chapel hill, nc establishment and ever since we’ve been dying for this perfect southern breakfast combo. since we were having folks over for brunch this weekend to watch the olympics we decided to try to make one ourselves. we used a chicken recipe from some show on CMT that promises to help folks recreate fast food staples (BTW, whoever thought “country music and fast food, that’s the PERFECT combo” is definitely encouraging obesity AND making hank williams senior and johnny cash turn over in their graves). to top it off, we pulled out my favorite atlanta cookbook (the flying biscuit) for their world-famous biscuit recipe. no lie, it was a giant mouthful, but pret-ty delish.

What you need for the chicken:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

3 cups peanut oil

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

2 1/2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons salt

What you need for flying biscuits:

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons granulated sugar (3 tablespoons for the recipe, 1 for the topping)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature

1 1/2 cups light cream (or 1 1/2 cups half and half if you can’t get light cream)

1/3 half-and-half

What to do:

for the biscuits, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together. cut the butter into small chunks. work the butter into the dry ingredients until its all about the size of small peas. smushing the flour and butter together feels wonderful, so just relax and enjoy it.

make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and butter and pour in the light cream (or half and half) and stir it using a circular fashion until all the ingredients are wet and sticking together, “until the dough comes together in a sort of sticky ball.” don’t over handle it, but put it on a floured surface and knead it lightly until into a ball, then roll it out using a lightly floured rolling pin to about a 1 inch thickness. use a 2″-3″ cookie cutter to cut the dough. (turns out i don’t have a cookie cutter, BUT a wine glass or plastic cup works just the same)

brush the tops of the biscuits with half and half and sprinkle the sugar on the top. (now, i didn’t do this last part since I wasn’t sure about the sugar and chicken, but if you’re making authentic flying biscuits, then it’s a must.) once this is done, bake the dough at 350 degrees for 20-23 minutes until golden brown.

For the chicken, i’m turning things over to boone, since i had no hand whatsoever (which is why there isn’t one single prep photo. oops.) anyway, here goes.

Boone: heat the peanut oil in a deep skillet to 400 degrees, this takes a long time, so it’s best to start here. then, cut the breasts in half and (if you’re smart, pound them to be a bit flat and make it easier to eat). to make the batter, mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. beat the egg and stir in the milk in a separate bowl. submerge the chicken in the egg mixture, then drop it into the dry batter and coat the entire breast. fry in the oil and cook for about 8-10 minutes until golden brown. perfect.

ok, i’m back. once the chicken is done and the biscuits are baked, cut them in half and make your sandwich…the time-out version calls for cheddar cheese melted on top, so if you’re feeling decadent, you can go that route. serve with fruit or roasted potatoes and ta-da!

doesn’t looking at this make you feel as fit as our olympic swimmers or divers? i know… me too.

garlic grits souffle

December 28, 2011 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com 1 Comment

in high school my best friend, megan, and I fell in love with some boys from staten island, ny we met on a school trip to atlanta and were appalled to learn they’d never TRIED grits before. ever. que’ horrible! they made a special trip to ihop to remedy this situation since it was their first time visiting the south, but HATED them. everyone with taste loves grits, right?
it turns out that they thought grits were like cream of wheat, so they put JELLY in them. arg. the romance was doomed from that moment on.

for any of you out there who either have never tried grits OR tried the basic ones multiple times and never liked them because they were bland, or had a weird texture, or used some other crazy reason to dislike them, then try this. now. seriously. generations of mississippi women in my family have relied on this recipe, and it’s currently THE christmas morning brunch staple at my house. alas, one of the ingredients is un-findable since kraft stopped making it, but i have it on good authority you can make a decent substitute OR find some other version if you look hard enough. are you ready? because this is heaven…

garlic grits souffle adapted from gourmet of the delta
what you need:
5 c. water, salted
1 c. quick grits
1 roll kraft garlic cheese (if you stockpiled it in your freezer before they stopped making it) if not, use 1/3 package of velveeta cheese product + 2 cups extra sharp cheddar + 1 tsp garlic powder)
1 stick unsalted butter
1 c milk (or, if you’re adventurous, 1 c heavy cream)
1 egg, beaten

what you do:
stir grits into boiling water and cook until done (this is what the recipe book says, but from many, many years of grits making, i’m going to tell you that you should slowly stir in the grits little by little so they don’t clump, then turn the heat waaaayyyy down for 2-3 minutes until the liquid isn’t really visible. this means they’re probably done). Cut the velveeta into pieces and shred the cheddar, then stir into the grits with the garlic powder and butter.

whip the egg and fold it into the grits after they’ve cooled a bit. Move the grits to a buttered casserole dish, and then bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

here’s what it looks like when it has finished cooking…all puffy and souffle-like. make sure to eat it IMMEDIATELY if you want everyone to enjoy your excellent souffle handiwork, it falls pretty quickly after taking it out of the oven (typical) so just make note.

i made this on christmas morning for my fam, and TOTALLY forgot to take an after the oven picture. sorry, folks…this image is courtesy of the dallas morning news.

however, i didn’t forget to take a photo of us eating it the NEXT night. ta-da! garlic grits, or cheese grits souffle… (shown here with venison and spinach souffle, but it’s also DELICIOUS for brunch with grillades, or as the other half of shrimp and grits).

brunch

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