Very Easy Drop Biscuits

Who does not love a fresh butter biscuit in the morning with butter and some honey or jam? I adapted this recipe from the Real Simple magazine. The main difference is that I don't use a food processor. Instead I use a fork and my hands.

Ingredients:

2 cups of white flour
1/2 cup (4 oz) of cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes or vegetable shortening
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of whole milk

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix with a fork. Add butter (or shortening) and using your hands combine with flour until you until pea-size clumps form. Add the milk and mix until moistened.

2. Drop desired amount of dough for each biscuit onto a baking sheet. I usually make 6 to 9 biscuits. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.

Borscht for Dinner

Rain came back to Seattle and I feel like soup. As a tribute to my heritage I made borscht. The recipe below incorporates making of your own beef broth. Alternatively, you can use already prepared beef or vegetable broth.

Ingredients:


1 lb beef shank or rib eye steak
10 cups of cold water
3 potatoes, peeled
2 carrots, peeled
3 small beets, peeled
1 small onion, peeled
1 small cabbage
2 tomatoes
2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon of sugar
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

For Serving:

Sour Cream
Fresh Italian Parsley/Dill

Preparation:

1. Combine meat and water in a large soup pot. Salt and pepper to taste, bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium. Remove the foam with a spoon. Once there is no more foam coming to the surface, reduce heat to medium low, cover with a lid and let meat cook for 1.5 hours.

2. In a meantime prepare your vegetables. Cube potatoes. Shred carrots and beets. Finely chop onion. Quarter the cabbage and cut (leaves part only) into strips. Soak tomatoes in hot water for 3 minutes, remove the skin and dice into cubes.

3. After 1.5 hours add potatoes and cabbage to the beef broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low, cover with a lid and let cook for 30 minutes.

4. At the same time pour 2 tablespoons of oil in a separate pan (that is at least 5 inches deep) and on medium high heat fry onion for 1 minute, add carrots next and stir. Cook for another minute. Add beets, tomatoes, vinegar, sugar. Stir all the ingredients together and pour beef broth just enough to cover the vegetables. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, cover with a lid and let simmer for 30 minutes.

5. After 30 minutes transfer the beet mixture to the pot with beef, potatoes and cabbage. Stir. Bring to a boil and then remove from the heat. Taste for salt. Add if needed. Soup is done.

6. Serve soup with sour cream and chopped fresh parsley or dill.

Something New - Matsutake Mushrooms

I finally tried the beloved mushroom by Japanese people - the matsutake mushroom. I bought them at the U-District farmers market the other weekend. To cook I peeled the outer layer of the mushrooms, sliced and fried them in olive oil. Salted at the end. The mushroom has a distinctive fragrant aroma. Texture is a bit rubbery.

Family Outing to the Dr. Maze's Farm

October is the pumpkin patch month and this year we went to the Dr. Maze's Farm in Redmond. It used to be South 47 Farm few years back where they grew tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, berries and other produce including pumpkins. Now they have a pumpkin patch, a corn maze and a farm themed playground for kids that includes a hay ride and a tiny farm animal zoo. A fun outing to do with a kid.

Baby Greens Salad with Caramelized Nectarines, Candied Pecans and Blue Cheese

This salad is very common but I think what makes it especially good in the summer is the addition of fresh caramelized nectarines that are in season now. Here is the recipe I use:

Ingredients:

2 cups of baby greens
2 nectarines
1 tablespoon of butter
1.5 oz of blue cheese
1/4 cup of candied pecans

For dressing:
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of champagne vinegar
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of dijon mustard
Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Slice nectarines into thin half moon slices. On medium heat melt butter in a pan, add nectarines and let them fry on each side until they develop a nice brown color. This takes about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool. 20 minutes should be enough.

2. In a large bowl combine baby greens, nectarine slices, pecans and blue cheese. In a separate bowl combine oil, vinegar, sugar and mustard. Whisk all ingredients together and add salt to taste. Add dressing to the salad as you are about to eat and toss.

Zucchini Pancakes

This year I am growing zucchini in my yard and few already popped up. I grilled the first one but with the second one I decided to make my childhood favorite-zucchini pancakes. Here is my recipe.

Ingredients:

1 large zucchini, 10 inches long, 1 and 1/4 lb, grated finely and extra water drained
2 eggs
1 cup of white flour
1 teaspoon of salt
Olive Oil for frying

To serve:
Sour Cream
Fresh chives
Salt

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl combine zucchini, eggs, flour and salt. Mix with a whisk.

2. Preheat the pan on medium heat for about a minute. Pour one tablespoon of oil in a pan and using a a large spoon add the zucchini batter.  I aim for a palm size pancake or a smaller. Let pancakes fry on each side until golden brown and cooked through (about 4 minutes). Reduce the heat to medium/medium-low so not to burn the cakes. Repeat the process until all batter has been used. Add more oil as needed.

3. Serve pancakes with sour cream, chopped fresh chives. Salt to taste.

Rabbit Leg Confit

Few weeks ago I took upon myself making the rabbit leg confit following the recipe from the Girl and the Fig cookbook Plats Du Jour. The recipe is not for a beginner. As with other recipes that I have made from this book I had to guess few times since some instructions were missing or not clear.

I bought two whole rabbits from the Rain Shadow Meats Butcher Shop in Seattle. The recipe required only rabbit leg quarters but the store would not sell me just the legs. They cut the rabbits for me though. The other constraint was the amount of duck fat I was able to find. Not much, so I supplemented with the chicken stock. The cooking process is similar to making the duck confit. But rabbit is not as rich. Still dish came out tasty. Here is how I made it.

Ingredients:

4 rabbit leg quarters

1/2 lb of duck fat

2 cups of chicken stock

2 sprigs of fresh thyme, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon of black peppercorns, some whole and some ground

1/2 of large yellow onion, thinly sliced

8 slices of prosciutto

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

For the sauce:
1/2 cup of red white
1 1/2 cups of chicken stock
1 whole black peppercorn

2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter

Preparation:

Day 1: Rinse the rabbit legs in cold water and pat dry. In a small bowl combine thyme, onions and peppercorns. Generously rub legs with salt (about 2 tablespoons) and then with the thyme-onion-peppercorn mixture. Place in a glass bowl, cover with a plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator overnight.

Day 2: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees. Take the rabbit legs from the fridge and wipe them clean with a damp paper towel. Assemble the legs in the ovenproof dish in one layer. Pour chicken stock and distributed duck fat on top. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 2.5 hours. Take the rabbit out, let cool for about an hour. Remove the rabbit from the duck fat and transfer into a fridge to chill completely. This will take about 3 hours.

2. When you are finally ready to cook the rabbit preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Take the rabbit out of the fridge and wrap each leg with prosciutto (2 pieces per leg should be enough, even 1 would do).  Pour two tablespoons of olive oil in the ovenproof skillet and on medium high heat sear rabbit legs (the top side down) wrapped in prosciutto for about 3 minutes until prosciutto starts getting a nice brown color. Transfer the skillet into the oven and let bake for about 10 minutes until the rabbit has fully heated through.

3. While rabbit is cooking make the sauce. Combine red wine, pepper and thyme in a small pot and reduce by half over high heat. Strain the wine to remove the pepper and thyme. Pour wine back into the pot and add chicken stock. Bring to a boil and cook on high heat until the sauce is reduced by a little more than half. Take of the heat and stir in the cold butter. The sauce came out a bit thin. So need to try something thicker next time.

4. To serve I roasted potatoes and carrots and made a green salad. All in all meal came out delicious.