Grain free biscuits (with scallion eggs and nettles)

Though Ramadan was over on Wednesday, this biscuit breakfast today felt like my first celebratory brunch of indulgence. (I did have celebratory steak dinner, and daily celebration of drinking things and eating during daylight! What glory. But biscuits feel even more special.) I made a half batch because I wanted only fresh biscuits, and of course I ate all three (though only 2 with greens and eggs)! 😊

I initially wanted a recipe for grain-free spinach/cheese/onion biscuits to make with nettles, but came across none. I do think I could try it with this recipe, so that will be on the agenda, because these biscuits were pretty remarkable. I would venture to say they are the most traditional biscuit I've had yet using grain free flour. The recipe creator names her numerous attempts to create a "southern style" biscuit, and I can tell. They really are quite perfect, even with the fact that I could not quite get my egg whites as stiff as I wanted. (I think I needed to whip my egg whites to more of a peak, but my old school-self generated spinning mixer just can't compete with electricity.)

The recipe requires egg whites, no yolks, so I just used the yolks as my scrambled eggs, and added my green onion and cheese to that. (Because I halved the recipe, I used 3 regularly large eggs.) For the greens, I chopped the steamed nettles up finely and then simmered them with a little coconut milk and salt until they were more creamy. The result was just what I wanted: buttery biscuit with soft eggs and greens. Yum!

Grain Free Biscuits (makes 6)

• 2 tablespoons unsalted grass fed butter
• 3/4 cup blanched almond flour 
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour 
• 2 tablespoons golden flax meal 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
• 5 extra large egg whites about 1/2 cup

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Grate/finely chop your butter in pea sized pieces and place in the freezer.
Mix all dry ingredients together.
Once butter is frozen, mix with dry ingredients, place in freezer.

Beat egg whites until fluffy and stiff enough to spoon. Mix into dry ingredients. 

Use an ice cream scoop to scoop batter, scooping out onto an oiled/parchment covered cookie tray.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Use a thin spatula to remove them. 

Rhubarb Shortcake (with almond flour biscuits)

It's been a long time since I posted. I don't know if I am going to post regularly or not, but I made some delicious shortcake this week and I want to preserve the recipe. There has been much change afoot. I am back in my southside house and am working to make it more homestead-ish. Bit by bit. I keep staring at the yard space trying to figure out how to convert more of it to garden. 

I read a couple of books recently about a woman who lives in the Taiga in Russia. It's unclear if the story is fiction or not, but I enjoyed them and they are making me even more intrigued about my relationship to my garden and plants. She talks about how walking barefoot in your garden (among other things) shares information about your body and what it needs so that as fruit/vegetables grow, they will take in that information and pick up from the universe/the earth the optimum blend of energies for you. She says that the food cultivated in this way can give you the very things you are needing for your wellness.

I have no idea if this is "true" or not, but I've been going out each morning to greet my seedlings/plants, and have even more appreciation for the things that I grow and then eat. It makes me feel happy and grounded. And in this time of change, that feels like a welcome companion.

I have just one rhubarb plant, but it loved all this rain and the bright sun and is bigger than I've seen it before. I don't think any of it was harvested in the past two years, and there were several fat stalks for me to pick. With just the one plant, it feels quite sacred! I made rhubarb shortcake in honor of my dear friend who is now making her way to California, where she will spend the summer. She and I had near weekly Sunday dinners for the past 8-9 months, and yesterday was the last until she returns. I also got to share the shortcake with my sisters and my dad: none of us have been in a room together more than a couple of times in the past 5 years. None of us are taking for granted that it will happen again. Rhubarb shortcake as present moment awareness: change, loss, and love.

The rhubarb compote is not one I've made before - I used raisins and fresh ginger. With the biscuit it became almost ginger-bready, a little spicy. These biscuits are also my favorite gluten-free/paleo biscuit yet. They were delicious.

Rhubarb Compote (a la Martha Stewart)
2 pounds rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup raisins
1 cup packed light-brown sugar (or sugar substitute)
2 tablespoon peeled minced fresh ginger
2 cinnamon sticks or 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Put all ingredients in a saucepan and cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until rhubarb is soft (about 6-8 minutes). The rhubarb will quickly let out moisture, so no need to add extra water.

Almond Biscuits (from the Nourishing Home) makes 8
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp butter, melted (or melted coconut oil)
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp milk or coconut milk
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine almond flour, baking soda and salt.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together melted butter (or coconut oil) and honey, until smooth. Add the coconut milk, eggs and vinegar, whisking together until well combined. Using a spoon, stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture until thoroughly combined.
3. For quick and easy drop biscuits: Drop biscuit dough by large spoonfuls onto a baking sheet, placing the biscuits approximately two-inches apart,
4. For classic-style rolled-looking biscuits: Scoop a large spoonful of batter into your hands and roll into a ball about the size of an apricot. Then place the dough balls on baking sheet and gently flatten using the palm of your hand.
5. Bake about 15 minutes, until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

For shortcake: Slice biscuit in half. Spoon compote on top of bottom biscuit, and sandwich between biscuit halves. Top with either whipped cream or coconut cream. (This is all especially good fresh and warm, but the biscuits also refrigerate well.)

Paleo Camping Biscuits (a la corn bread)

My canoe trip last week turned out to include some amazing meals, including lots of fish (sometimes twice a day!) and also some very delicious biscuits. The weather was cooler up there, so I was wearing long underwear and fleece most of the time, which was cozy and nice. It was all very peaceful - there was a full moon, and it was the equinox so the sunrise and sunset were pretty near 7:00 on both ends, which meant getting to see them. Well, I slept a lot and didn't always get up with the sun, but I could see it from the tent!

My favorite BWCA portage to date: a forest of red pines

There was also some rain, and must have been more the week before because there were mushrooms everywhere! I have done little to no learning about edible mushrooms, but My Charming Companion has done some and was able to identify some Boletes (easily identified because rather than gills on the underside, they have pores and look spongy). He wasn't 100% on the precautions for bolete eating, but we looked it up upon returning and discovered that all boletes are edible EXCEPT for those that turn blue when you scratch/bruise them, and the ones that have red or orange pores. The ones we found were neither, so we could have eaten them. I think I'll bring a mushroom field book for future fall or spring trips.

Some other interesting highlights of the trip: there were no leeches to be found for fishing anywhere in the Ely/Virginia vicinity. All the bait sellers said "nope, it's not leech season" which seemed puzzling because how could it no longer be leech season? So we purchased night crawlers and that all went fine to catch our dozen fish. But upon coming out of the woods and stopping in (my now favorite) bait shop to check for a map, we learned that actually the leeches for the region are supplied by people from the White Earth reservation. And it is wild ricing season now, so they are no longer trapping the leeches because they are ricing instead. This particular store got the last shipment of leeches actually, and he said they were the healthiest ones all year. Apparently the late thaw/spring really slowed up the leech trapping. Anyway, it was all very interesting because I had sort of forgotten (or never given much thought) that leeches need to be gathered, as in trapped. And because I had just written about it being ricing season, it all feels like a nice cycle of things. But funny that it repeatedly got summed up as "It isn't leech season." The same guy at the bait store had gone on a 3 mile hike the day before, and he was lamenting that he did not learn the art of identifying wild mushrooms from his dad. He said he saw so many mushrooms on his hike, and remembers eating tons of them as a kid, but never has learned. I enjoyed the 5 minutes with this guy so much - I wish I knew the name of his shop, but it's the one that looks like a log cabin just past Zups in Ely.

So. The biscuits! They used the same paleo biscuit recipe I posted a few weeks ago, including OvaEasy eggs in lieu of actual eggs, with some added dried blueberries. Yum! It was an experiment (we had tried making the biscuits with OvaEasy before, and MCC had attempted an outdoor biscuit baking experiment before the trip, but with different pans) that turned out deliciously well.

1. Prepare a baggie of the dry ingredients (minus eggs) before the trip (see link above for recipe).
2. Make sure to also have ghee and/or coconut oil in your food pack - you'll need 5 T for the recipe and some more ghee to eat with the finished biscuits. Bring some dried blueberries to put in as well.

Pot nestled on top of skillet (and 3 stones)

3. On a day when it is perhaps rainy or cool, or misty and cool in my case, build a small fire to sit by for a bit. You need to develop some nice coals, so use some bigger bits of wood and burn them down to get a good bed of them.
4. Arrange your pots so that you create an oven of sorts. We had three total pans: two pots that nest, and a stainless steel skillet that basically nests with the larger pot too. We put the frying pan on the bottom and placed 3 stones in a triangle to set the smaller pot on. The batter for the biscuits gets spread (corn bread style) in the pan. *We spread lots of ghee in the pan first to avoid any sticking, which worked great. We covered the smaller pot with the larger pot upside down, which tucked nicely into the frying pan, creating a top surface on which to put some coals.

Coals on top and bottom.

5. Once your pots are set and the dough is in, spread out a small bed of the coals to set the pots on. using two sticks, pick up some coals and set them on top of the pots. You can put a few small twigs and sticks and blow on the coals to get a teeny tiny fire going up there, just to keep the coals hot. "Bake" in this manner for 10-12 minutes. Slice the biscuit bread, and eat with ghee and honey.

Paleo Biscuits

My Charming Companion was jonesing for some biscuits last weekend, so after looking for some recipes online, we found one that seemed promising. I've made these twice already and thought they were great each time - I might have made them again this weekend, but the HOT weather suggests I might wait til later in September to try these again! 

Anyway, these biscuits are sort of cornbread like in consistency - not particularly fluffy, maybe more scone like. I have not had them a la english muffins for Eggs Benedict, but I think they would be great for that. They would be excellent with fruit and whipped cream/coconut cream for strawberry shortcake. So far I've had them with a bit of butter and honey or jam (delicious), or with a scrambled egg and some bacon or sausage (also delicious and very filling).

These are really easy, and do seem to have some variation depending on coconut flour. The original recipe calls for 1/3 c of coconut flour, but I've had to use more than that both times. I use Bob's Red Mill Coconut flour, and it may be that that brand just absorbs less liquid. I noticed that the Seward now carries Coconut Secret brand coconut flour (cheaper too), so I'll experiment with that to see how things turn out. In any case - go for consistency here, rather than an accurate measurement. You want the biscuits to look like the picture below before cooking - where you can actually shape them a bit. I've used both melted butter and melted coconut oil and both were good. The butter version was a little less coconut-y tasting. I do wonder if using chilled butter that you grate/cut into the flour will give a puffier biscuit - might be worth a try.

Paleo Biscuits
1/2 c coconut flour (Bob's Red Mill - use less flour if other brand)
5 T butter or coconut oil, softened or melted
4 eggs
5-8 drops stevia (optional)
dash of salt
½ tsp baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking powder) and add butter. It will be a thick paste if you use melted butter/coconut oil. Next add the eggs and stir well to get any lumps out of the batter. Add more flour if needed to achieve a batter that is not runny and that you can form biscuits with.
3. Using your hands, form dough into 6-8 biscuits. They should be about 1/2" thick (they only rise a little, so you could play with this a bit if you want to try thicker).
4. Bake for 12-16 minutes until just starting to brown.

Yum. I'm excited to try these in the fall/winter with chili or stew, or maybe as a topping on a fruit cobbler. Enjoy!

biscuits.

these are a favorite of mine. especially good with butter and honey or as an egg+cheese biscuit. the recipe is from "how to cook everything."

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

5 tbsp cold butter

7/8 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk

-preheat oven to 450.

-mix dry ingredients together.

-grate butter into dry ingredients, combine with your fingertips until it's incorporated.

-stir in yogurt or buttermilk (both are equally good).

-roll out until about 3/4" thick and cut into rounds

-bake 7-9 minutes.

these are super easy and they impress out-of-town guests that you're trying to convince to move to mpls, especially when cut into hearts.