Comfort Foods and Indulgences

To make amazing buttermilk biscuits, you don't have to make them by hand.  Using a stand mixer is the way to go when changing up a few ingredients that yield tender, flaky biscuits everytime.

This recipe also calls for cake flour which is not the norm for biscuits.  However, cake flour has a lower protein content, allowing the dough to withstand more mixing without overworking it and developing gluten, which will ultimately toughen the biscuits.

I always have leftover bread.  Challah, french bread, sour dough.  Generally, I make bread crumbs.  But my freezer is full of bread crumbs.  So, I am forced to cook and create. With all the rain we have been having, I am happily staying indoors.  The weekends can sometimes be filled with way too many commitments.  However, this past weekend, it was lazy days, matinees, board games, and lots and lots of cooking.

A big pot (a triple recipe) of my bolognese simmers on the stove, scones are flash freezing in the freezer(the perfect school day breakfast), carrot soup is pureed for a quick weekday lunch, and this baked french toast sends the smells of morning wafting though out my home.

When making a baked french toast, it is usually best to soak it ahead (overnight), similar to a bread pudding. But, Eli’s early morning request didn’t allow me to prepare.  Instead, I assembled the casserole, covered it with plastic wrap, and let sit in the fridge for an hour.  

The greatest thing to come out of Buffalo, NY is their wings.

Buffalo wings are chicken wings and drummettes that are fried without breading and then coated in a vinegar based sauce typically comprised of melted butter and hot sauce. They're served with a cool, tangy blue cheese dressing for dipping and some crisp celery sticks.

Buffalo wings are the ideal party food guest: they get along well with others like pizza and nachos, and they're best buds with cold beer. So they've got to be part of your Super Bowl party line-up, even if you're making different wings like my Maple-Beer-Chili Chicken Wings (which you really, really should). They're too self-confident to be intimated by other wings at the party.

I keep seeing all these different versions of burgers in the summer issues of magazines. I want to try them all! This particular recipe stood out because I love the idea of the ingredients together…hoisin and Sriracha. I love them both but had never incorporated them into the same meal.

The original recipe had things a little differently, and I changed them for a couple of different reasons.  First of all, I believe the cucumbers were added to this burger to give it a textural change while eating, soft burger-crunchy cucumber. However, when I thought about it, I knew that placing a hot burger on top of cucumbers would equal a mushy-cucumber result. The recipe also called for grilled scallions in 4″ slices as a topping.  

What I did instead was make a relish with the Sriracha mayo, cucumber and grilled scallions.  I knew this would give a more crunchy result, and I still added more thinly sliced cucumbers to the ensemble, just for fun and looks.  One of the key flavor ingredients was using sesame oil to brush onto the scallions while grilling. This flavor really carried over nicely to the mayo-relish combo, so don’t leave this out.