Heart of the Kitchen

Friday Quick Biscuits

With the Lenten season fast approaching, I will try to post more of our family's meatless recipes. 

Our family makes biscuits every Friday for lunch. I have made them for years from a recipe that my friend Barb shared with me.  It was originally from Whole Foods for the Whole Family, a La Leche League Cookbook. 

I normally serve these biscuits with tuna salad, cheese slices, honey, jam or butter.  Our family has grown such that I usually double or triple the batch.

2c. flour (any combination of whole wheat, unbleached, oat flour, wheat germ or rolled oats)

1/2 t. salt

2 t. baking powder

1/4-1/2 c. butter ( I use 1/2 c.)

2/3 c. milk

Stir together dry ingredients.  Cut in butter until crumbly.  Add milk until dough forms a ball.  Knead gently 5 to 10 times.  Do not overwork or biscuits will be tough.  Roll or pat out dough on a floured surface.  For flaky biscuits, fold dough into thirds toward the center and roll out again, gently.  Repeat two or three times.  Cut into squares or rounds with a floured glass/biscuit cutter or use a cookie cutter for feast days (heart, shamrock, etc.) Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes. 

Optional ingredients:

1/2 c. sesame seeds

1/2-1 c.  grated cheese

2 T. sugar or molasses

German Potato Pancakes

Today is a chilly day, the rain dripping from the eaves.  My mother is coming over tonight and I am serving potato pancakes.  The following recipe comes from my grandmother's family which is of German descent. 

Jewish people call Potato Pancakes "Latkes" and traditionally make them with matzo meal on Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights.  Our family makes them with regular flour, instead of the matzo meal, but the taste is very similar.  Potato pancakes are a favorite of my family, however we do not eat them very often because of the oil content.  They certainly are a comfort food!

Here is the recipe:

8-10 large potatoes (I like Yukon Gold)

1/2-1 cup flour

3-4 eggs

2 TBLS. finely chopped onion or a bit of onion powder

1 TBLS. fresh minced parsley (optional)

Peel and shred the potatoes.  My family uses a hand grater.  My grandmother used a crank grater.  If you have a food processor, you can use it as well.  We prefer to grate them on a coarser hole rather than the finer grate so they have a lot of texture.

In a large mixing bowl, add potatoes, eggs, flour, salt, onion and parsley.  The mixture should be very moist but not soupy.  If there is a large amount of water in the bottom of the bowl, drain some out and add a bit more flour.

Fill the bottom of a large skillet or electric frying pan with cooking oil.  On medium heat, heat oil, being careful not to burn.  Using a slotted spoon to drain any liquid from the bottom of the bowl, add large spoonfuls of potato mixture to the oil.  When pancake is browned on one side, turn over with a fork.  When browned on both sides, drain on papertowels and salt to taste.  Keep warm on a cookie sheet covered with foil on your lowest oven setting while you prepare the remaining pancakes. 

Potato pancakes must be watched carefully.  They burn easily and then the oil must be discarded and the cooking process begun again.

We serve our potato pancakes with applesauce and sour cream.  This recipe makes a couple dozen pancakes.

Creamy Rice Pudding

The weather here is a bit nippy and rainy.  Nothing tastes better than rice pudding on a day like today!

3 cups cooked brown rice

2 1/4 cups milk

5 eggs

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 cup honey or maple syrup

2 TBLS. grated orange peel

2/3 cup raisins

2 medium apples, cored and finely chopped

Butter a deep casserole dish and set aside.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a blender or mixing bowl combine milk, eggs vanilla, spices and honey.  In large bowl, thoroughly mix the rice, egg mixture, grated orange peel, raisins, and chopped apples.

Pour the pudding into the casserole dish and bake uncovered for an hour, until the custard is set and the pudding begins to brown slightly at the edges.  Stir the pudding thoroughly at 20 minute intervals while it is baking and add a small amount of milk if it becomes too dry.

Serve hot from the oven or chill it and serve cold later.  A dollop of fresh whipped cream adds the perfect finishing touch to each serving.

Grandma Fitch’s German Spaetzle

My grandmother made these homemade noodles or "spaetzle" quite often when I was a child. She served them with kielbasa and sauerkraut. There are many commercial spaetzle makers that form uniformly shaped noodles but, instead, my grandma scraped her dough off a cutting board into the boiling water by hand. This is the way that her little German grandmother made them.

This recipe makes enough spaetzle for two people to eat as a side dish. We make four batches for our family's dinners.

In a large soup pot, bring several quarts of water to a boil. Add a couple of slices of onion and a pinch of salt to the water.

Prepare the spaetzle dough as follows:

One cup all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur brand unbleached white)
One egg
Enough water to make a sticky dough (about 1/3 cup)

Mix ingredients , turn dough out onto a small cutting board.
Using a sharp knife, scrape a small amount of dough (about the size of a nickel) into the boiling water. Continue until all dough is used, spooning out the cooked spaetzle as they float to the surface. Butter and serve.

You can also add spaetzles to homemade chicken or turkey soup. We add them to the bowls after the soup is fully cooked. They soak up all of the broth when added directly to the soup pot.