Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Big Country Breakfast

 Dallas, Texas, has been sacked, snowed under, by two inches of snow.  Snow Day!  Whoo Hoo!  LOL!  Now what we need on a Snow Day is a Big Country Breakfast.  I've been craving Biscuit, and Gravy over the last few days, and I wanted to get some of those canned biscuits at the grocery store.  Well, the grocery store is closed, Doh!  So, I made home made Rosemary Biscuits.  We're gonna need Sausage, Gravy, and Eggs too.  Oh yeah, gonna need a nap after this.

This is all fairly easy to make, just a little time consuming.  I cook from scratch when I have the time, and it is well worth it.  Home made food is always better.  If you take the time, and make it right, it is nutritionally, and culinarily better.  It is made by you for you and yours.  Specific custom made food for your pleasure.  So fry up the sausage.  Then use the fat from the sausage, some flour, and milk to make gravy.  Pan fry some eggs, and then pile it on a plate.  Om Nom Nom Nom...

Snow Day Nom Nomz...

Rosemary Biscuits

We are all snowed in.  In Dallas, Tx., a couple inches of snow will shut everything down.  I'm craving Biscuits, and Gravy, and none of my favorite breakfast places are open.  Wut to do...  Wut to do...

Well, I've got all the stuff to make Biscuits, LOL!  There you go...  Lets make Rosemary Biscuits...

Biscuits are one of the easiest breads to make, but there is a specific process to make them light, and fluffy.  It's not a difficult process, but very specific, and thermally dependent.  OK, we're baking right, so we need heat, but cold is just as important.  OK, we are going to start with two cups of flour, a stick of butter, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, and some Rosemary sprigs.

Biscuits, a Quick Bread, depends on a chemical reaction for leavening.  The Baking Powder will react with the milk when heated, and produce Carbon Dioxide gas which causes the Biscuit to rise in the oven.  The leavening makes the Biscuits light, and fluffy as they bake.

There are a lot of different flavoring that you can add to your Biscuits.  This time I am using Rosemary.  I have a tremendous surplus of Rosemary, so I might as well use it somewhere.  So, I pull the leaves off the Rosemary sprigs, and then chop them thoroughly.  Rosemary is a very healthy herb, so get it in your diet where you can.  Next we need to "Cut" the butter into the flour.  This is a special process for Biscuits that make them light, and fluffy.

Cutting the butter into the flour is exactly what it means.  This is where the cold comes in too.  You want to take very cold butter, and cut it into small pieces.  Put the small pieces of butter into the flour, and coat them with the flour.  Chop up the whole stick of butter in this manner.  Then use a couple butter knives to shear the butter into smaller pieces, in the flour.  This coats the butter with flour, and as you continue cutting the pieces of better get smaller, and smaller.  Then, at the end of this process I even get my fingers in there, and grind the butter into even smaller pieces.  The flour should look mealy at the end of this process.  Now we'll add 2/3s of a Cup of Milk, and mix just enough to incorporate the Milk.  Do Not over mix, or over work the Biscuit Dough.

At first it will seem like there is not enough liquid to hydrate the Biscuit Dough.  Dread Not...  Dump the Biscuit Dough out on the cutting board, and knead it.  Make sure you incorporate all the flour.  Press it down, fold it, press it down again, get the loose flour in there, fold it over, press it down again.  Then finally form the Biscuit Dough into a half inch thick mass.  Notice here that all the flour has been incorporated, the Biscuit Dough is evenly hydrated, and the cutting board is clean.  You have to knead the Biscuit Dough a while to get the Milk evenly distributed within it.

Now, at this point, you can use one of those biscuit cutter forms to make nice round biscuits.  I don't need mine to be that fancy.  I'll just make some geometric cuts to divide the Biscuit Dough into some number of pieces.  This is not critical, and you can form them into whatever shape you like.

Then I'll offload the Biscuit Dough on to a well oiled baking sheet, and bake them for 15 to 20 minutes in a 425F Oven.  I give them a little space between the pieces so all the sides can get some color.  This is where the Magick happens.  The Milk reacts with the Baking Powder, produces Carbon Dioxide Gas, and causes the Biscuit Dough to rise.  The butter melts, and lets the Biscuit Dough have flaky layers.  The Milk Solids in the Butter add protein to the Biscuits, as well, as the Milk.  Rosemary Biscuits are very hearty, and you are probably going to need a nap after breakfast.

Monday, February 15, 2021

2021 Snow Shotz

 The Garden Fence

Snowy Rosemary
 
The Smoker is now an Icebox

Condenser Fan pattern

Saturday, February 13, 2021

Detroit Style Pizza

 Pan Pizza is nothing new for me, but the Detroit Style Pizza has it's own way of being.  It is a Pan Fried Pizza, but the way it goes together is a little different than anywhere else.  The Cheeze goes directly on the crust, then toppings, and sauce on top, but not everywhere, just a few stripes.  I guess it is sort of like Cincinnati Chili, kinda weird to us South Westerners.

Now, since this is my first Detroit Style Pizza, I had some trouble shedding my old ways, and did the toppings like I usually do.  Sauce on the dough, then cheeze, and toppings on top.  Maybe I'll do it more correctly next time.  It turned out good, and very filling, much more dough than my normal Pizza.

It's a standard pizza dough crust with flour, yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil, and water.  Also mixed  together just like I usually do with my other pizza dough.  The main difference is the way that it is risen.  First I'm going to make the dough, then place it in a oiled bowl, and let it rise for several hours.

Then we'll gently form it into a pan.  Give it a little stretch, but not too much, you don't want to break the gluten chains.  The double rise will give the dough a sourdough consistency, with lots of air pockets inside.  This makes the inside of the dough soft, while the fried exterior will get krunchy.  Then we'll let the dough rise again for another hour.

After the second rise the dough is puffy, the gluten chains have loosened up a bit, and we can push the dough into the corners of the pan.  We'll punch it down a little with this final form fitting the pan, but the dough will rise again in the oven.

This works best if you can get the dough all the way into the corners.  We don't want the sauce, and the cheeze to get down to the bottom of the pan.  I had a little trouble with this on my first attempt.

I'm going to sauce the dough all the way to the edges.  This pizza will be in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, and the exposed dough will get blackened.

I'm also going to run the cheeze out to the edge of the crust as well.  In the corners I slopped the cheeze off the edge of the crust, and it wound up burning.  With a traditional Detroit Style Pizza you want the cheeze to go over the edge of the dough, but not get down to the bottom of the pan.  This is a process feature that I haven't mastered yet.  I can see that correctly making a Detroit Style Pizza is an art that takes some practice to master.

Then for the toppings.  Traditional Detroit Style Pizza is Pepperoni only, but you know I have to add my favorites.  I was tempted to make a special with Pepperoni, Sausage, Green Pepper, Onion, and Mushroom, but decided to keep it simpler.  So, in addition to the traditional Pepperoni I added Kalamata Olives.  They have been a recent favorite of mine.  Then we toss the Pizza in a 475F Oven for 15 to 20 minutes...

Bam!  Detroit Style Pizza, ala Z.Monkey...  Meh, fairly close, Mo Betta next time...

Monday, February 1, 2021

Planetary Conjuction March 9, 2021

 There will be a planetary conjunction in the constellation Capricornus on March 9. 2021. Plus the crescent moon will join them. But if you take a little wider view there are two more planets in the vicinity. Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and the crescent moon will be in Capricornus. But within close proximity will also be Pluto, and Venus. Venus is close to the Sun in Aquarius, and Pluto is the other direction in Sagittarius. I think the last time I saw 5 planets in such close proximity was back in 2015.


 Here is another shot with the constellation stick figures...