Recipe: Herb Biscuits

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Photo by Judith Hausman

I love incorporating chopped, fresh herbs into this adaptable biscuit recipe.

Once again, I’m indebted to the Moosewood Collective’s cookbooks for a simple, healthy recipe. This basic biscuit recipe is so fast and adaptable, and it does not use the rich butter usually cut into biscuits and scones. You can even avoid rolling and cutting out the biscuits with this method. I love adding in the chopped, fresh herbs that I nurse through the winter in pots by the windows. If you only have dried herbs, use about half of the amounts given here.

Either yams or sweet potato will work in this herb biscuit variation, and mashed winter squash or pumpkin can also be substituted. Any of these will pair naturally with warm spices, such as cinnamon and ginger, but you might try savory spices, such as chili powder or curry, for an unexpected twist.

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Recipe: Tamales in a Skillet (aka Tamale Pie)

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Photo by Judith Hausman

Summer corn and tomatoes make a warming winter dish.

Time to screw open those canning jars and excavate the freezer to make use of the delicious trove you took such care to put by in late summer. Now, when you really need it, you can release the heat you built up in your kitchen when you blanched, peeled, chopped and processed in-season, garden goodies.

I had forgotten how good this simple and now-retro tamale pie recipe is until I recently made it again. It combines several summer treasures, warmed up with Tex-Mex chili flavors, including your frozen corn, greens, hot and bell peppers, as well as your tomatoes. It’s a fast family pleaser, and I’ve upped the vegetables in it to make it healthier as well.

If you don’t have your own pantry or freezer stash, there’s no shame in using a store-bought can of tomatoes, frozen supermarket corn and bagged or frozen spinach or other greens; the recipe will work perfectly well.

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Recipe: Savory Biscotti

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Photo by Judith Hausman

These tomato-lemon and olive-rosemary biscotti are delicious with minestrone.

If a good soup is simmering on your stove this winter as often as it is on mine, you’ll love these crunchy, savory biscotti as the perfect accompaniments. This is my favorite recipe because the biscotti turn out dry and crunchy, just the way I like them. They are also very easy to make, and they dunk really well. The recipe has no sugar or additional oil or butter, unlike the many sweet, almost crumbly, biscotti recipes around. The ingredients are hardly local in the Hudson Valley, but at least the soup ingredients are in my kitchen.

“Biscotti” means twice cooked, so you will form a loaf and bake it for about 35 minutes and then slice the loaf and bake the slices for another 25 minutes to make them crisp. The two savory biscotti versions below — tomato-lemon and olive-rosemary — are delicious with minestrone.

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