Buttermilk Biscuits w/ English Clotted Cream + Strawberry Preserves

 

Ingredients: all-purpose flour, buttermilk, unsalted butter, baking soda, baking power, salt, sugar, English Clotted Cream, Strawberry Preserves

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Nothing better than homemade biscuits fresh from the oven. Except for homemade biscuits done the English way! I came across this incredible jar of English Clotted Cream (made by the Devon Cream Company) and I got inspired to make some biscuits to go with it. It was during my first trip to the Cotswolds a few years ago that I had some currant scones that were served with this incredible English cream and strawberry jam - with a cup of Earl Grey, of course. So when I saw this at Surfas yesterday, I had to snatch it up.

 

Instead of scones, I thought I'd make my famous Buttermilk Biscuits using the recipe from epicurious.com + Gourmet magazine. Perfectly buttery and just barely sweet, the pairing with the cream and the jam makes everything melt in your mouth. The recipe is pretty genius and very simple; I think the key is sifting the dry ingredients twice, allowing for a fluffier consistency once it bakes. My only spin is to NOT use a rolling pin, as the recipe suggests. It's better to just mold it out with your hands to about a 3" high rectangular block and then use a biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits. 

I wish I had enough time to whip up a batch of my Strawberry Jam, but since it's so early in the season, I got a jar from Trader Joe's instead. Not sure where else you can find the Clotted Cream, but most likely in any specialty food store or larder. If you've never tried it before, it's like a thick whipped cream, the consistency of cream cheese, but sweeter and richer. 

From the Market // Pea Sprouts

One of my favorite sprouts! And actually, the most versatile, I think. You can eat these raw, saute them, or throw them in a stir-fry. They have a crisp sweetness to them that aren't as earthy as peas, but a bit more refreshing, similar to a radish. They're even so elegant when used individually, to top hors d'oeuvres or small tea sandwiches. 

I have an endless bag of these, so I've put them in sandwiches - goes great with pastrami or roast beef with spicy mustard - and had a pea sprout salad with an orange-soy vinaigrette. You can also stir-fry these with some garlic and sesame oil.

Tres Leches Cake con Dulce de Leche

Tres Leches Cake: all-purpose flour, baking powder, egg whites, egg yolks, sugar, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, heavy cream

Dulce de Leche: whole milk, sugar, cinnamon 

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Such a sweet dessert! You really could barely eat half of a serving of this stuff... not for the faint of heart. The great thing about this cake is that it's not heavy and thick, like a pound cake, but very light and airy. The sponginess of the cake is of course what soaks up all the cream and sugar that you pretty much immerse this in.

Almost like a light angel food cake, I pretty much followed the recipe from Food and Wine exactly. It was very quick and very easy; beat the egg whites and the egg yolks separately, then combine with the flour. The oven does the rest of the work. 

The leches was even more simple - all you need is a can opener and a whisk and you're done (I omitted the rum it asked for, but you can easily add some in!). The fun part is inverting the cake to cool on a platter, and then pouring the leches mixture all over it. I poked the top of the cake with a fork, to add holes to it, but it doesn't make for anything particularly attractive. But it gets all the leches in there! Make sure to let it soak overnight.

The Dulce de Leche sauce was the hard part, mostly because it called for a lot of sugar, a lot of whole milk, and A LOT of stirring. And I mean stirring the mixture for about 50 minutes still didn't yield the thick sauce I wanted. I finally gave up and let it sit in the fridge overnight; by morning it tasted great (but still a little runny).

I served this for a friend's birthday dinner recently and there was plenty to go around. Goes great with some espresso or cuban coffee.

Homemade Organic Applesauce

Ingredients: organic Gala and Fuji apples, water, brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon

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I had an insane overflow of apples recently and couldn't eat them fast enough, so I thought what better way to use them up than to make applesauce. It was so easy and fast, I'll never go back to Mott's again...

The most time-consuming part was probably peeling the apples; after that you just chop them up and throw them in a saucepan with the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer for about 30 mins. I adapted this recipe, but cut the sugar by half and added a bit more lemon and cinnamon. 

Once it's all simmered down and mushy, you can just smash it up with your wooden spoon while still in the pot. Super simple. You could also transfer to a food processor to make it as smooth as you like, but I like the chunky, country-style bits. 

So many things you could do with applesauce (aside from eating it as a snack): caramelize the sauce and top your pork chops with it, add it to your yogurt in the morning, or make a variety of coffee cakes and tea cakes, and of course, Applesauce Spice Muffins.