Southern Sliders (Buttermilk Biscuits with Country Ham and Tangerine Marmalade)



Mark and I have been craving these for many, many years...ever since our dear friends Bill and Tarina were married in Nashville. Of course, they didn't call them "sliders" then...sort of an annoyingly trendy term, I know - but now that we've actually made them, that's the first and best name we thought of. Damn insidious trends !!

Anyway...one of the delicious items served at Bill and Tarina's wedding was so simple - and so good - that we couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it : light and fluffy biscuits - not too huge - with slivers of honest-to-goodness country ham and orange marmalade. Pretty unusual combination, we thought...but really absolutely perfect together - the sweet-tart orange perfectly complimented the salty, smoky ham. And who doesn't love a good biscuit ? We've seriously been talking about these ever since the wedding...and that's quite a few years ago, now.

Flash forward...here we are with the remnants of a country ham just begging to be used, an afternoon beer run to Marty's with a chance walk by some really lovely preserves, and buttermilk to be used in the fridge...it was time to give this one a go. Being foodies, we of course had to try to kick it up just a tiny bit...enter a previously unknown elixir : tangerine marmalade.

This stuff is seriously genius. Good orange marmalade is delicious enough (and works just fine on these, if that's what you can get), but the tangerine just elevates it to another level.

Two of the main ingredients down, one to go...we were going to need some biscuits. Buttermilk, flaky, fluffy...time to consult a go-to guy : Alton Brown

the perfect biscuit

Alton's recipes have never, ever let me down - and this one delivered. Perfect ! I made them a little bigger than Alton specified (2 1/2 inch instead of 2), but otherwise, followed his recipe exactly...why mess with success ? 

One note on the slider construction - use of cheese is optional. Nashville didn't serve them with cheese, but we decided to go ahead and try it...jury's still out on that one. These are fantastic with the cheese and fantastic without - Culinary Orgasm.

Southern Biscuits

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/southern-biscuits-recipe/index.html

• 2 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons shortening
• 1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.


In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.


Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that's life.)


Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

Lamb Tagine (slow cooker)

food porn...

Today was my very first experience with tagine...oh baby, what a great dish. I need to tweak this a bit more - want to up the heat and the sweet - but it really is amazing, and a perfect dish for the slow cooker (Or it would have been perfect...if Sarah shared her lemons with me !! ;) )

Tagines are a Moroccan dish - a slow-cooked stew braised at low temperatures, resulting in tender meat with aromatic vegetables and sauce (often served with or including preserved lemons...see link above). They are usually cooked in a special dish, also called a tagine...which I don't currently own, but I will...oh yes, I will.

here's the one I want - blue, of course !

Since I'm fresh out of tagine dishes...and since it's a slow-cooked stew...well, why not do it in the slow cooker ? You know how I love my slow-cooker...and really, it basically does the same thing : a glazed stoneware casserole dish, with a lid that keeps in the moisture. Definitely did the trick !

As I said, I do want to tweak it some...but here's what we have so far :

Slow-Cooker Lamb Tagine
adapted from Women's Day

1 tsp cumin
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp coriander
4 - 6 lbs boneless lamb, cut about double the size you would for stew (I used a 6 1/2 pound bone-in leg)
drizzle of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
1 leek, white and tender green only, sliced
2 carrots, chopped
1 pear, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup chopped dates, raisins, or currants
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (for garnish)

prepared couscous, for serving

Combine cumin, cinnamon, ginger and coriander. Toast the spice mixture in a skillet for a few minutes, until you can really smell it.

Sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper, and brown in the skillet in all sides in a little olive oil. Layer the lamb, vegetables, fruits and spice mixture - along with more salt and pepper - in the slow cooker. Deglaze the pan you used for the lamb with the chicken stock, and pour that into the slow cooker as well.

Cook the lamb on LOW for 8 - 10 hours, or on HIGH for 4 - 5 hours. Sprinkle the pine nuts over the top before serving, and serve with the couscous.

yum !

Sunday Savories - waffles, cherrystones, and a country ham dinner

Sunday dinner

So sorry I haven't been posting much, my peeps...busy times at Chez C.O. Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't been eating, mind...can't see that happening ! Today was a great food day, though, so I'm going to try to coax a post out of my sad, on-its-last-legs laptop...if you're reading this, then the old girl's got life in her yet ;)

We started off today with Blueberry-Pecan Waffles, a photo of which was the entirety of my last post. Once again, we seem to have a surplus of pancake mix - this time was an attempt at recreating the best beer batter of all time, made at my sister's on New Year's Eve. Didn't work as well this time - perhaps we needed to be a bit more tipsy - but we'll get that sucker perfected and blogged soon. In the interest of using up the mix, though, we did up a bowl via package directions, threw in a handful of chopped pecans and another of dried blueberries, two generous shakes of cinnamon and one of nutmeg, and ladled it into the waffle maker. A little of my beloved Grade B maple syrup...and a perfect, amazing, delectable breakfast.

Properly fortified, we made our way to Russo's. . Oh, how I love Russo's...I am so lucky to live so close, and doubly lucky that I got out of the house early today and didn't have to whack any grandmas to get through the aisles. Yes, I had to go to Stop & Shop afterwards for regular groceries - but that's not an issue for me; I actually like grocery shopping. Insane, I know :). Anyway, at Russo's we picked up all kinds of produce, including some gorgeous Rainbow Swiss Chard - my new vegetable crush. Tastes so good, and looks so cool on the plate  !! Not much of a recipe for this - chop into largeish sections, heat up some oil in a big saute pan (or in Mark's case, a wok)...saute a little crushed garlic for a minute or so, then throw the chard in, put the lid on, and turn it down. Cooks down in a few minutes...salt, pepper, and serve :

Rainbow Chard, sauteing away...

Home to cook....but first a light lunch : deviled eggs. Mark was making pickled eggs today, but I was able to snag a few for deviled eggs. I love, love, love deviled eggs. Nothing fancy about these...halved, hard-cooked eggs, smash up the yolks with mustard and mayo, back into the egg whites, sprinkle with parsley and smoked paprika. Heaven :). We also had a few cherrystones...they looked so good in the store, and really that's about all the excuse we need . We did them two ways - topped with caviar, and with Mark' killer homemade cocktail sauce - OMGWTF amazing :

What, so I keep caviar in my fridge..doesn't everyone ?

seriously, the cocktail sauce is killer....

Just a few light bites, in preparation for today's main kitchen guest : a country ham from the Fox Country Smokehouse in Canterbury, NH. We've been going to this smokehouse for years...it's one of those places that you need to know how to get to : down a series of dirt roads for miles, through gorgeous rolling countryside...and then what looks like a barn in the middle of nowhere, filled with the most delicious smoked food imaginable. (Yes, you can order online from them as well...not nearly as fun though ! ). Mark's go-to ham glaze is good old Boar's Head  ...really the best stuff out there. He did an 8 1/2 pound bone-in ham 250 degrees for 3 hours, then 30 minutes at 375 after reglazing....and it was fantastic :

piggy goodness...

Along with the chard, we had the usual accompaniment to ham, at least usual around these premises : my infamous mac and cheese. I've posted my lobster variation on this before, but for ham, we go old school. I adapted this recipe out of a Yankee Magazine cookbook years ago...nothing fancy, but absolutely nothing better. This is what Culinary Orgasms are all about :

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

8 oz of your favorite short pasta
4 T butter, plus 2 T for topping
4  T flour
1 cup milk
1 cup light cream
3 cups grated cheese  - Cabot Extra Sharp preferred 
1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs 

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain.

For cream sauce : melt 4 T of the butter in saucepan and whisk in flour. Slowly whisk in milk, then cream. Simmer 5 minutes or so, to get rid of raw flour taste.

Melt the remaining butter, and stir in the breadcrumbs.

Layer the pasta, cheese, sauce in a baking dish...then another layer of pasta, cheese, sauce...then top with a last layer of cheese. Top with the buttered crumbs, and bake in a 375 oven until bubbling and a bit golden (20 - 30 minutes, depending on your pan)