Buttermilk Recipes

The first I knew of buttermilk was when I moved to the South and
would see people eating crumbled cornbread with buttermilk on top.
It didn't sound or look good, although my usual childhood breakfast
was crumbled graham crackers with milk and sugar. I guess I had
preconceived notions that buttermilk would taste funny. After eating
buttermilk biscuits and pancakes, I started buying buttermilk to
make my own and then needed to find some recipes to use up the extra
buttermilk. One taste of a buttermilk salad dressing, and I began to
realize its fresh taste and many uses. Note: Most often you will
find lowfat buttermilk sold in your everyday grocery store; however,
if you can find the full fat, it is even more delicious. So, here are
two recipes out of many in my current buttermilk file to use up that
extra buttermilk after you've made pancakes or biscuits. Always
shake buttermilk well before pouring.

Buttermilk Herb Dressing

1/2 c. mayonnaise
1/2 c. buttermilk
2 Tbsp. parsley
1 clove garlic
1 green onion, white and green parts
1 tsp. fresh lime juice
salt and pepper to taste

Throw it all in a food processor is the easiest way. You could do it
by hand, but if so, make the parsley, garlic, and onion really fine.
You can also substitute a shallot for the green onion, or try different
herbs such as basil, oregano, or thyme. If you are a blue cheese fan,
you could add some crumbled blue cheese and use lemon juice instead
of lime. This is just a basic idea -- make it your own.

Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake

1 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
4 Tbsp. butter, softened
2/3 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 c. fresh blueberries
1/4 c. finely chopped nuts of your choice, optional

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter and flour a round cake pan.
Mix first four ingredients. (For baking, don't pack the flour into
the cup -- spoon it in and level it off.)

In separate bowl, mix flour and sugar until creamy, about 2 min.
with a mixer. Add vanilla and egg and mix well. Add some of the
dry mix, half of the buttermilk, some more of the dry mix, the rest
of the buttermilk, and then the last of the dry mix, until just
combined. If using finely chopped nuts, stir them in now.
I like almonds with this.

Spoon into pan and scatter blueberries evenly across the top.
Sprinkle the top with another 1-2 Tbsp. of sugar. Here you can
have fun with some specialty sugars. I like raw sugar for this;
you could try turbinado, demerera, vanilla sugar you have made
yourself, or just more plain sugar.

Bake 25 minutes or until cake starts to pull away from side of
pan and/or toothpick tester comes out clean.

I haven't yet tried this with frozen blueberries although, if I
did, I would add them frozen, not thawed, and toss them with a
bit of flour, just like in pancakes, to keep the berries from
staining all of the batter.

Italian Spinach

I call this one Italian spinach because I first had really good
sauteed spinach at an Italian restaurant. They also had the
only broccoli I have ever really liked, but that is another blog.
I went home and experimented and read cookbooks until
I got something I was happy with and this was it:

One bag pre-washed baby spinach, preferably organic, 5-7 oz.
1 Tbsp. good olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced
1/2 lemon, juiced
several gratings of a fresh nutmeg (use a microplane grater,
something every kitchen should have)
3-4 Tbsp. grated Parmesan, preferably Parmesan Reggiano

This makes two helpings.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat until it shimmers a little.
Add the garlic and cook 1-2 minutes, until it just starts to turn
color to golden. Throw in all of the spinach and start turning it
with tongs or a big wooden spoon. Keep turning it as it wilts.
After a couple of minutes, it should all be wilted so you can turn
the heat off and add the lemon juice, nutmeg, and Parmesan.
Mix it all together and turn it onto a plate.

I sometimes add a little fresh ground black pepper or 1/4 tsp.
cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes for a little more zing.

You will notice a big taste difference if you use organic baby
spinach instead of regular bagged spinach. Also, if you use
the larger spinach leaves you should pull off the big woody
stems. That is one of my biggest pet peeves in restaurants
is that no one stems spinach. Ok, it is fussy and takes a little
bit of work but really, who wants to eat spinach stems?

The easiest way to stem spinach is to fold the leaf in half,
turn it upside down, and pull the stem straight down.

If you want to use regular, unwashed spinach, dunk it like
you're baptizing it vigorously in a big bowl of water, let it float
to the top, pull it out and discard the sandy water, then repeat.

(One of my favorite baptism quotes was by a newspaper man
covering a revival in 1800s Florida who proclaimed, "The chief
problem with the Baptists is that they do not hold their converts
under water nearly long enough...." N.B. I love the Baptists and
their blessed missions work and think their idea of local church
autonomy is genius, but I still find this quote to be funny.)

Biscuit Nirvana

As a self-taught, first-generation cook, I have wanted to make good biscuits for years.
Just about every recipe I read said to use chilled butter/shortening/lard. Trying
to cut cold butter into flour is not a good use of time and never worked for me.
I finally found a recipe that said to use room temperature butter instead and
what a difference. It was easy to blend into the flour, like making cookies,
and I finally had a biscuit I was happy with. They're even good reheated
in the toaster oven. The other key thing is to use a soft wheat flour like
Martha White or Dixie Lily.

Living in the south, I have eaten many biscuits. My favorite fast food biscuits
are those found at Hardee's and that was what I was looking for. Crispy
and buttery. But I wanted something easy to mix up that didn't leave a
huge mess in the kitchen. This is what I found that works for me.

2 cups flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder (Rumford's is the least chemical tasting)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1/3 c. softened butter
3/4 c. buttermilk (shake it well before pouring)

Mix dry ingredients. Add softened butter and mash it/work it into
the dry ingredients. With the butter being softened, you can do this
with a big spoon easily. Add buttermilk and mix until just combined.
Turn out onto a piece of waxed paper or flexible plastic cutting board.
Dust with a little more flour. Knead it just a little and pat it out to
a thickness of an inch. Cut biscuits with a floured biscuit cutter or
drinking glass about 2 inches in diameter. Do NOT twist cutter or
glass, just push down and straight back up. Transfer biscuits to a
lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
If you want the tops to be browner and crisper, brush them with a
little melted butter.

You can re-form and pat out again the scraps, but handle as little as
possible.