Biscuits and Gravy

I love some biscuits and gravy for breakfast. It’s so flavorful and filling and I’ll often skip lunch whenever we make it. So far I’ve usually just used canned biscuits, but I think I may start exploring biscuits from scratch. For the gravy, I’ve made a few different recipes that I’ve found on the internet, but the one I made today has been my fav so far.  Here’s the recipe as I made it:

1lbs Hot breakfast sausage (I used Tennessee Pride)

1.5t Rosemary, fresh 

1.5t Thyme, fresh 

1/2t Kosher salt (plus a bit more)

1.25t Ground black pepper

3T butter

1T Worcestershire sauce

1/2c All-purpose flour

2.5c Milk

2.5c Heavy whipping cream 

Notes: You can substitute 5c milk if you don’t have heavy whipping cream. 

Instructions 

1. Brown the sausage over medium heat.
2. Add Rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper and mix well and cook for 2 minutes..
3. Add butter and Worcestershire.
4. Once butter melts, add flour and stir well.  Continue cooking for about 3 minutes, stirring so that the flour doesn’t burn.
5. Add milk/cream and mix well.  Stir occasionally so it doesn’t burn on the bottom. 
6. Once thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, turn off the heat and cover.
7. Bake your biscuits and once they’re ready, give the gravy a good stir.  
8. Serve over hot biscuits.

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Smoked Meatloaf and General Update

I haven’t posted in a while. We moved from Utah to Florida and I had to dismantle my brew system and only take the essentials.  Some things like my brew stand didn’t make the cut, so I’m in the process of redesigning and rebuilding. 

In the meantime, here’s a smoked meatloaf recipe I made a couple days ago. It was awesome, and even my wife and son who don’t love meatloaf thought it was great. In hindsight, I wish I’d made two loaves so that we would have had enough for leftover meatloaf sandwiches. 

For this recipe I used the meatball/meatloaf blend that I picked up from Wild Fork. It’s a 1/3 each blend of beef, pork, and veal. I then supplemented it with 8oz of grass fed ground beef. For the BBQ sauce I used Kinder Hot BBQ sauce. Sadly I no longer have my Kamado smoker, but I picked up a Weber Searwood pellet smoker once we got settled in Florida. Here’s the recipe as I made it and credit to https://bakeitwithlove.com for the original recipe.

Ingredients

1.5 lbs Wild Fork Meatloaf Blend + 8oz Ground Beef

1/2c yellow onion (finely minced) 

2 large eggs

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/3c Kinder Hot BBQ mixed into the loaf

1/3c Kinder Hot for the glaze

½c Panko breadcrumbs

1t cayenne pepper

1t chili powder

1t salt

1t pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat your smoker to 275°F using your favorite hardwood. I went with Bear Mountain Gourmet BBQ Blend.
2. Combine all ingredients but the 1/3c sauce for the glaze; this will be added with one hour left in the cook. Mix just long enough that all ingredients are well combined.
3. Form your loaf then place it onto a wire rack. I used a shallow aluminum pan underneath the wire rack to catch any drippings.
4. Place the loaf in the smoker and cook at 275F for two hours. 
5. At the two hour mark, brush the meatloaf with the 1/3c of BBQ sauce.  
6. Continue in the smoker for another hour until the internal temp reaches 160F.  In my case, I ended up bumping the temp up to 300F for the last 15 minutes. 
7. Pull it off the smoker and let it rest for a few minutes before slicing. 

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Fake/Faux 'Nduja

Another food recipe! Shout out to Beltex Meats who introduced us to 'Nduja a few years ago. While they do carry a different supplier's 'Nduja year 'round, my favorite is the one they make in house a couple of times per year. I remember they posted it on their IG account and I thought it sounded amazing. By the time we got there they only had a fist-sized piece left and we bought all of it. 

For the uninitiated, 'Nduja is a spicy, spreadable pork sausage from the region of Calabria in southern Italy. To me it's like a spreadable cross between salami and pepperoni. I was looking into making my own when I stumbled across this recipe for "fake" 'Nduja that sounded like it was super close to the real thing. We like to spread it on a slice of baguette, often with a slice of cheese. Add some of this to your next charcuterie board and you won't be disappointed.

The key ingredient for both real thing and this faux recipe is Calabrian hot red peppers. Those and the Fresno pepper may be the hardest things to find, but fortunately Calabrian hot red peppers can be found in specialty grocery stores and on Amazon. I had to substitute a red jalapeno for the Fresno pepper. 

Here's the recipe as I made it:

Yields about 1 1/2 cups 

Ingredients 

200g (7 oz) Boars Head Genoa salami, cut into cubes 

110g (4 oz) Volpi chopped uncured pancetta 

48g Bob's Red Mill Sweet Cream Buttermilk Powder 

28g Paprika 

1 medium Fresno pepper (sub red jalapeno if you can't find Fresno peppers), stemmed, seeded, and chopped

2 to 4 Calabrian hot red peppers in oil - drained, stemmed, chopped (start with 2, add more for more heat)

6g Kosher salt

1 -2T Olive oil (start with 1 and add another if needed)

Directions

1. Add everything in a bowl and stir to roughly combine. You can also do this in your food processor, but I had a hard time getting the buttermilk powder mixed in uniformly. 
2. Process in a food processor with a metal blade for about 30-40 seconds. If it seems too dry and crumbly, add a tablespoon of olive oil. It should resemble a coarse paste. You do not want it as smooth as a typical pate.
3. Taste it and if you want more heat, add another Calabrian hot red pepper and process again to mix.
4. Transfer to a small container and refrigerate to firm up.

Serve it with bread, crackers, and cheese. I've heard it's also great added to spaghetti sauce, but haven't tried that yet. 

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