Just in Time For Dinner

Posted by Karen Ralph on Jan 19, 2012 in Featured, Red Wine Tongue | 0 comments

Here are two simple recipes for cold winter nights:

Frying Pan Beer Biscuits:
This is so simple it’s crazy,
3 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 ½ tsp. Salt
3 Tbls. Sugar
1 can of beer
Pre-heat oven to 400f. Mix up your dry ingredients, add the can of beer, if your dough is still too dry just add some water unless you want to open another can of beer, in which case just add enough to moisten your dough into a sticky mass. Grease a frying pan with butter, add the dough, spread it around the pan, put it in the oven and cook for about half an hour. Keep an eye on it. When it looks done, it is. You can add chopped jalapenos or garlic to the dough, depends on what you enjoy. Plain is good too. This biscuit bread is good toasted with honey,
Hint: in a pinch I’ve used Tonic water instead of beer. It worked fine.

Leek Soup
2 leeks, cleaned and chopped
2 shallots
4 sticks celery
1 big parsnip
5 big roasting potatoes
Use a heavy pan with a good lid, like a Le Creuset. Chop the leeks, shallots, celery and peel and chop the parsnip. Put them in the pot with some oil and about a cup of water and half a cup of white wine. Cook on medium heat, stirring so that nothing burns. Peel and boil the potatoes. When the veggies are soft and cooked, put them in a food processor with about a cup of water and blend until smooth. Put back in heavy pot. Put potatoes and the water they boiled in in the food processor- you might have to do it in 2 batches- don’t overfill the processor. Blend until smooth and add to the blended leeks and veggies. If the soup seems too thick, thin it with water. Salt and pepper to taste. I add cheese rinds to add flavour while the soup simmers on low for at least an hour. You can grate cheese on top of it, or add a sprig of thyme or rosemary. Serve with chunks of biscuit bread and a good Cote Du Rhone or white like a Pinot Grigio, Pinot Gris or Viognier- maybe splash out for condrieu…
Salut!