Biscuit Bombs and Corn Tortillas

Second day of school, and it's cancelled for flooding. Oh well, so much for the planned itinerary for the day...

9/8 Menu:

breakfast: local granola (GS bulk section) with almond milk

lunch: cream of tomato soup (tomatoes, onion, garlic, parsley, basil (garden); butter (Meadow Creek); honey (GS); almond milk (homemade, exception); salt/pepper/rosemary); biscuit bombs; melon & raspberry fruit salad (garden + Daring Drake)

Made biscuits with a barley/corn/almond flour. The dough was very dry, but I decided to go with it instead of adding water. It's kind of nice to be able to shape them without the dough sticking all over everything. They came out extremely dense -- didn't rise at all, so far as I could tell. Nice flavor, though, and reasonably soft (no teeth-breaking issues.) Maybe at some point I'll come up with a recipe that's good enough to share...

Conversation with Sophia over lunch:

M: "How do you like the biscuits? I notice you aren't filling your plate with them."

S: "I'm getting pretty full. I think I will have one more, though, with honey. I love honey."

(Biscuit with honey vanishes. She helps herself to another bowl of soup.)

M: "Whoa, wait a minute. I thought you said you were full!"

S: "But it's so goood."

M: "It'll still be good tomorrow, if you don't eat it all first."

(She eats two spoonfuls.)

S: "Mom, do you want the rest?"

. . .

The soup recipe is also local, from the Enchanted Broccoli Forest (Variations on a Cream of Tomato, variation 1.) The recipe calls for sherry, and I was planning to substitute homemade wine, but I forgot, so today's version is sans alcohol.

9/8 Menu (cont.):

snack: biscuit bombs with jelly

dinner: corn tortillas (corn flour (Cayuga Pure), water, butter (Meadow Creek), salt) with refritos (pintos (Cayuga Pure), onion/garlic/bell pepper/jalapeño (garden), bacon grease (strained off Kingbird bacon), seasonings); sweet pepper (garden) and lettuce (Blue Heron)

Conversation with Sophia over dinner:

(She comes in the kitchen and sees what we're having.)

S: "Ooooo...can I have one now?"

(I turn around and see a tortilla with refritos already in her hand.)

M: "Okay, but get a plate. Do you want peppers with it?"

S: "Sure."

(She gets out plates, I slice up a pepper, we sit down to eat.)

(Two tortillas later:)

S: "I'm getting really full. How many have you had?"

M: "Two. I'm pretty full too."

(She counts the two remaining tortillas.)

S: "Let's go and do something else for ten minutes, then come back and finish them."

Sometimes I just love being a mom.

The refritos recipe is local, from the original Moosewood Cookbook, and the tortilla recipe is modified from a sweet little compilation of Native American recipes called "Going Native", that I picked up at a historical exhibit out in Seattle a looong time ago now.

Corn Tortillas (makes 12 small tortillas)

1 1/2 cups (or more) corn flour (traditionally masa harina)

2 t. salt

2 t. butter

1 1/4 cup boiling water

Mix 1 1/2 cups corn flour with salt, add butter and boiling water and mix well. Add more flour as necessary to make a pasty dough (the corn flour doesn't seem to absorb water as well as masa harina does.) Let stand for 10 minutes (dough will thicken as it stands.) If dough is still sticky, add more flour until it's workable. Dough should be smooth & elastic, but still fairly soft.

Heat and grease a griddle.

Dampen a 6" or larger square of muslin, and lay flat on a clean counter or cutting board. Divide dough into 12 equal-sized balls. Place one on the muslin, cover with another piece of damp muslin, and squash flat with a cutting board (this step takes some muscle.) "The tortillas should be almost paper-thin," says the recipe. Paperboard-thin is more realistic (like a cereal box.) Peel off muslin, and brown on the griddle for 1/2 minute or so each side. (I didn't see much browning, but it does say "brown"...) Repeat until done. Keep warm until ready to serve.