One thing that remains the same.

Greetings! I hope everyone had a beautiful, delicious Thanksgiving. The weeks surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas are among my favorite of the year. Spirits are a bit brighter, people are kinder to each other and there's this amazing feeling of hope in the air.

In our house, holiday menus change and guests come and go, but one thing that remains the same are my brother Michael’s southern biscuits.

My family cooks everything in an ancient Chamber stove. We light it with a match, and it’s miniscule by today’s GE standards, but it’s the world’s finest mechanism for roasting chicken and baking cookies.

Mike’s biscuits are the last things to go in the oven. Stomachs may rumble and side dishes may cool, but these biscuits are always worth the wait. Golden and fluffy, they’re excellent dipped in gravy, slathered in butter or nestled between turkey and cranberry sauce. Toasted and topped with raspberry jam, they’re wonderful for breakfast, too. Holidays in the Kutner household just wouldn’t be the same without them.

Michael’s Southern Biscuits
Adapted from Alton Brown’s recipe

Ingredients
2 C. flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbs cold butter
2 Tbs shortening
1 C. buttermilk, chilled (if you don’t have buttermilk, add a Tbs of lemon juice to whole milk)

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 starts to crumble. (The faster the better, because you don't want the fats to melt.)

Make a well in the center of the dough and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together—it 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 cookie 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 won’t be quite as light as those from the first, but what can you do?

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

Just Can't Get Enough

Last night, Dave and I made dinner for our friends Peter, Sarah and Penny. In my mind, there’s nothing better than good food, good friends and some Aretha Franklin. Pinot Noir doesn’t hurt, either. And when people come all the way from Harlem to check out your new Brooklyn digs, you’ve got to reward them with a great meal. I plan to write a full post about last night’s festivities, but since I can’t stop eating this particular side dish I made last night, I thought I’d share it with you immediately. It was quite the crowd pleaser. I reheated it for lunch today and couldn’t get enough.

It’s funny how the things you despise in childhood often become the things you can’t live without as an adult (naps and the opposite sex come to mind). One of those things for me is mushrooms. I wouldn’t even look at them as a kid, but they are now my favorite vegetable. I love their substantial texture and how they are so easily substituted for traditional meat dishes. Have you ever had a Portobello mushroom burger? It’s life-changing. This dish may not be life-changing, but it certainly is heartwarming – and couldn’t be easier to prepare. I added kale to the mushrooms because, frankly, I had never eaten kale before and I was feeling adventurous. I found it added a nice touch of green to the mix. The red wine and butter made this taste like something you’d find in a Parisian bistro and made the whole thing taste so, so good.

I didn’t take any pictures last night because I was having too much fun, but I’ll upload some the next time I make this, which I anticipate will be very soon.

Sautéed Mushrooms and Kale in Red Wine and Butter

Ingredients
24 small mushrooms (whichever variety you prefer), sliced.
1 bunch of kale, washed and dried
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup of red wine or sherry
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Put olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. When butter is completely melted (but not brown), add garlic. Sautee for about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and sauté for about five minutes, or until they are all heated through. Add half a cup of red wine, and lower heat. Simmer for another five minutes. Add kale and blend into the mushrooms with a spatula until wilted, about one minute. Serve immediately.

Note: The remaining sauce in the pan is wonderful over roast chicken.

Serves 4-8 people