Sunday, January 27, 2008

Black bean soup and drop biscuits

As promised, I made lbmartinez's Black Bean Soup that was posted early this month. I really liked it. It was a hearty soup with quite a kick. I actually doubled the recipe, except for the chipotles and did not add the crushed red pepper. The heat level was medium to hot, which was good for me and James, but Mark kept having to add sour cream. Sigh. I guess when we have the leftovers I will be adding a can of tomatoes to cool it down.

I served it with a recent discovery from Cooks Illistrated, Best Drop Biscuits. They come together quickly and are great along side soups and stews, very handy if we happen to have a soups and stews challenge in the near future (hint, hint) so I thought I would share.

Best Drop Biscuits
11/2007

If buttermilk isn't available, powdered buttermilk added according to package instructions or clabbered milk can be used instead. To make clabbered milk, mix 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and let stand 10 minutes. A 1/4-cup (#16) portion scoop can be used to portion the batter. To refresh day-old biscuits, heat them in a 300-degree oven for 10 minutes.

Makes 12 Biscuits
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup buttermilk (cold)
8 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled slightly (about 5 minutes), plus 2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing biscuits


1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in large bowl. Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons melted butter in medium bowl, stirring until butter forms small clumps (see photo below).

2. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of bowl. Using greased 1/4-cup dry measure, scoop level amount of batter and drop onto parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet (biscuits should measure about 2 1/4 inches in diameter and 1 1/4 inches high). Repeat with remaining batter, spacing biscuits about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, 12 to 14 minutes.

3. Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.

3 comments:

Robin said...

You guys are teasing me with these black bean and chipotle recipes! I mean forget ever finding such specialties like these around here! On the bright side, I just may not have to wait forever to try these ... we'll be giving our 3 mo. apt move out notice this week! Woohoo!

wirrek said...

Really?!?!? No black beans?!?! That's terrible. The chipotles I at least can understand.

lbmartinez said...

A tip if it's too spicy for Mark (wimp!): Try some mild chipotle flavored salsa instead of the chipotle peppers. You'll still get the smoky flavor without all the heat. Sometimes I add both just to bump up the smokiness.