Chopbiscuit at home recipes {cookin' with Mark}: Cornbread and Southern Style Dressing

Thanksgiving with the family

I love everything about Thanksgiving - especially sweatpants. It has all of my favorite "F" words associated with it. Family, Food & Football. Family time is by far my favorite. (I'm home for two weeks straight first time this year) Usually the McDonough's trek over to Uncle John & Aunt Dianna's house in Sturbridge, MA for the "Triple F Holiday",  but this year we are going to party up at home. Our son Paden and his new puppy are coming home along with several of his friends for a traditional Thanksgiving Feast.

Below is my favorite recipe for cornbread and dressing. Now there are tons of recipes that take on the battle of Dressing versus Stuffing - but really who cares what you call it or where you stuff it. Just make what you love and call it what you want or start your own tradition. My recipe is called dressing because my Grandmother called it dressing and she used cornbread and sausage. In my mind there are only a few rules in cooking, which is probably why I became a chef.

My cooking philosophy:

K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) By simple I mean no processed foods, very high quality ingredients and keep it local - but quality always trumps local. Use as few ingredients as possible for a simple clean flavor. Don't muck it up by making it into something it's not suppose to be. This only creates uncertainty and confusion.

*Start with making the cornbread recipe below

Cornbread

A.P. flour (sifted, twice) - 1 1/3 Cups
Sugar - 1/4 Cup
Baking Powder - 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Butter (unsalted & melted) - 1 Cup (2 sticks) room temperature
Buttermilk (DO NOT SUB MILK)- 2.5 Cups room temperature
Eggs (lightly beaten) - 2 large eggs room temperature
Yellow Cornmeal - 2 Cups
Lard (YES, PIG FAT) - 1 Tablespoon (Don't use anything other than lard, bacon fat or duck fat period)

Place your cast iron pan (Don't have one? Stop now and go buy one) in a preheated 375F oven for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix together the dry ingredients and set aside. Mix together the wet and join the two and mix until all ingredients are incorporated.

Remove the pan from the oven and place the lard in the pan making sure you coat every inch of the inside so the cornbread doesn't stick (You want all of the brown chewy edges, that's the best part) Pour your cornbread mixture into your cast iron and place back into the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes and check using the ole' clean toothpick trick. Once it's clean, remove from the oven and immediately remove from the pan by placing a plate over the top and and flipping out on the plate.

Southern Style Cornbread and Sausage Dressing

Oscar's Smokehouse Country Sausage - 1 pound (Use your favorite sausage but remember quality over local)
Red pepper flakes - 1/2 Teaspoon

One large yellow onion chopped (not too small) 
Three large celery stalks finely chopped
Cornbread cut into 3/4 inch cubes - 2 lbs or 12 cups
Fresh sage finely chopped 3tbsp
Three large eggs, lightly beaten 
Organic chicken stock (nothing else will do) 1-2 cups
Lard - 1tbsp

The stock varies here because if you like it a little drier, go with the 1 cup. I use about 1.5-1.75 cups and bake a little longer because I really like the crusty stuff.

Start with frying your sausage on med-high heat and as soon as the sausage begins to brown remove 1-2 tablespoons of grease and  set aside. Add red pepper flakes and onions and let cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir a little and then add your celery and lower heat and cover. You are looking to cook and steam so leave the lid on for several minutes before lifting and stirring. DO NOT let it burn.  Cook until onions and celery are translucent not brown. Remove from heat and stir in the cornbread. Mix well then add your lightly beaten eggs and your stock. Make sure your dressing is mixed really well

Here is where I use my cast iron or Le Creuset pan. You want the thickest pan you have, so the heat distributes more evenly to give your dressing a nice crust. Pre-Heat your pan in a 375 oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and spread the lard evenly in the pan and place the dressing in the pan and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove and consume.

Be Well, Eat Well and Live Well

Chopbiscuit recipes at home: Your chicken is so fiery

An incandescent style heat

Even though I'm the one with the daytime food job, my wife Katie is the at home Super taster (Well, she has never taken the formal test, but I'm pretty sure she has the superhuman taste buds that would put her in that elite group) One of Katie's favorite simple recipes is a Fiery Baked Chicken recipe. She got the recipe from Kate Merker, and I put a lil' spin on it the other night.

What's in it:

1 tablespoon chili-garlic sauce
3 tablespoons of pureed fresh pineapple
4 6-ounce boneless, skinless free range - antibiotic free chicken breasts
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon of sea salt
3 tablespoons of canola oil
1 teaspoon of Peri Peri seasoning

Preparation

Heat your oven to 450 F. In a large bowl, combine the chili-garlic sauce and the pineapple juice. Add the chicken and toss and coat. In a separate bowl, combine the bread crumbs, 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt and the oil. Working one piece at a time, coat the chicken in the bread crumb mixture and transfer to baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining breasts. Lightly coat each of the breasts with a pinch of Peri Peri seasoning. Baked until cooked through, 12-15 minutes.

fried Parmesan on a chicken Caesar is deelish!

We ate the chicken with a chicken Caesar with white whole grain croutons (from your local Panera Bread) and Katie slightly fried the Parmesan cheese to give it a slight crunchiness. It was a great simple 20 minute dinner.

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner! I believe this guy below will tell you how easy this recipe is.....

Chopbiscuit at home: Coffee Review - Counter Culture Coffee {Burundi}

Give the pour over method a try. Now!

Every morning when I'm not on the road, prior to performing 100 one-handed push ups (Jack Palance) style, I make my cup of morning Joe. Generally, I have a new blend from one of the many favorite joints and roasters I've seen throughout my years on the road. Lately, I've been ordering most of my coffee (mail order) from Counter Culture. For me, it doesn't get any better than this. These guys and gals eat, sleep and breathe coffee and all the nuances around it.

According to their website:

Since our founding in 1995, Counter Culture Coffee has represented a new way of bringing coffee to market: sourcing the greatest handcrafted coffees in the world directly from the farmers themselves, celebrating the farms and cultures that create those coffees, and roasting skillfully to bring out their delicious, unique flavors. We celebrate these great coffees as the fresh, seasonal fruits they are, and we only sell coffee at the peak of flavor and freshness. Thus, our selection of coffees will grow and change as we find other spectacular coffees to share. Our seasonal selection of single-origin coffees, microlots, and handcrafted blends are, to us, the quintessential coffee experiences and the best expressions of coffee’s diverse traditions and origins.

These folks are just passionate, brilliant coffee people that care about the bean, farmers and process. It truly doesn't get any better than this. One of my favorite coffees right now is Burundi. For those of you coffee beginners, Burundi is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. It has an estimated population of almost 8,700,000 and it's capital is Bujumbura. Although the country is landlocked, much of the southwestern border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika.

Burundi coffee is known for it's bright and clean finish with some citrus notes and slight floral after tones. Counter Culture describes Burundi as a crisp white wine - sweet, clean and light.

A fine, fine coffee

So, if you have the opportunity, hop on over to Counterculture.com and give this coffee a try. You won't be disappointed. If you are, well, you just crazy mon. (Irish-Jamaican accent)