Soup and Scones!

Man, I keep falling behind.  I still want to make the Indian dish, but I have no idea when.

I did, however, make up the Chicken Tortilla Soup and the Bacon Cheddar Scones.

First, the soup.  Things started off with a nice mirepoix (although I guess in this case we should call it a sofrito, eh?)

And ended up with a really delicious soup!

Like ringy we couldn't find any mexicorn, so I just used a can of corn.  And, what I thought was a can of green chilli's was actually salsa verde, so most of that went in instead.

We chose to garnish the soup with some sour cream, fresh grated cheese, avocado (because they are my favourite) and the leftover salsa verde.

When I asked Derek what he though his answer was "It's soupy".  Um, yeah.   Despite that comment we both really enjoyed the soup.  The avocado got a bit lost with all of the other flavours, and Derek needed the sour cream to tone the heat down to a level he was happy with, but I'll definitely be making this again.

Now, on to the bacon.

This was my first experience making scones, and while I wasn't sure if my dough was right, they were amazing.  I followed the directions exactly and ended up with this pan of delicious for Sunday breakfast.

Because we are gluttons, we had these, topped with some MORE butter and coffee for breakfast.  There was 1 left.

I will 100% make these again (but maybe cook up the bacon the day/night before) and am quite interested in experimenting with different scones in the future!

Now, who's got recipes that use up butter milk?

Dinner scones

I couldn't find the time to make the scones for breakfast this week but hey - who's to say you can't have them for dinner?

Sometimes, just for the hell of it, I like prepping all my ingredients and putting them into little bowls like they do on TV. It makes me feel like a real chef.

Hey! Stop snacking on my ingredients!

I used pancetta instead of bacon again, and soured milk (milk + 1 tbsp vinegar) instead of buttermilk. Otherwise I followed the recipe. No wait, I also forgot the egg wash. Oops.

I think I messed up the pastry making. The pastry blender I have isn't the best (it's a weird flat-bottomed shape), and I was running out of time as we had to head out, so butter-flour mix wasn't quite the right texture. Also, I think that making the mix in a metal bowl may have melted the butter a bit (because of my warm hands holding the bowl). It was still tasty but the taste and texture of the dough wasn't as rich and melt-in-your mouth as I hoped. It was doughy :(

The pan was ungreased as the recipe said but they stuck a little bit. I used parchment paper on the second batch - much better.

Anyway, we had it with a beautiful big salad. It needed it - it was indeed very filling. I'll try it again someday and hope that it turns out even better!

Sherlock is not so interested in the salad

Bacon Cheddar Scones

How about a breakfast recipe? This week's recipe is from Annie's Eats, adapted from The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather. I've been meaning to try it since someone posted it on another board a few weeks ago.

Ingredients

For the scones:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1-2 tsp. ground black pepper (depending on your preference)
8 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1½ cups grated cheddar cheese
4 green onions, thinly slices
10 slices bacon, cooked and chopped or crumbled into small pieces
1 cup buttermilk (plus up to ½ cup extra, if needed)

For the egg wash:
1 large egg
2 tbsp. water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400˚ F.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and black pepper; mix briefly to combine.  Add the cubes of butter and mix on low speed until the mixture is crumbly and the butter pieces are about the size of small peas.  (Alternatively, this can be done in a regular mixing bowl, using a pastry blender or two knives to cut the butter into the dry ingredients.)  Add in the grated cheese and mix just until incorporated.

Mix in the green onions, bacon, and 1 cup of the buttermilk into the flour-butter mixture.  Stir by hand just until all the ingredients are incorporated.  If the dough is too dry to come together, mix in the remaining buttermilk a tablespoon or two at a time until the dough can be formed into a ball.  Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and pat the dough into an 8-inch disk.  Slice the dough into 8 to 10 wedges.

In a small bowl combine the egg and water and whisk together.  Brush each wedge lightly with the egg wash.  Transfer the scones to an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.