Bacon and Cheese Biscuits

I’ve always adored biscuits but this was my first time making them and I have a feeling it’s going to turn into a regular practice. I hate the word 'biscuit', though. It's unpleasant to me and I feel it somehow trivializes the delight it's meant to represent.

These biscuits are great with a bit of honey butter, or alongside your favorite Sunday Soup ; )

For this, I used Keroun’s delicious 2% yogurt.

I used two different flours but using all all-purpose would also be okay.

(Yield: 12-14)

Ingredients:

1 c whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking soda

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

3 oz cold unsalted butter

1 c low-fat yogurt

3 strips cooked, crispy bacon, crumbled

3 oz Muenster cheese, cut into 1/4” cubes

2 tbsp heavy cream

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Grate in butter and cut in with hands, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add yogurt, bacon and cheese, mix with hands. Do not overwork. Dough should be slightly sticky. Turn onto floured surface and shape into 1”-thick disc. Cut out rounds, using a 2” biscuit cutter. Place on non-stick baking sheet, 1” apart. Refrigerate for 30 min.

Preheat oven to 425F. Brush biscuits with cream and bake for 10-12 min, until golden brown.

Sunday Soup: Creamy Roasted Tomato and Garlic

This recipe features another Karoun product - Labne (kefir) cheese. Labne is made by draining whey from low fat yogurt. It is slightly thinner than cream cheese in texture and tangy in taste - like buttermilk. It is works well as a replacement for heavy cream in this recipe but is also good on its own, alongside fruit or as a dip for pita chips.

It's a really delicious product. My family gobbled up the two containers I was sent in no time : )

(Yield: 4 servings)
Ingredients:
5 plum tomatoes, halved, cored and seeded
4 large garlic cloves
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 yellow onion, diced
1 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 bay leaf
3 c chicken broth
1 generous handful fresh basil
2 tbsp Karoun labne cheese
Olive oil, salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 375F.

Place tomatoes and garlic on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Coat evenly. Separate tomatoes to one side and drizzle with vinegar. Roast 20-25 min. Set aside.Heat one tbsp olive oil in a medium soup pot on low heat. Add onion and saute until transluscent, about 5 min. Add tomatoes, garlic, paste, sugar, bay leaf, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Stir. Add broth, turn heat up, cover with lid and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to simmer and crack lid. Simmer 20 min, stirring occasionally. Turn heat off and remove bay leaf. Add torn basil leaves and cheese. Puree with immersion blender. Adjust seasonings if necessary.(The lighting was awful. The soup is much redder than it looks here.)

Buena Notte

From September 16^th to the 26^th, the Feast of San Gennaro is held in Little Italy. My friends and I stumbled upon it accidentally on Thursday night. During this festival, Mulberry Street turns into a fair of carnival games, live music, and screaming Italian men offering passersby cannoli, sausages, and drinks in tall, goofy plastic cups.

We were trying to decide where to go for dinner when a cute, old Italian man from Buena Notte approached us with menus, with promises of garden seating in the back, and we couldn’t resist.

Ample garden seating:

Delicious (but overpriced) red and white sangria:

My Gnocchi Alla Napoletana – texture was kind of tough and I was expecting more mozzarella, but the sauce was very good. (When the waiter served this to me, he said, “Gnocchi go straight to your butt!” Whereupon I told him that it’s not a bad place to go:

Michelle’s Fettuccine Alfredo – al dente pasta in a very buttery sauce:

Sasha satisfied with her dinner:

Buena Notte

120 Mulberry Street

New York, NY 10013