The title may be misleading. I don’t have any general tips for using up leftovers, although I’d love to hear yours in the comments. Today I just have an example of what I pulled off last week, along with a recipe for homemade biscuits made with sprouted whole wheat flour. (Note: in the pic above they hadn’t been baked yet, but I liked the shot…)
It started with a pork loin in the crock pot. We had that for dinner one night. A couple days later I see some leftover pork in the fridge, and since we spend so much on healthy meat, I surely never let it go to waste. So I threw that into a pot full of chicken and beef stock that I’d had in the freezer, seasoned it (a crucial part), added veggies, and we had soup that night.
I made too much, as usual, so I decided to make “Pork Ala King” for dinner. This can be “Chicken Ala King”, “Beef Ala King”, or “Ala-whatever you want”. I thickened my soup (with a flour/cold water paste), and served it over homemade biscuits.
Three meals from one night’s meat – not bad!
HOMEMADE BISCUIT RECIPE
These biscuits don’t follow Sally Fallon’s recipe in Nourishing Traditions (I didn’t think they were as good as these), but they are “cheater biscuits” as she calls hers, because there is some white flour. I’ve tried all whole wheat and they didn’t turn out well at all. So I compromise and use part Bob’s Red Mill organic unbleached white flour, and part sprouted whole wheat pastry flour. (“Pastry flour” means it was ground from soft wheat berries, as opposed to hard wheat berries, which you generally only use in yeast breads.) Have you seen the post about why sprouted grains are so nutritious?
I’m going to double this from now on because when you make them thicker it only makes about a dozen.
- 1 c. sprouted flour (see note below if you don’t have sprouted flour)
- 2 c. Bob’s Red Mill organic white unbleached flour
- 1 1/2 T. baking powder (without aluminum)
- 1 T. sugar
- 3/4 t. cream of tartar
- 3/4 t. sea salt
- 3/4 c. shortening (I use Spectrum Naturals Organic Palm Oil Shortening) (***Next time I’m going to try cutting this to 1/2 c. shortening and adding in 1/4-1/2 c. pea-sized hunks of cold, maybe even frozen, butter. I want to see if this will add a nice buttery flavor as it melts while baking.)
- 1 c. milk
I used my Bosch to stir together the first 7 ingredients, then add the milk. Stir just until dough clings together. If it feels too dry, add more milk. Then let it mix up another minute or so. Now you can either roll them out onto a floured counter and cut them into circles, or if you want the easy way, like I do, then grab some, roll a ball in your hand, and flatten onto a buttered cookie sheet (not Teflon). Don’t make them too thin or they’ll get hard when they bake. I make a ball a little smaller than a tennis ball and then flatten only a little, this way they come out thick and fluffy!
Bake at 375* for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
My Better Homes & Garden’s cookbook also has some variations:
–For buttermilk biscuits (I think I’ll try this next time) add 1/2 t. baking soda and substitute 1 1/4 c. buttermilk for the milk.
–For cornmeal biscuits replace 3/4 c. cornmeal flour for some of the other flour.
–For garden biscuits add in 2 T. finely chopped carrot, 1 T. finely chopped parsley, and 1 t. finely chopped green onion to the mixture.
–For sour cream biscuits replace 1 1/2 c. sour cream (I use Daisy brand) and only 3 T. milk.
If anyone has tried these variations, let us know how they come out. I’ve always heard of “buttermilk biscuits”, but don’t know how they are different than the regular ones. Are they fluffier?
UPDATE 5/09:
I just made these using part sprouted spelt and with the buttermilk variation – they were better – more light and flaky! ***Also, be sure to read the comments for some GREAT tips!
Note – if you don’t have sprouted flour: Start making these at least 7 hours ahead (up to 12 hours is even better) so they have time to soak, and instead of sprouted flour, use regular pastry flour (from soft wheat, not hard wheat), and instead of milk, use yogurt, whey, or buttermilk. Mix just those two ingredients together and let set at least 7 hours (or as long as you’ve got, anything is better than nothing). Later add the other ingredients and finish the recipe. Now you’ll have at least some of the phytic acid in the whole grain broken down and more nutrients available for your body to use.
Please share examples of how you got creative with leftovers, or let us know of any “general” tips you know of for using up what you’ve got, too!
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
First a little comment. If you still have the dreaded aluminum jelly roll pans like me (although I have one stone pan from Pampered Chef), you can use unbleached parchment paper!!
Now a question: Kelly, can one actually purchase sprouted whole wheat flour, or do we need to sprout our berries and then grind it ourselves (I don’t have a grinder). Usually, I just soak my regular flour for recipes the night before but it would be great to buy already sprouted flour….
Thanks!
Sue E.
Sue — You CAN buy sprouted flour, though you’re more likely to find it online than at a local store.
Kelly — I’ve had luck with 100% whole wheat flour when I soak it overnight in buttermilk. It makes the texture really light, like white flour was added. Definitely worth a try!
Sue: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/resources#flours
Kristen, I will try it, thanks!
Kelly – can I confess to you that I make “seriously cheater” biscuits? Biscuits are one of our rare “white flour splurges”, but my husband and children all start getting VERY excited when there are biscuits on the table for dinner!
I’d love to share the recipe, but keep in mind – that if you make up these biscuits, you can probably eat a whole basket by yourself! (I can turn down quick breads, sugary treats, etc – but one of these biscuits fresh out of the oven slathered with a THICK spread of REAL BUTTER…. mmmmmmmmm…… hold me back! ha!
)
Shauna’s Cream Biscuits
2 c unbleached white flour
1 t sea salt
1 T baking powder
1 stick real butter
1 c raw milk (or cream)
Mix flour, salt, baking powder in a mixing bowl. Cut in butter (I do it by hand with a pastry cutter – I like the texture better than in the Bosch.) until the mixture resembles even crumbs. Pour in milk (or cream) and stir with a fork. Gather the dough into the middle of the bowl, and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead LIGHTLY 10 times. (When I say lightly – I mean with very little pressure…. the KEY to flakey,light biscuits is to handle the dough at a minimum – another reason why I like to do it by hand.). Gently press out to about half an inch thick. Cut biscuits. You can gather the remaining dough, knead 1x, then press and cut – but remember that with each subsequent pressing, you’re handling the dough more – so try to be gentle.
Bake at 450 for 10 minutes (I usually check at 10 minutes, but let them go another 2…. you want them lightly browned on top.)
These biscuits are mile-high, super flakey, and MOIST. Slather on butter, homemade apple butter, raw honey, etc. I also make biscuits and homeade sausage gravy once a month for a Saturday morning “treat breakfast”.
(Oh – I hope it’s okay to post a contraband recipe…… it’s one of my compromises, atleast it’s got real butter and cream!)
Kelly – I loved your leftover ideas! These are great examples to help me think “outside the box” to turn leftovers into completely new meals!
Shauna
Shauna
Using leftover veggies: keep a bag in the freezer for random steamed veggies leftover at dinner. Use it to throw in soups or make an entire cream of vegetable soup. I just posted on this and using bread heels last week at Kitchen Stewardship, in fact.
Katie
Shauna, here’s my thought process…
“Well if Shauna makes seriously cheater biscuits, then I can make them, too, and my family will fall over with joy!”
Katie, I’ll have to go check out that tip on using bread heels!
Kelly – you’re a hoot!
Enjoy!!!
Shauna
Shauna
I’ve been messing around with my Mom’s biscuit recipe all winter, trying different fats, amounts and kinds of whole wheat flour, and soaked options. Tonight I did a little side-by-side experiment. Here’s what I learned:
*Soaking is tricky for biscuits, because the KEY to light pastry is not handling the dough too much. If you can mix in the milk with 12 stirs of the fork, don’t do 13! In order to soak the flour with the fat cut in overnight and THEN add the salt and leavening agent, since they would inhibit the process of breaking down the enzyme inhibitors – ha! – you have to overknead the dough to make sure the leavening is distributed evenly. The soaked biscuits weren’t bad, but they are far from fluffy.
*Regular whole wheat flour can be done about 1/2 and 1/2 with acceptable results, but the biscuits are much denser.
*Whole wheat pastry flour is my new best biscuit friend. I’ve had great results with 100% whole wheat pastry flour — truly as good as white flour. They’re the best biscuits we’ve had in our house in years, since I’ve been doing 1/2 and 1/2 with whole wheat for a while now.
Kelly, if you mixed the milk or liquid in for 1 whole minute in your Bosch, you probably overdid it and that’s why your biscuits look a bit dense. You really have to use kid gloves with any pastry dough (biscuits, pie crusts).
I’m going to post photos of my soaked/unsoaked experiment at kitchenstewardship.wordpress.com/recipes/homemade-biscuits.
Katie
Katie, that makes so much sense, I’ll bet you’re exactly right, I’ll remember your advice next time, thank you!
OH, and those weren’t my biscuits, I found that pic online. Mine did look similar, though.
Kelly, Thanks for the biscuit recipe. I’ve yet to find a two-thumbs-up version for us. Can’t wait to give this one a try. I was also wondering about palm shortening. In what recipes would you use it? I didn’t bake much with Crisco, but when they call for shortening is that when you would substitute palm shortening? I have an all butter pie pastry recipe I use but it can be tricky to get right…do you think using palm shortening would make it easier to work with, have flaky texture and be just as good for you?
Shauna, If I may ask…what is your sausage gravy recipe? I would love to try it.
Thanks, Kaye
Hi Kaye,
I doubt you’ll hear back from Shauna, I think she’s taking a summer computer break. You could try googling for a good recipe.
Yes, I usually replace recipes like pie crusts that call for Crisco with the palm shortening and have had good luck. Where I get into trouble is when I try using too much of a whole grain ratio in those types of recipes.
Kelly
Biscuit advise found on the Food Network’s Barefoot Contessa: Ingredients should be COLD. She doesn’t go as far as some people and chill the dry ingredients. She just makes sure that the butter and buttermilk are cold. She was using a KitchenAid stand mixer and as soon as the wet was incorporated into the dry, she stopped mixing, asap. Light, flaky biscuits were the results.
Hope this is helpful.
Hi Mary,
VERY helpful info, thanks so much!
Kelly
Just posted a new pic in the post of these biscuits which I made today.
I also just use unbleached white flour and butter for biscuits. We don’t have them all that often – mostly with Chicken and Noodles. (my family doesn’t like biscuits and gravy. (I know!) or we’d probably have them more often)
My favorite way to use leftover roast beef is to shred it into homemade gravy and serve it over individual yorkshire puddings
I use Whey instead of milk and my biscuts turn out really light and flakey
Kelly, just happened to see this post while watching your hubby cook the turkey. I will have my hubby watch this so he too can do this! But what I wanted to note is that, with our size family (7 or 8 depending if DD is home from college) and my DH working from home 3 days per week, we very rarely, if ever, have leftovers for another dinner. We buy our own beef and pork so we are frugal with our meat. For 8 people, a 3lb roast just doesn’t go that far. I might have lots of broth left over (if I do a crock pot meal) but I have to start over with more meat the next time.
You, along with some others who are promoting real food and frugal living, have great recipes and ideas, but it’s frustrating to see many of these are aimed at smaller families. In 2002 I had my 5th child (first boy–and ok, he didn’t eat food then!) but the rest of my children, girls age 6 thru 17 at the time) ate mostly normal portions, and real food at that. OK, back then we were doing boxed mac & cheese and other processed foods, but mostly home cooking nonetheless. Then in 2009 we added two more young boys through adoption. So we have 4 ‘men’ including DH along with 2 older teen girls, plus myself, for 3 meals plus snacks all day long because we homeschool. It’s very difficult to provide enough calories and variety while cooking from scratch for almost every meal. It’s exhausting. And you may say that I can do bulk cooking on Saturdays or Sundays. But those same people need to eat on those days too, then Sunday is breakfast, then church, then home to eat lunch, then cleanup, then dinner again. Then they need a snack in between lunch and dinner, or dessert if we eat early enough. Those men just can’t skip meals the way we girls can. I can eat lunch and be done till late dinner. My girls usually eat brunch with me then dinner. The boys are not allowed to take food out of the fridge, because most things are needed for recipes, etc. except fresh fruit which we buy several times a week. We don’t bake that often, but if we do make banana bread or something like that, it’s gone after a few hours!
I’d love to get some ideas from you on bulk meals and healthy snacks that are more filling than PB and celery, etc. Another problem is that since making our own bread with our own wheat, the boys aren’t as crazy about bread. They like cooked meals better. And they’re not crazy about beans either, which would be a good budget stretcher. I’d force it but suddenly one of my dd’s is off beans too. I’ve figured that it’s something with their body metabolism that’s telling them not to eat them. I’ve been told to eat a paleo-type diet, which is better for O blood types, so I’m letting it ride. I myself am not eating starches, grains, or dairy right now, but I’ll eat just about any vegetable available. Was making my own tortillas using your posted recipe, but it takes sooooo long to make a couple dozen, but then again, 24 tortillas is only 3 per person, so afer one dinner and maybe one lunch, they’re gone!
I’d really love to get your feedback on this issue.
Thanks!
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