Seasonal Ontario Food

Trend of the year? It's websites with moving pictures. Thanks for the queasy, everybody! Just because something can be done, doesn't mean it should be done, ugh. Other trend of the year (trend of last year too, really): things are selling out F A S T. Don't delay! Order today!

Actual trend of the year - maybe it's where I'm looking, but people like me doing small scale breeding are starting to be less shy about releasing "unfinished" material with a lot of genetic diversity in it, to allow others to do their own selecting. 

 

I wait until the end of January to post this, and it was very frustrating - the places who got set up early were selling out even as I was waiting for the stragglers to come in (and the stragglers have not all come in even now). If you are looking for something specific and having a hard time finding it, as usual you should turn to Seeds of Diversity and check out their list of seeds available in Canada and which companies carry them.

 

We had a very small crop of late-planted turnips this fall. We planted quite a lot of seed at the beginning of August, and it all came up very nicely, and I was excited. After about a week or so, though, I noticed the greenery was not advancing, but retreating. It soon became clear that they were being eaten by bugs faster than they could grow. Only a handful survived and thrived enough to produce a usable root. We are going to have to find some way to deal with this next year; it seems the longer we garden the worse the bug situation gets. 

 

I was also surprised to see that about half of the survivors, or even a bit more, were white turnips even though we had saved seeds from Goldana. Recessive genes? Cross contamination in the previous generation? No idea. 

 

I saw the trick for cutting the turnips on Pinterest somewhere, but I can I find it now? I cannot. But cutting your turnips while they are held in the cup of a wooden spoons keeps them in a nice shape as they cook. I'll be doing it again. 

 

4 servings

1 hour 10 minutes - 10 minutes prep time

 

6 to 8 medium-small (450 grams; 1 pound) turnips

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 teaspoon rubbed thyme

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 cup chicken OR vegetable broth

 

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Peel and trim the turnips. Cut them into wedges, leaving them attached at the bottom. (A wooden spoon to hold them will make this easy.) Slice the butter into bits and strew it around a baking dish that will hold the turnips fairly snugly. Put them in, cut sides up. 

Measure the salt, pepper, thyme, honey, and mustard into a small bowl, and mix well. Slowly mix in the broth until everything is dissolved. Pour this evenly over the turnips. 

Bake the turnips at 350°F for 20 minutes. Turn the turnips over carefully (cut sides now down) and bake for a further 20 minutes. Turn the turnips back to cut sides up again, and bake for a final 20 minutes. Serve at once. 

Last year at this time I made Perfect Fluffy Scrambled Eggs.

After I made the Cheeseburgers Wellington I still had some frozen pastry, as well as some leeks and celeriac to use up. This classic pie seemed an excellent choice to put them all to work. Given how much we all liked it I have to say it's a classic pie for a reason. 

I like a proper meat pie with a proper undercrust, but if you wanted to put only the one crust on top, there is no reason you couldn't do that. Maybe start checking it about 10 minutes earlier in that case.

 

6 servings

2 hours - 45 minutes prep time NOT including thawing pastry

 

450 grams (1 pound) frozen puff pastry (for top and bottom crust)

450 grams skinless, boneless chicken

3 medium leeks

1 medium carrot

1 cup peeled, grated celeriac OR 1 celery stalk

125 grams (1/4 pound) button mushrooms

1 or 2 cloves of garlic

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning

salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/3 cup 10% cream

 

Thaw the pastry according to directions. (Usually overnight in the fridge, or 2 hours on the counter.) 

 

Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Wash, trim, and slice the leeks. Peel and grate the carrot and celeriac. Clean, trim, and chop the mushrooms. Peel and finely chop the garlic. 

 

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 10" pie pan. Line it with one of the pieces of pastry. (Or not; see introduction.)

Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the leeks, carrot, and celeriac for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the mushrooms and continue cooking and stirring for another 5 minutes. Add the garlic during the last minute of cooking, along with the poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Transfer to a bowl. 

Add the remaining butter to the pan, and cook the chicken in it until just seared. Sprinkle the flour over it and cook until no white remains. Slowly mix in the stock until you have a thick sauce. Stir in the cream and remove from the heat.

Layer half of the cooked vegetables in the prepared pastry. Layer the chicken over them, then top with the remaining vegetables. Cover with the remaining pastry, trimming off any excess. You can use the trimmings to decorate the pie. Poke it with a fork in a few places. 

Bake at 350°F for about 1 hour, until nicely browned. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

 

 

 

 

 

Last year at this time I made Cream of Belgian Endive Soup.

 

These are probably at least as popular in Greece, if not rather more so, than the usual Greek Lemon Roasted Potatoes found in Canadian Greek restaurants. For the home cook, they are a lot faster and don't require the oven to be on either. I did not peel mine, but I did scrub them extremely thoroughly and they lost a certain amount of skin that way.

 

4 to 6 servings

45 minutes - 20 minutes prep time

 

1/2 teaspoon salt? 

2 or 3 cloves of garlic

 

Measure these out into a small bowl. Peel and mince the garlic, and add it. Set aside until needed. 

 

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup vegetable stock

1 cup crushed tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato paste

OR 1/4 cup tomato sauce

900 grams (2 pounds) potatoes

 

Be sure your potatoes are well scrubbed before you start; if you are inclined to peel them, I would do that too. 

 

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium heat. When it is hot, add the bowl of seasoning and mix in well. When the garlic is sizzling, add the stock, crushed tomatoes, and tomato paste or sauce. Mix well. Cover and bring it up to a boil while you trim and quarter the potatoes. 

Add the prepared potatoes to the boiling broth and cover. Keep them at a slow boil or hard simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, until they are tender. Remove the cover and let them rest about 10 minutes, until warm rather than hot. Serve warm. 

 

 

 

 

Last year at this time I made Russian Style Apple Batter Pudding. 

I've been declaring for years now, that when Donald Trump was removed from the US presidency, I would celebrate with chocolate cake. Since I can't go around chocolate caking in the way I would like, I killed 2 birds with one stone and made this back at the end of November for Mr. Ferdzy's birthday as well. 

 

The only new thing here is the roasted strawberry cream. I used frozen berries, and they worked out reasonably well. Most recipes for roasted strawberries call for somewhere between a little and a lot of sugar as well, and if I did it again I might sprinkle 2 tablespoons over them before roasting and then only put 2 tablespoons in the cream. But really, it was fine. 

 

Mr. Ferdzy's birthday request was for a "real" cake, ie not one of the things I've been making for my diabetic diet. I mostly complied. The chocolate pudding frosting was unchanged, other than the fact that half a recipe was exactly right for this amount of cake. I did cut the sugar in half in the cake itself, and from the point of view of flavour, that was fine. I think it not being there did make the texture a bit stodgy. But we preferred to think of it as dense and moist, and it was a long-awaited pleasure to eat it. In every sense. 

 

Here's to sanity! The events of the last few weeks make it clear that we are hanging on to it by our fingernails, but it seems to be prevailing. We should not be complacent here - the Canadian Conservative party is badly infested with the same kind of people who have been supporting Trump and it behooves us to be aware of that. 

But in the mean time, we are in a hopeful moment. Let's raise a fork to that!

 

6 to 8 servings

1 hour - to make cake & roast strawberries

20 minutes - to make frosting 

20 minutes - to finish cream and assemble cake

4 cups strawberries, fresh OR thawed from frozen

If fresh (greenhouse, at this time of year), wash and hull the strawberries, and cut them in half if large. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and spread them over it in a single layer. If thawed, drain off and discard the liquid. Spread them out on the lined baking sheet in the same way. Roast for 40 to 50 minutes, until greatly reduced in volume, with a thick, jammy texture. Transfer them to a bowl to cool. 

 

 

Put the cream into a mixing bowl and sprinkle first the gelatine and then the sugar over it. Let it rest for about 10 minutes, then beat until stiff. Beat or fold in the cooled roasted strawberries. 

 

Place one quarter of the cake centred on a serving plate, and spread 1/3 of the strawberry cream evenly over it. Top with the next quarter of cake and 1/3 of the cream. Finally, put on the next quarter of the cake, spread on the remaining cream, and top with the last piece of cake. Spread the chocolate frosting evenly over the top and sides of the cake. Keep the cake cool until you are ready to serve it - it will slice better if slightly chilled. 

Last year at this time I made Potato Buckwheat Gnocchi.

I love oxtail, but man, does it take a long time to cook. A loooong time. I experimented here, and partially cooked it in the Instant Pot before finishing it with the beans, etc, in a pot. I think this tends to produce better results than the Instant Pot alone. 

 

I had a lot of dried tomatoes and peppers to use up. If you don't - and I imagine you probably don't, whoever you are - then replace them with some crushed tomatoes and maybe a red bell pepper, diced. Or a good big glop of ajvar, if you can get that. This is a very flexible recipe, and you are likely to spend some time adjusting the liquid levels anyway.

 

4 servings

5 hours - 1 hour prep time

 

1 kg (2 pounds) oxtail, jointed

2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil 

salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup dry white beans 

3 to 5 cloves of garlic

1 or 2 bay leaves4 cups water

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet or soup pot, and brown them well on two sides. Season with salt and pepper. If you are using an Instant Pot, put them in it now along with a cup of beef broth or water and the vinegar, seal, and cook for 40 minutes. Allow them to release naturally. 

Meanwhile, soak the beans in boiling water. Both of these steps can be done up to a day in advance. 

When ready to proceed, peel and finely chop the garlic. Peel and chop the carrots. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed soup pot, and sweat the carrots in it for 10 minutes (cook over medium-low heat with the lid on; stir occasionally). Add the garlic and mix in well. Add the oxtail with its cooking liquid, the drained beans, the dried tomatoes and peppers, and the water. Simmer for an hour to an hour and a half over medium-low heat, until the beans are cooked and the oxtails are very tender. Watch the water level and add a little if needed. Stir occasionally to avoid sticking.

If you are cooking it on the stove or in a slow-cooker, the browned oxtail pieces go in in the same way, but they will then need to be simmered for up to 4 hours before they become tender. Don't add the beans at that time; hold them off until there is an hour to an hour and half left for the oxtails to cook.

 

 

 

 

Last year at this time I made Beet & Cucumber Salad with Horseradish-Caraway Dressing. 

These were nice! Although I have to admit that people who eat chicken with their sweet potatoes might as well put the jerk spice on the chicken, and have the sweet potatoes plain. But for vegetarians, this would work well, or I can see eating these with some simple broiled fish.

 

I put some garlic in mine. I was a bit worried about it, and with reason. It all fell to the bottom and turned into a black, sticky mess. Don't bother - the shallots will have to do. 

 

4 servings

1 hour 15 minutes - 15 minutes prep time 

2 teaspoons allspice berries

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon rubbed thyme OR savory

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon (to taste) red chile powder

 

Grind the allspice berries with the peppercorns and salt until fine. Mix them with the remaining spices in a small bowl and set aside. 

600 grams (1.25 pounds) sweet potatoes

3 or 4 shallots

2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil

2 bay leaves

1/4 cup water

 

Preheat the oven to 375°F. 

 

Cut the sweet potatoes into bite-sized pieces and put them in a baking pan that will hold them in a single layer. Peel and cut the shallots into 6 or 8 wedges each, and mix them in. Toss everything with the oil, then sprinkle the bowl of spices over and toss again. Slide the bay leaves under the sweet potatoes and sprinkle them with the water. 

 

Roast at 375°F for about 1 hour, until tender and browned. 

 

 

 

 

 

Last year at this time I Made Sour Cream. 

This was a good lively salad with a nice interplay of tropical flavours to dress up some pretty standard Ontario winter salad veggies. You'll need to have another plan for what will be most of a tin of coconut cream or milk leftover, though. Cream is probably better, by the way. I used coconut milk and the dressing was just a tad thin. No biggie. 

These were not our peanuts, alas. We got quite a decent little crop this year, and hung it up to cure for a few days in the garage - don't laugh - and when we came back, it was a much littler crop. Barely enough for seed next year. Huh. Apparently the squirrels don't eat the curing garlic in the garage because - get this - they don't like garlic. Well, all righty then. Lesson learned.

 

4 servings

20 minutes prep time 

 

1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger

2 tablespoons coconut cream OR milk

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon lemon OR lime juice

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon Madras curry powder

1/2 teaspoon sugar

a pinch of salt

 

Peel and grate the ginger. Mix it with the coconut cream or coconut milk. Mix in the mayonnaise, lemon juice, soy sauce, and seasonings. Mix well and set aside until needed.  

1 1/2 cups finely shredded green OR Savoy cabbage

1/2 cup finely shredded red cabbage

1/2 cup (1 small carrot) grated carrot

1 large crisp apple

1/3 cup roasted unsalted peanuts

 

Wash, trim, and shred the green and red cabbages. Peel and grate the carrot. Mix them in a salad bowl. Wash, core, and dice the carrot. Toss it into the salad with the peanuts and the dressing.

Last year at this time I made Vegetable Fried Barley.

I've made cabbage with paprika before, but this is a simpler and lighter version, good as a quick side dish with something else. It's a pretty traditional cabbage dish from the Balkans on down through Turkey. 

 

It often has beef in it; not necessarily a lot of meat, but some. About half a pound for this quantity of cabbage, if you wanted to add it. It could be finely chopped stewing beef or ground beef, in which case it should be cooked in the oil until pretty much done before the onion goes in. Or, you could add leftover chopped up steak or roast, and add it with the cabbage. 

We had it without any meat though, and thought it was just fine. We ate it alongside a fairly cheesy vegetarian main dish. If you are not adding beef to it, it would also go with lamb, chicken, or fish very well.

 

4 servings

30 minutes - 10 minutes prep time 

 

4 cups loosely packed chopped cabbage

1 small onion

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons sweet Hungarian paprika

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 bay leaf

1 cup crushed tomatoes 

Wash, trim, and chop the cabbage fairly coarsely. Peel and chop the onion. 

Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 3 or 4 minutes, until soft and translucent but not browned. Mix in the cabbage and cook, stirring, until it is evenly wilted down. Add the seasonings and cook for another minute or so, until well worked in and moistened completely by the oil. 

Add the tomatoes and mix them in. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for another 10 or 15 minutes until the cabbage is done to your liking. Serve at once. 

Last year at this time I made Anglesey Eggs.

SO GOOD! So easy, for bread. And here's that bread spice, put to good use already.

 

While the technique is for naan, I suspect that this will be better with German, Austrian, Scandinavian, etc. dishes. Or just by itself. I could sit and eat slab after slab of this, if I let myself. I may have to make this half a recipe at a time just to avoid temptation.

 

6 to 8 naan breads

2 hours 45 minutes - 45 minutes prep time

 

 

1 cup lukewarm water

1/2 teaspoon fast acting yeast

1 1/4 cups whole spelt flour 

Measure the water into a mixing bowl, and add the yeast. Let work for 10 minutes until foamy, then mix in the flour thoroughly. Cover the batter and leave in a warm (room temperature) spot for 1 hour.

 

1/4 cup lukewarm water

1/4 teaspoon fast acting yeast

2 cups whole rye flour

1/2 cup whole spelt flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons finely ground bread spice

1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil

1/2 cup buttermilk OR thin kefir

about 1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil to cook

Measure the water into a small bowl and add the yeast; set aside for 5 to 10 minutes until foamy. 

Meanwhile, mix the rye flour, spelt flour, salt, and bread spice. 

Add the oil and buttermilk to the starter, then stir in the new bowl of yeast and water. Then mix in the flour with a wooden spoon, beating it thoroughly for a few minutes; as long as you can stand. It should become a bit stretchy and bouncy (the gluten has developed). Cover the dough and let it rise for another hour. 

When you are ready to cook the naans, heat a griddle or heavy skillet over medium heat. Brush the surface with a little oil. Using a wet spoon, scoop out 1/8th or 1/6th of the batter and plop it on the griddle. The spoon being wet will help keep the batter from sticking to it. Using a wet hand, immediately pat it out into a flat circle, about 1/2" thick. Cook for about 3 minutes, until the top looks mostly dry. Turn the naan over - the bottom (now top) should look lightly browned and flecked with darker spots. Cook for another 2 minutes, then transfer the finished naan to a plate. 

While the naan cooks, wash the spoon and ready it to repeat the process. Brush the pan with a little oil, and cook another naan, as above. Continue until all of them are finished. 

These can readily be reheated by popping them back into the skillet and covering them for a few minutes; turn and move them around to heat them evenly. Serve warm. (Although they are not half bad cool, either.) 

Last year at this time I made Braised Pork Belly with Turnips.

This blend of spices will seem very familiar once you add it to a rye bread recipe... this is what gives certain types of rye bread that fragrant and delectable more-more-more flavour. Ummmm! 

 

You can adjust these spices to your own personal taste, but I have to say I thought this combo with these proportions was perfect. 

 

I plan to use it for more than rye bread, although that too. How about in Rye Spaetzle? I'm thinking cookies. Soup? Casseroles? And...? (Stay tuned.)

 

makes about 2 tablespoons

10 minutes prep time

 

2 teaspoons caraway seed

2 teaspoons coriander seed

2 teaspoons fennel seed 

1 teaspoon anise seed

1/8 teaspoon fenugreek seed

Measure out the spices into a small bowl. Heat an unoiled small skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, add the spices and cook, stirring regularly, until fragrant and very lightly toasted. Return them to the bowl to cool. 

Grind the spices as finely and evenly as you can, using a mortar and pestle, or electric grinder (coffee or spice grinder; Vitamix dry compartment, etc). Keep sealed in a cool dark spot until needed.

Orange-almond salads were popular back when I was a teen; certainly they were popular with me. I thought they were very sophisticated, even if they were made with tinned mandarin oranges most of the time. Is this the source of my love for salads with fruit and nuts? (And cheese, but I didn't. Maybe a little blue cheese? Hm.)

 

So there's nothing at all ground-breaking about this salad... it's just a reminder (to myself as much as anyone) to keep eating those salads, even if it is winter. I have fancied it up a bit with pears and cranberries. I used frozen cranberries which I thawed and chopped. Alas, I can no longer get local dried cranberries and the ones from OceanSpray (who pretty much seem to have a monopoly now) are inedibly sweet. More sugar than berry, I suspect. Also, this is the end of the season for local pears, and they can be hard to find - a sweet and mild apple could replace them.

 

4 servings

20 minutes prep time

 

 

the juice of 1 clementine

3 tablespoons pure cranberry juice

3 tablespoons almond OR walnut oil

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

 

Squeeze the clementine juice into a small bowl or jam jar, and add the remaining ingredients. Whisk or shake together. 

 

1 head hydroponic lettuce 

1 head Belgian endive (optional)

1 stalk celery (optional)

2 small bosc pears

2 clementines

2 tablespoons cranberries, fresh OR dried

1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

 

Wash, trim, and chop the lettuce, endive, and celery. Mix them in a salad bowl. Peel, core, and chop the pears and sprinkle them over the salad. Peel the clementines and slice them, then quarter the slices. Sprinkle them over the salad. Chop the cranberries and sprinkle them over. Toast the almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat until golden brown, then sprinkle them over the salad. Drizzle with the dressing, and serve. 

Last year at this time I made Leek & Sweet Potato Soup.

I'm excited about this vegan "meat" mixture, and I've been playing around with it quite a lot. It has more texture than some of my past attempts, and it is also pretty simple for this kind of thing. You could leave the shallot and garlic out, and make it even simpler, but they do add to the effect. 

I find anything with ground flax or other similar gummy textured ingredients needs to be seasoned quite a bit more strongly than anything made without them - they muffle the flavours, somehow. I've also seasoned these to taste a bit like Italian sausage, but you can and absolutely should adjust the seasonings to reflect how you are using these. Poultry seasoning seems like a likely choice, and I am still using this Polish seasoning blend often and enjoying it very much. 

The mixture will hold in the fridge for a couple of days before being cooked, which is convenient. It will lose some flavour and texture if it sits too long though, so don't leave it any longer. I haven't tried it, but I suspect it would freeze decently well.

 

4 to 6 servings (16 to 24 balls; 6 patties)

25 minutes to cook the buckwheat

15 minutes to cook the buck-meat balls 

6 minutes to cook them as patties

1 2/3 cups water

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup buckwheat groats 

Put the water and salt into a rice cooker, and turn it on. Toast the buckwheat groats in a dry skillet over medium heat until a good toasty brown, but be careful not to scorch them. When they are toasted and the water in the rice cooker is boiling, tip them in and give them a stir. Close it up and cook for 15 minutes, until the water is evaporated. If they are toasted before the water boils, transfer them at once to a dish to prevent them from over-browning. 

1 shallot 

1 large clove of garlic

2 teaspoons oil

1/2 cup chick pea flour

1/4 cup ground flax seed

1/3 cup nutritional yeast

1/3 cup hemp hearts OR finely chopped nuts of choice

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon red chile flakes (to taste)

1 tablespoon miso

2 tablespoons water

1/4 cup mild vegetable oil

While the buckwheat cooks in the rice cooker, peel and mince the shallot and garlic. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat, and cook the shallot until softened and translucent. Add the garlic for the last minute of cooking. Transfer them to a mixing bowl.

Add the chick pea flour, ground flax seed, and nutritional yeast to the mixing bowl. Grind the fennel seeds with the salt, and add them with the other spices.

 

When the buckwheat is cooked, let it cool enough to handle, then mix it in with the dry ingredients. Mix the miso into the water then into the dry ingredients to form a stiff, crumbly mixture. You can add another teaspoon or so of water if it seems required - it should hold together when you squeeze or press it into a form. Form the mixture into balls - a 2 ounce disher gave me 20; I think next time I'd like to make them just a little smaller. You can also form "hamburger" patties - this will make 6 of those.

Put a good 1/4" of oil in a skillet sufficiently large to hold them all loosely, then fry them until lightly browned and crispy all over. Start by shaking the pan gently to shift them around; you will then need a utensil to turn those that stubbornly want to remain cooking on one spot only. Use as you would any other meatball. If formed into patties, likewise fry until browned and crisp on both sides. 

Last year at this time I made Stir-Fried Glass Noodles with Vegetables.

Happy New Year, everyone. How about we start with a delicious treat for breakfast? 

 

These lovely biscuits, with a touch of natural sweetness from sweet potatoes, are no harder to make than any other biscuit - once you have the sweet potato prepared. Roast an extra one or two for dinner the night before, and you are good to go. 

 

I do recommend that you roast the sweet potatoes, and don't cook them any other way. I'm calling for more sweet potato than most recipes for these, and for them to succeed it needs to be quite dry. My sweet potatoes were the easily grown Georgia Jet, which are an uninspired dull yellow inside. If you use orange fleshed sweet potatoes, the biscuits should have an attractive orange shade to them. You should need to add very little milk to pull these together, maybe even none if your sweet potato is on the damp side.

 

12 biscuits

30 minutes - 15 minutes prep time

NOT including roasting the sweet potatoes

 

 

2 cups roasted, peeled, and mashed sweet potatoes 

2 cups whole spelt flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cold unsalted butter

1 to 2 tablespoons buttermilk or milk, as needed

The sweet potatoes should be peeled  and thoroughly mashed. If you want really smooth biscuits with no lumps, you should put them through a food mill or food processor. Measure and put into a mixing bowl. 

Preheat the oven to 425°F, and line a baking tray with parchment paper. 

Measure the flour and mix in the baking powder and salt. Add to the sweet potatoes, but don't mix yet. Grate in the cold butter. 

Mix, using a thin, flat spoon to make chopping and turning motions, until the flour is well distributed throughout the other ingredients and nothing looks particularly dry. You may wish to use a pastry cutter for this if you don't have a spoon that works well. If it becomes clear that this won't happen without overworking the mixture, add a bit of buttermilk or milk to help bring it together, but the dough should not become at all soft, just workable and cohesive. 

At this point press it into a ball with your hands. Pat it out to 1/2" to 3/4" thick, and cut it into biscuits. I tend to save all the tedium of cutting out round biscuits, re-rolling and cutting, etc., by cutting them into squares and either leaving them square or patting them into a disk (keeping the same thickness). Use a little flour or keep your hands cold and wet to prevent the dough from sticking to them.

Place the biscuits spaced an inch or two apart on the prepared baking tray, and bake on the top rack of the oven at 425°F for 14 to 16 minute. Let cool for at least 10 minutes, then serve.  

 

 

 

 

Last year at this time I made Broiled Pork Tenderloin.