Ranch, Shallot Biscuits

Ranch, Shallot Biscuits

Remember Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet? He would be so proud of this recipe. I really love to "repurpose" food. I had about 1/2 cup of leftover Ranch dip that I knew nobody would touch again. I diluted it with enough skim milk to make 1 cup and used it in place of regular milk, in a good old fashioned biscuit recipe.

I also added my favorite recent find, the toasted fried shallots from the Chinese store, that I've been using in EVERYTHING. The package is huge and lasts forever. I would suggest storing any unused shallots in the fridge to keep it from going rancid. The resulting biscuits were very light and flavorful, reminiscent of these little Chinese scallion breads that I remember having at dim sum. I hope there'll be some left, when Austen gets home from school.

Dry ingredients:
2 cup all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 C fried shallots

Wet ingredients:
1/2 stick butter, sliced and freeze for 1/2 hour
1 cup milk/dip mixture

 In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients. Mix well. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in milk/dip mixture, just until moistened. Do not over mix. Flour hands and pull off about a 2 tablespoon-size piece of dough and form into discs, ~ 1/2" thick and 2" wide. Try not to over-handle dough. Place discs next to each other in an ungreased baking sheet. Let rest for 1/2 hr.

Preheat oven to 450°F. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm.

Serrano Pepper, Cheese, and Toasted Shallots Skillet Cornbread

This recipe started out as a typical Southern skillet cornbread recipe, until I got to the wet ingredients.  I had no buttermilk, but I had a can of Pickled Serrano Peppers and half and half.  Sounds disgusting, but people put vinegar in milk to make buttermilk all the time, so why waste all the flavorful liquid, when I can take advantage of it?


The toasted shallots, I bought at the Chinese store.  The label said fried scallions.  They are dry and crunchy and very flavorful.  They're typically used as toppings in soups, but in my case, since I had no onions, they were a wonderful replacement.

dry ingredients:
3 C cornmeal
1 1/2 C flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 T sugar

wet ingredients:
2 eggs
1 3/4 C half and half
1 12-oz can Pickled Green Serrano Peppers, stems removed, chopped, liquid reserved
1 package shredded Cheddar and Jack cheese, reserving 1/2 C for top

1/2 C toasted shallots

1 T vegetable oil


Preheat oven to 400°F. Put 1 T vegetable oil in 10" cast iron skillet and swirl around to grease entire pan. Place pan in oven.

Sift dry ingredients and combine with wet ingredients and toasted shallots. Mix thoroughly and let sit for 10 minutes. The batter will start out thin, but will thicken as it sits ( I know. I was worried too, because I didn't have any cornmeal left to thicken the batter).

Pour batter into hot skillet and top with remaining cheese.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, turning skillet half way through (unless if you have a convection oven, then you don't have to do crap, except pull the bread out 10 minutes earlier. I need me a cool-ass oven.).

Run knife along edge of skillet. Place a plate over the skillet and flip. The cornbread should come out cleanly.