Stew with Big Fluffies

It is a rainy cold gray morning and Raul has his hands full with a stressful situation. What to do when under pressure? Drag out the pressure cooker and make stew.

Raul thaws some steak that was a gift from the lovely Princess Seraphina next door who is somehow convinced that R&D need fattening up so she often proffers food. Seraphina is also enamoured with the dog because of his ability to terrorize door to door annoyances - he is very good at scaring them away as long as the door isn't opened so that they can discover he is only eight pounds of sheer volume. "I thought you might use these," she said, "just in case you missed the sale."

Raul caramelizes a chopped onion. He then adds, chopped, two stalks of celery and two carrots which are also caramelized. The steaks are browned on the bbq and all is put into the pressure cooker with six cups of stock. The mixture is cooked at 12 psi for 30 minutes. The meat is cooled while the vegetables are strained out of the stock. He brings the stock to a boil and then makes and adds roux (flour and oil cooked slowly until it browns. He then adds four chopped potatoes, three cups of vegetables (frozen carrots, broccoli and cauliflower in this case) and the meat cut into cubes with salt, pepper and herbs to taste, and leaves it to simmer about 20 minutes or long enough for the potatoes to get tender and to make the Big Fluffies. 

Just before serving Raul stirs in a cup of frozen peas and ladles the hearty concoction into bowls. The dog who has been frantic with anticipation sits as patiently as he is able while the rich aroma fills the apartment - after all the meat was a gift thanks to his watchdog skills. The pressure cooker cuts the time down immensely - the meat is tender and the stew tastes as if it had been cooking for days, the flavour is intense and blended. Biscuits and stew, suddenly there is no stress or rainy day feelings.

Big Fluffies (Buttermilk Biscuits)

The weekend is a flurry of shopping and cooking because Nancy - one of Drew's oldest and dearest friends and now a new but dear friend of Raul's - and her partner Bruce are coming over for a BBQ. Nancy usually hosts dinners and they are always spectacular and lavish so Raul is feeling the pressure. 

Raul decides to go with the tried and tested: a cheese platter, steak, asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and a lemon meringue pie. He also decides to add Drew's Mom's potato salad and bean salad to give an extra summery kick to the proceedings. All easily organized except for finding the perfect steaks to satisfy all the carnivore cravings. R&D have many ingredients to pick up and every grocery store in the neighbourhood is visited and the meat is found lacking in all. The decision is made - which should have been made in the first place - to go to Ellas Meat Market on Pape just below the Danforth. Not only is the staff at Ellas friendly and chatty - Raul and the handsome young butcher who helps choose the steaks have a long, and possibly unnecessary though entertaining, discussion about Drew's unfortunate taste for well done steaks, the butcher likes to "be able to mop up the blood on the plate with bread" - but the steaks are perfection, cut to the flawless specifications that Raul always hopes for and seldom receives, and considerably cheaper than any of the other outlets visited in the morning. "We should have come here in the first place," repeats Raul with a contented smile. 

The steaks cook perfectly - Drew even consents to medium well and grudgingly admits that the flavour is better - and a fine time is had by all. Despite hearty appetites there is a lot of meat left over - the steaks were cut and trimmed that generously - and the next day Raul creates a hearty stew for recovery day. And what goes best with stew? Biscuits.

Drew's Mom is an expert at baking in general and biscuits specifically. Her biscuits are not only a family favourite but also the preferred, above all else, dining experience of the dog. He will shamelessly beg for her biscuits and his ears perk up whenever it is suggested that there is a visit to the "Tea Biscuit Lady" pending. Upon arriving at Drew's Mom's the dog races through the front door and sits facing the fridge in his classic "please feed me" position. 

Raul fires off an email request hoping she will share her expertise and Drew's Mom replies in minutes: I have no secret recipes, I love to share. Enjoy!

3 c flour (I use a combination of whole wheat and white)
1 T baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
3 T white sugar (the original recipe did not call for this)
3/4 c butter or margarine (I use Becel Original)
1 c buttermilk (if I do not have I put a T of lemon juice in a cup of milk and let stand)

Combine all the dry ingredients Add the butter or margarine and combine well - a food processor works well but I use my mother's little hand - can't think of the name at the moment but I will show you when you are here. You probably know what I am talking about, in fact you probably have at least 3 :)
Add buttermilk and combine to moisten the flour mix. Knead briefly.
Pat out to desired thickness, about 3/4", cut with cutter, bake 400'F for 10 - 15 minutes. You may or may not need to butter your baking sheet. (Raul uses parchment paper)
The original recipe also said that you could drop the dough by spoonfuls on the sheet.

The stew - a recipe for another time, this is all about the biscuits - is delicious and the biscuits sop up every droplet of gravy. And yes the dog is very very happy and heartily approves of Raul's first biscuit batch.