Deconstructed Roasted Tomato Bruschetta with Forage Buttermilk Biscuits
See how I did that there? Made dinner sound like something you’d pay a fortune for (or I would, anyway) if you ordered it off a restaurant menu? Really what “deconstructed” means is I ate what calorically counted as dinner standing up over the stove, mopping sticky, olive-oily tomato juices and teak-coloured cloves of garlic off the roasting pan with chunks of warm biscuit. It was so good I couldn’t even make it to the table. When Mike and W came downstairs, they got leftover warmed soup and eggs on toast, respectively.
I realize this sounds like far more of a summer meal than one you’d make while knocking on winter’s door. (Hell, winter opened its door and invited us in weeks ago – it was -17 this morning!) But I happened to have stopped in at Forage this afternoon to pick up the assorted 80s CDs they borrowed, and happened to notice the giant stack of freshly baked biscuits strategically placed beside the cash register. I mean LOOK AT THEM. Humuna humuna.
They totally taste like they look. I weaseled the recipe out of Wade, but it’s his aunt’s recipe, and so I was made to swear it would never leave my house. He does however teach biscuit-making classes, and they’re well worth the hour or so you get to spend hanging out with him in the kitchen. You can check out all his fun events here – I’ve been thinking too that we should all reserve their 20-seat table for a farm table dinner sometime after we’ve finished digesting Christmas and sit around the table and eat and drink wine together. What do you think?
Hey guess what? As I was typing that last sentence I got an email from Wade, completely unpestered on my part, saying OK fine, you can go ahead and post the recipe on your blog. Because your readers are so great. OK, that last part was just me.
Look! Here it is! Thanks Wade! I’m a little giggled that he blends the butter and flour the same way I do – in a food processor.
FORAGE BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
yield: 10 biscuits
1/2 lb. Butter (1/4 inch dice)
4 cups Highwood Crossing Flour
2 Tbsp. Granulated Sugar (white)
1 ½ Tbsp. Baking Powder
½ tsp. Salt
2 each Sunworks Farm Organic Eggs
1 cup Vital Green Farms Organic Buttermilk1) Place butter in the food processor. Add flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Process until coarse crumb (about 12 seconds).
2) In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and buttermilk together. Stir into flour. Knead until dough just comes together.
3) Roll the dough out to a 1″ thickness. Cut into rounds. Press leftover dough together and roll smooth. Cut remaining rounds. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 400F for 8 minutes. Turn the pan. Bake another 7-10 minutes until golden and light when you pick them up.
I ate one straight up, and another half with peach jam. But they were the best with those aforementioned roasted tomatoes. I happened to be roasting some for tomato soup for a Christmas lunch I’m cooking (again, in Red Deer) tomorrow, and when I pulled the sheet out of the oven I was smacked with the memory of that bruschetta scene in Julie & Julia - you know, the one that tips right over the edge to full-on food porn? They slice voluptuous red heirloom tomatoes and eat them on toasted bread rubbed with cut garlic and drizzled with olive oil, and it looks so fantastically good – like crazy good – like these biscuits good. So why not combine them?
Julie Powell makes a pretty straight-up bruschetta in the movie – which by the way comes out on Tuesday! and so to celebrate I planned a Julie & Julia-themed potluck dinner party and invited a handful (5) of my favourite food bloggers, and they are all coming over Sunday night to watch the movie and eat, and I’m so excited.
But the bruschetta – Julie (and Julia – how cool is it that I get to be part of this name club?) used tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and fresh basil. I was pretty spare in the fresh basil department, but to be honest I would have found it too summery and it would have competed with the roasted tomatoes. Roasting them salvages less-than-peak-of-summer varieties, and allows them to still spill down your chin, much like the fresh ones did in the movie. I quartered smallish tomatoes, peeled a few cloves of garlic, sprinkled the lot with salt and pepper and roasted them at 450F until they started to blister, then scooped it all up into my mouth with warm biscuits. (I could have let them cool and then coarsely chopped them, if I had any more class.)
I can’t stop thinking about how much better even the bruschetta might have been with Parmesan biscuits – hello? Skip the grating of Parm on top of the bruschetta, and tuck it straight into the biscuit. Add it along with the dry ingredients is what I’d do. Not that I’m suggesting you mess with Wade’s aunt’s recipe.
All this Julie and Julia stuff has inspired me to get back here even on busy nights – it’s what Julie Powell did, isn’t it? Coming home from work at 7 and getting lobster thermidor on the table by 11? Maybe I’ll spend the week cooking, like Julie did, every night, out of MtheAofFC – I can tell you right now I could so go for a steaming bowl of French Onion Soup tomorrow when I get back from Red Deer (there’s a heavy snowfall warning in effect for Alberta tomorrow – why always the days I’m on the highway?). If Julie P. can do it after a long day at the office, so can I. I’ve been cooking so much for other people lately, I need a reason to get back into my own kitchen and make something other than oatmeal.
Also – I have something fun for Free Stuff Fridays tomorrow – check back and see!
One Year Ago: Spiced Roast Chicken
December 03 2009 08:34 pm | bread
Angela on 03 Dec 2009 at 8:41 pm #
Sounds delish.
Safe travels tomorrow Julie
Nancy on 03 Dec 2009 at 8:45 pm #
My mouth waters looking at the biscuits and imagining (and remembering!) the Julie tomotoes! May just have to make this for my steak dinner tomorrow yum!!!
bluejeangourmet on 03 Dec 2009 at 8:49 pm #
wowza, those are some gorgeous biscuits! I’m going to have to try them for brunch, either this weekend or the next.
Olivia on 03 Dec 2009 at 8:51 pm #
Sounds yummy! I’m(and I’m sure others) so glad you’re back here blogging again even on busy nights.
I can’t wait to see whats for dinner tomorrow night.
Lesli Christianson-Kellow on 03 Dec 2009 at 9:27 pm #
…humuna…humuna? You’re too funny, I haven’t heard someone say that in a long time…well I guess I didn’t really hear you say that this time either, but, well, you know what I mean…Yes, get back to your roots, get back to your kitchen, get back to cooking for you…!! (Go, Julie, go!)
Cheryl on 03 Dec 2009 at 10:11 pm #
When I saw the title of the post in my reader I immediately thought of Wade and his biscuits. Apparently, we all think his biscuits are the best! Next time try them with whipped Sylvan Star Cultured Butter. Oh yum. I am so excited to have the recipe now. Thanks Julie, Thanks Wade! And see you on Saturday!
Erica B. on 03 Dec 2009 at 10:17 pm #
Beautiful! Thank you to Wade, his dear Aunt, and to you for sharing the recipe.
Post-Christmas dinner at Forage sounds like an excellent idea sign me up!
Safe travels tomorrow.
Laurie on 04 Dec 2009 at 1:59 am #
MINUS 17? (!!!) Gaaahhhh – that’s why I live on the coast. It was 4 above this morning, and one of my roses still has blooms. (It went up to 8 this afternoon.)
Thank you so much for the biscuit recipe. I am going to SO much enjoy making that. With cheese in them for having with caramelized onions, garlic, and roasted tomatoes, and sweet for having with strawberries and whipped cream, and with onions and garlic in them for having with roast beast and gravy.
Nummies
Thank you thank you thank you. I worship at your feet.
So you should have been named Julie. Imagine if your parents had used theri favourite girls’ names the other way around? You sister would then be Julie, and that would be so wrong!
Mama JJ on 04 Dec 2009 at 4:40 am #
I’ve been writing about Julie and Julia, too. Maybe something is in the air? I served dinner to a homeless shelter last night and make Julia’s potatoes in cream with Gruyere—they all got eaten. And the day (or two) before I made beef bourguignon. Wow.
Lana in South Mountain (ON) on 04 Dec 2009 at 6:59 am #
You crack me up.
“humuna, humuna”? I, literally, laughed out loud.
I have not seen Julie and Julia yet but think I shall call my cooking buddy and plan to!
Thanks for the daily smiles.
xo
Kate on 04 Dec 2009 at 8:01 am #
Just prior to this read I added Julie & Julia to my movie queue of Netflix. Can’t wait.
Thank you and thank you to Wade.
And love your suggestion of parmesan.
Love Laurie M’s comment about your parents naming you and your sister.
I still get wistful when I think how blessed you and your sister and your parents are to be street buddies!
Elaine on 04 Dec 2009 at 9:03 am #
My brother saw the movie and said that I reminded him of Julie–specifically because he could see me throwing myself on the floor and sobbing dramatically if something massively wrong happened to a recipe. While not a thrilling piece of information to receive, it’s made me REALLY want to watch the movie–and here is yet another reason!
Anonymous on 04 Dec 2009 at 10:28 am #
My biscuits look nothing like those. More like little hockey pucks. Must try these.
And a communal dinner at the Forage table would be swell. Better than swell, acutally, but I love the retro sound of swell. Goes with humuna humuna.
Mmac on 04 Dec 2009 at 10:31 am #
Oops.Didn’t mean to be anonymous. Blame the snow distraction.
Susan on 04 Dec 2009 at 10:53 am #
Julie, Great timing. Was looking for a baked treat to make tomorrow morning while having lattes. The weather looks like we are in for some snow. What a good idea to make these biscuits and have some of my homemade preserves on them with our lattes. Thanls !
Vivian on 04 Dec 2009 at 12:11 pm #
Uh-hoo-hoo…the wind is whipping delicate little white filagrees off the eaves…the snow has arrived indeed. Great day for such gorgeous biscuits…but I’m out of buttermilk. Dare I risk a highway trip into Spruce Grove for groceries? How would they be, rolled in shredded Parm before baking?
Please be very careful on Hwy. 2 Julie.
Diane on 04 Dec 2009 at 12:22 pm #
I am a little afraid to make these because I could sit and eat them all!! I am serious. Buttermilk biscuits are a kind of drug to me. Your posts are so clever, I enjoy following your blog. Keep up the great writing. (and cooking, and photography, . . wow, you are super talented)
Wade on 04 Dec 2009 at 1:10 pm #
The credit for those biscuits has to go to Sue. She was managing Forage for our first 2 years and moved full time into our kitchen in October to pursue a cooking career. She is the reigning master of the buttermilk biscuit right now!
jenn in niagara on 04 Dec 2009 at 2:13 pm #
wow, i always wondered how one would spell humuna humuna! too funny! those biscuits sure do look purty!
so glad to live in the golden horseshoe, it flurried here today, but all melted away when the sun shone!
thanks for the inspirations and ideas julie! you make my week!
with all the praises for the movie julie and julia, i guess i best be putting that on my xmas wish list!
dinner tonight will be the “baked” beans done in the slow cooker, and perhaps with a side of these biscuits!
take care driving to red deer tomorrow.
jenn
Carol SB on 04 Dec 2009 at 2:18 pm #
Wade– please do thank Sue. But most of all, thank YOU for generously sharing. It’s a really good weekend to make a huge pot of soup and invite my (grown-up) kids over for soup and biscuits.
Julie! Just say when, and I’ll be there for the Farm Table Dinner (Mmm, a lovely post-Christmas treat to look forward to). Really: let’s do it.
Barb on 04 Dec 2009 at 5:14 pm #
Wow I thought my moms biscuits were top notch but they pale next to these. Be SAFE tomorrow Julie. If the roads aren’t safe can you postpone?
Jan (Mixing Bowl Kids) on 04 Dec 2009 at 5:59 pm #
Mmm…Mmm…Mmm….I think I should make these this weekend!
JulieVR on 04 Dec 2009 at 6:05 pm #
Stop worrying guys! I posted this last night about today – made it to Airdrie this morning and turned around and headed back – wow, what a storm!
ajdoula on 04 Dec 2009 at 7:53 pm #
So glad to hear you’re not on the roads tonight, Jules – that wind has been howling all day. And as tomorrow’s forecast is a repeat of today, soup and those lovely biscuits will be perfect.
Count me in for the dinner at Farm – I love, love, love that place and can think of nothing better to brighten up the post-Christmas blahs.
Erica B. on 04 Dec 2009 at 8:40 pm #
I keep meaning to make it to Forage for one of their Farm Table Dinners – I’ll be there just say when!
Betty on 04 Dec 2009 at 9:01 pm #
The biscuits look great – would be a great addition to any winter dish – chili, stew, soup. It would almost make me forget what it is doing outside!
Count me in for an event at Farm.
Gala on 05 Dec 2009 at 3:26 pm #
Wooooow! I’v never seen biscuits that high!
Sounds like a great recipe, but was is Highwood Crossing Flour?…could I substitute it with regular AP flour?
Cindy on 05 Dec 2009 at 6:40 pm #
Mmm..those look yummy – can I freeze them prior to baking? Or freeze them after baking? They’d be great with the ham I’m contemplating for Christmas but I’m afraid my coordination/juggling skills when combining entertaining and cooking for a large group are sorely lacking…I’m looking for things that I can prepare in advance or semi-prepare in advance…thanks so much! And stay warm!
Robyn in Mountain (Ontario that is) on 05 Dec 2009 at 7:09 pm #
Biscuits, grrrrrr! I want to go to there! Julie, you make a biscuit look amazing!!!
Okay so here in the Ottawa Valley it was a lovely plus 5 and sunny off and on. But then again, we do have all those politicians to live with
My husband and I often comment how much one would pay in a restaurant for a meal that we cooked ourselves. And we get to enjoy our own music and have all the cats and the dog around us. How wonderful is that?
Janice S on 06 Dec 2009 at 7:23 am #
Gala- Highwood Crossing is a local organic white flour.
Cindy-You can freeze the biscuits after baking and when they have cooled completely. Reheat in a warm oven…almost good as new!
Jess on 07 Dec 2009 at 4:12 pm #
My dear Julie: I’ve been pretty absent from the internet lately, so I just wanted to let you know that although I’ve been silent around these parts, I have been enjoying each and every one of your posts. You, my friend, are prolific! I have a beloved buttermilk biscuit recipe that I thought was the recipe to end all recipes, but these look so wonderful that I’ll have to give them a try. Mine are drop biscuits, and these are cut, so I suppose it’s only right that I should have one of each in my repertoire. Have a lovely evening!
Tara S on 13 Dec 2009 at 3:29 pm #
I made Wade’s biscuits today. Really light and flakey but they definately did not rise like the pictures. Delish still.. I guess I’ll have to keep trying