Cathead Biscuits, Portuguese Potato Soup, Fruit Parfaits, Ginger-Orange Carrot Ribbons

Cathead Biscuits
These are an old Southern style biscuit "as big as a cat's head".  Simple to make, simple to bake.

4 cups Self-Rising Flour (or 4 cups AP plus 1 TBSP Baking Powder, 1/2 tsp each Baking Soda and Salt)
2 Tbsp Butter, shortening or lard (about the size of a walnut) at room temp
1 cup Buttermilk (or whole milk plus juice of a lemon, which I prefer)
Pinch of Salt

Pre-heat oven to 400F.

While the oven heats, cut the butter into the flour/salt mix, with a stiff mixing spoon, until you get "coarse crumbs".  Make a well and add the buttermilk while stirring. If necessary, adjust the liquid or flour until the dough comes together in a ball in the bowl.    Divide into 8 pieces.  Roughly ball each piece and place in a greased or sprayed 9" or 10" round pan (7 balls around the outside, last one in the middle).  Push the balls down until they touch more or less.

Bake 20+ minutes until golden on top.  Serve hot with lots of butter.

Caldo Verde Com Camarão
This hearty Portuguese soup features potatoes, greens (collard, spinach or kale), red beans, and sausage, or in this case, shrimp (camarão).  Some versions add sausage, bacon or ham to Caldo Verde, but we're pescetarians, hence the shrimp.

6-8 tsp Vegetable Base 
6-8 cups Water
6-8 Medium Potatoes (Yukon Gold or Red, not 'baking' potatoes)
1 large Sweet Onion, diced
3-4 cloves Garlic, chopped
3-4 cups cooked Red Beans
1 large bunch Kale, Spinach, or Collards, sliced almost julienne thin ~ 3 cups
12+ medium Shrimp -- peeled, tailed an cut into thirds
Salt & White Pepper & Crushed Red Pepper TT

Peel and cube the potatoes.  In your soup pot, sauté the onion and garlic until just tender.  Add the water, vegetable base and spices to taste.  Stir.  Add the potatoes and bring to a boil.  Cook the potatoes 10-20 minutes until very soft.

Mash/puree/blend the potatoes and return to the simmering broth.  You want mashed/pureed potato here, not much in the way of chunks.  Add the beans and continue simmering to heat everything through.

Just before serving, add the greens and shrimp and cook just long enough for the shrimp to turn color before plating and serving.   Alternatively, pre-cook the shrimp Portuguese style with onion and sun-dried tomato and garlic and hot sauce, divide the shrimp into the bowls and pour the soup over.

Garnish with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream if you want.  It's not traditional, but I served my Caldo Verde with the Cathead biscuits, above.

Mixed Fruit Parfait
We've been getting these wonderful Kiwi Berries from our produce Co-op, and just eating them out of hand.  Then we also got some extra special grapes called Candy Dream, and I decided to make dessert parfaits by layering things together with Bird's Custardtm.   

Kiwi Berries
Grapes
Blueberries
Banana
2  cups prepared Custard (for three parfaits)

Make up the custard to package directions and let it cool.  Layer alternating fruits and the custard.  If the custard is too runny, you'll lose the definition of the fruit layers as you see here.

Tastes the same, it's just not quite as pretty as it could be!

Ginger-Orange Carrot Ribbons
I've been making this fabulous side dish for so long, I can't remember where or when I first came across it.  Pre-internet surely...

Carrots
Fresh Ginger
Frozen OJ Concentrate

Peel the carrot(s), and keep peeling until you're tired, or run out of carrots!  I had one nice LARGE carrot!

Chop up a nice large thumb of ginger, don't bother peeling it -- just slice.  Open the can of OJ concentrate.

In a large diameter  covered pan or skillet, lay down a spritz of EVOO and get the heat up to med-hot.    Toss in the carrots, ginger and a couple Tbsp of frozen OJ. 

 

Toss things around with a tongs for a minute, then add about 1/2 cup of water and put the lid on.  You're not braising, or boiling the carrots, it's more like wilting them.  Cook for maybe 8-10 minutes until tender, and serve.