The Carmelo's "biscuit fiasco"

I had the lucky opportunity to visit Tuscaloosa, AL this past weekend and went on a little hunt for yummy baked goods while there.  The tough thing about sweet treats in Tuscaloosa is that they are hard to find- but they are well worth the search.  You won't find them in your traditional bakery on campus, but at little restaurants here and there.  Later this week, I'll be talking about a to-die-for banana pudding.  But I digress.

On Sunday, we went in search of brunch and found it a little area downtown at a nice little place called Carmelo's.  Carmelo's menu is described as American, Southern, and Soul- which makes sense given that many entrees are more American grill or cafe than Southern, but they are served with smoked gouda grits to give it a southern flair.   On this particular day, they had written on their chalkboard menu that they were serving grilled salmon black bean biscuits.  They also had croissant french toast.  I was torn by the savory vs. the sweet, but when I learned that the french toast stuffing was plain old cream cheese, I thought I would try out their savory biscuits instead.  Besides, according to the waiter, this biscuit was made with salmon and black beans, which was unusual and adventurous.  I was sold.

Well, what arrived was definitely playing it fast and loose with the word biscuit.  It was definitely a wrap with grilled salmon and black beans, not a biscuit.  So I inquired with the waiter a little just so I could understand how the chef was interpreting this wrap as a "biscuit".  Maybe I was missing something.

It turns out, they just wrote the menu wrong.  The menu was supposed to say burrito, not biscuit.  Not 3 minutes later, an annoyed waitress marched over to the menu and practically broke her chalk as she scratched out the word biscuit for burrito and harumphed back to service her other tables.

Regardless, my burrito was good, but I had been left with no biscuit, no baked good to savor over my brunch.  At this point, I wasn't going to order dessert (probably best to avoid when you can clearly tell your server is annoyed with you), but it got my wheels turning about grilled salmon and black bean biscuits and biscuits in general.

Biscuits, because of their lack of sugar don't normally fall into a Sugar Lovin category, but biscuits are the savory version of scones and an easy and essential building block in baking. You need dry ingredients- flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt- butter, and wet ingredients- buttermilk or sour milk.  Mix these all together and you've got biscuit dough.

The south is known for great biscuits.  Take the Loveless Cafe in Nashville.  Their biscuits, made by the irrepressible Carol Fay, are so famous that Food Network's Throwdown with Bobby Flay featured them.  Biscuits and gravy is an essential part of southern breakfast.  You can't get away from biscuits in the south.

In Pittsburgh, we seem to be lacking a great place to buy biscuits.  They aren't really bread, they aren't really pastry.  Our big bread bakeries in town- Mancini's, Cibrone's, Allegro Hearth, Breadworks- they don't do biscuits.  You have a lot of artisan breads, rustic loaves and Italian-style breads, but no biscuits.  Bakeries are doing sweets and confections.  And our lack of Southern cuisine here is rather appalling.  Big Momma's House of Soul in the Strip District had to close due to some issues with customers having nowhere to park.

So rather than reaching for the Pillsbury can, since biscuits are so easy to make, try making a biscuit or two on your own.  Check out this recipe from Alton Brown at the Food Network for your basic biscuit.  You can also try Bobby Flay's biscuit recipe that beat out the famed Loveless Cafe version.
And my "biscuit" from Carmelo's?  Well it inspired me to try making a salmon and black bean biscuit. 

Check out my recipe here. 

Grilled salmon and black bean biscuits.

Unlike Carmelo's in Tuscaloosa, I swear it can be done!  And they are pretty delicious, I must say.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp COLD butter
 1 cup Whole wheat flour
1 cup AP flour
1 cup Cake flour
1 Tbsp Baking powder
3/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking soda
2 tsp Fresh minced cilantro
2 tsp Fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup Shredded grilled salmon or smoked salmon
1/2 cup Drained, rinsed black beans from a can
1 cup Buttermilk or soured milk (milk + 2 tsp apple cider vinegar)
1 cup Shredded smoked gruyere or gouda

Method:

1.  Cube butter, place in 3/4 cup in freezer.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Mix all the dry ingredients together in the bowl of a stand mixer or food processor.

2.  Add 3/4 cup of butter and mix on low with paddle attachment of stand mixer until crumbly or blend in food processor until crumbly.  Carefully mix in shredded salmon and beans.

3.  SLOWLY add milk to mixture while the mixer runs on low.  Add a little at a time until the dough forms solid ball.  Do not add all the milk at once or your biscuits will never work!

4.  Form the dough into a disk using your hands, adding buttermilk if necessary.  If time allows, let dough rest for 20 minutes in the refrigerator, covered.   On a well floured, clean surface, knead dough about 20 times.  Pat or roll dough out to 1-in thickness.  Using black bean can or biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits and place on baking sheet.  Reroll scraps and repeat until all dough is used.

5.  Brush tops of biscuits with remaining buttermilk if desired and dot with remaining 2 Tbsp of butter.  Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 10 minutes.  At 10 minutes, add the shredded cheese to the tops of the biscuits and bake for 5 more minutes.  Remove from oven, cool on wire rack.

Now the key to this recipe is what you serve these biscuits with.  They taste good alone, but they taste great when served with a "gravy" masquerading as a corn chowder.  Try this recipe from Ina Garten at Food Network, but swap out the cheddar for more of that smoke gruyere or gouda to blend the flavors better!