Bacon Cheddar Scones Recipe

Recipe by Chef Grady Spears

These savory scones are perfect for an indulgent Sunday breakfast or brunch.

Ingredients:

• 2  cups all-purpose flour
• 2  teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4  teaspoon salt
• 1/2  teaspoon pepper
• 1/8  teaspoon sugar
• 6  tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
• 1  cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 3  green onions, minced
• 2  jalapeño peppers, seeded and minced
• 5 to 6  bacon slices, cooked and chopped into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2  cup buttermilk or heavy cream, divided
• 1  egg
• 2  tablespoons milk

Cooking Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and sugar in a large bowl. Gradually cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles small peas. Stir in the cheese, just until combined. Add green onions, jalapeños, bacon, and 1/3 cup buttermilk. Mix by hand just until all the ingredients are incorporated. If the dough is too dry to hold together, use remaining buttermilk, adding 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough is pliable and can be formed into a ball. Mix as lightly and as little as possible to ensure a light-textured scone.
3. Place dough on a lightly floured board. Pat dough into a ball. Using a well-floured rolling pin, flatten dough into a circle about 7 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 8 equal wedges.
4. Whisk egg and milk together in a small bowl and brush tops of each scone.
5. Place scones on an ungreased baking sheet and bake 18 to 20 minutes, until golden brown and no longer sticky in the middle. Serve warm.

Southern Fried Chicken

by Edna Lewis

Soaking the chicken in salt water—or brining—is a trick all good Southern cooks use. Many say it’s the key to the flavor and tenderness of their fried chicken. For a ham flavor, country ham is simmered with the fat. You can substitute 2 cups vegetable oil for the lard. 

 Ingredients:

• 1/2  cup plus 1 teaspoon, salt, divided 
• 6  cups water 
• 3  pounds chicken, cut into 8 pieces 
• 1  quart buttermilk 
• 1  pound lard 
• 1/2  cup unsalted butter 
• 1/2  cup country ham pieces, or 1 thick slice country ham cut into 1/2-inch strips 
• 1  cup all-purpose flour 
• 2  tablespoons cornstarch 
• 1/2  teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Cooking Instructions:
 

1. Combine 1/2 cup salt and water in a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken; seal bag and marinate in refrigerator  8 hours. Drain. Combine chicken and buttermilk in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate 8 to 12 hours. Drain on a wire rack.
2. Combine lard, butter and ham in a heavy skillet. Cook over low heat, skimming as needed, until butter stops foaming and ham is browned, about 30 minutes. Remove ham with a slotted spoon. Increase heat to medium-high and heat fat to 335F.
3. Combine flour, cornstarch, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper on a piece of wax paper.
4. Dredge chicken pieces in flour mixture; tap well to remove excess.
5. Working in batches, place chicken, skin side down, into heated fat. Do not crowd. Cook until chicken is golden brown and cooked, 10 to 12 minutes per side. Pierce with a fork; if juices run clear, chicken is done. Remove and drain thoroughly on a wire rack or crumpled paper towels.

The Relish Cake Contest Is On!

There are some who say that you can't have your cake and eat it too. To those people we say: Phooey.

If you want to find out what our official Favorite Relish Cake of all time is and find out how you can win a set of gourmet Circulon cookware and a set of world-class Wusthof cutlery, follow the Trail of Bread Crumbs starting with This One.

To enter to win the prize, email us the name of the cake at contest@relish.com, and include your name! The winner will be chosen in a random drawing on Friday, July 15. Good luck! And if you're still hungry for cake, keep strolling in our Cake Contest slide show for more yummy cakes and free recipes! 

Healthy Potato Recipes

Long assigned to the produce aisle's doghouse, potatoes are making a breakout. During the high-protein, low-carb craze, this meat-and-you-know-what staple was transformed into a tuber non grata. Health-conscious consumers began believing that potatoes were diet-sabotaging carb bombs. Then there was that whole "couch potato" thing. All in all, potatoes had a serious PR problem.

But now there's cause for spud-lovers to rejoice. The consensus in the weight-loss community is that high-protein diets aren't any more effective than any other kind of diet. The secret to weight loss is calories—fewer of them. In addition, a group of Australian researchers came up with the Satiety Index to determine which foods are the most filling. Which food did they discover has the most "stick-to-your-ribs" power? The potato. Bravo!

We'll admit that the potato doesn't have the charisma of, say, arugula. But let's take a moment to consider its virtues—besides its hunger-fighting power. It's cheap. It keeps. It's available everywhere. It's nutritious. And a medium-size baked potato has only 130 calories.

Even better, it's versatile. Its mildness means it blends with anything. Its starch content gives heft to soups, sauces and stews. Texture-wise, it ranges from the creamy-waxy to crumbly-starchy, so it's at home in just about any dish, chunky or smooth.

So if you've been avoiding potatoes, take another look. There's a reason it's America's favorite vegetable. Take that, arugula!

Spring Fruit Compote Recipe

Berries, pineapple and dried apricots meld in a light syrup of Grand Marnier or orange juice.

 Ingredients:
 

• 1/2  cup Grand Marnier (orange liqueur) or orange juice
• 2  tablespoons orange marmalade
• 1/2  cup quartered dried apricots
• Grated zest and sectioned fruit of 1 navel orange
• 1  fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and cubed
• 4  pints fresh berries: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries

Cooking Instructions:

 
   1. Combine Grand Marnier, marmalade, dried apricots, orange zest and sections, and pineapple up to 24 hours in advance.
   2. Up to 1 hour before serving, rinse berries. Hull strawberries and slice. Halve blackberries if they are large. Leave blueberries and raspberries whole. Toss berries, as gently as possible, with marinated fruit.

Texas Sheet Cake

 Ingredients

  —  Cake:
        Cooking spray
        2  cups all-purpose flour
        1 3/4  cups sugar
        1  teaspoon baking soda
        1/4  teaspoon salt

        1  cup (2 sticks) butter, cut into small pieces
        1  cup water

        1/3  cup unsweetened cocoa
        2  eggs
        1/2  cup buttermilk
        1  teaspoon vanilla extract

 —  Frosting:
       3  egg yolks
       1  cup evaporated milk, divided
       1  teaspoon vanilla extract
       1  cup sugar
       1/2  cup butter, cut into small pieces
       1 1/3  cups flaked, sweetened coconut
       1  cup chopped pecans

Instructions:

   1. Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a 13-by-9-by-2-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
   2. To prepare the cake, sift flour, sugar, baking soda and salt into a large bowl.
   3.  In a small saucepan, combine butter, water and cocoa. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until butter melts and mixture comes to a simmer.
   4.   Add cocoa mixture, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla to flour mixture; stir to combine. Pour into pan and bake 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Do not remove from pan.
   5.  To prepare the frosting, whisk egg yolks and about 1/3 cup milk in a saucepan. Add remaining milk, vanilla and sugar. Add butter; cook over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until it comes to a full boil. Reduce heat to maintain boil and cook, stirring frequently, 7 minutes or until thick. Remove from heat and stir in coconut and pecans. Cool, stirring occasionally, until thick enough to spread.
   6. Spread frosting over top of cake.

Father’s Day Cookout

When summer rolls around we can’t help wondering why men who don’t cook a meal from October to May bring out the charcoal chimney and the tongs and look around for something that has stopped moving to slap on the grill. It must go back to Paleolithic gender roles: men hunt and women gather.

These days, starting fires and handling meat is the closest most men come to the manly act of spearing a woolly mammoth. Why not give Dad a break on Father’s Day—take away his tongs, bring him a nice cold drink, and do the hunting and the gathering.

So, girls, here’s a recipe that your man would probably never make—Grilled Vegetables and Pork Chops in Lemongrass Marinade—but he’ll love it all the same. But remember, don’t get hooked on playing with fire; he’s going to want his job back next week.