Growing up, I never liked eating breakfast. I know- crazy, right?
For so many people, breakfast is the favourite meal of the day, but for a large part of my childhood and even through adolescence- nah, not for me. I didn’t eat eggs, for one. Once again, shocking to me now, but I went through a pretty big anti-egg phase back in the day. I didn’t hate them, I just… wasn’t interested.
As someone with a decidedly stunted sweet tooth, pancakes didn’t interest me. Waffles were just terribly stale pancakes. Bacon was pretty good, but even I couldn’t rationalize a meal consisting solely of breakfast meat (delicious, salty, smoky breakfast meat…)
Even when my family went travelling and breakfast was a restaurant occasion to fill up for the day, I usually forced down a glass of orange juice and the $1.50 bagel and cream cheese from the ‘sides’ menu (double cream cheese, obviously).
It wasn’t until my family visited Costa Rica when I was a teenager that I really became a breakfast fan again. Eggs, rice, beans, fruit. Every morning. No matter where you went to eat. Eggs, rice, beans, fruit. Oh, and a google drizzle of Lizano sauce. LOTS of Lizano sauce. Turns out, I do like breakfast- protein rich breakfasts!
Nowadays, I struggle to go without breakfast, my body has become so accustomed to a good bit of protein to kick off the day. I have my weekday morning breakfast burrito down to an art. Black beans, scrambled eggs, a bit of cheese, avocado (if I have some handy), cilantro, onion, lots of hot sauce- ready in under 5 minutes. It’s a dance, really.
Weekend mornings grant me a little more time, a little more leisure to put my hearty breakfast together. Nine times out of ten this means a Breakfast Pizza (once again, have I mentioned how much I love beans? I love beans.) but every once in a while, something will urge me to get creative. Quiches, omelettes, hashes, bennies… biscuits.
BISCUITS.
What took me so long to appreciate a good biscuit, hot out of the oven? Perhaps it was because I don’t fancy myself much of a baker, but oh-la-la, a biscuit- a biscuit requires almost no effort at all!
My first foray into biscuits were these sundried tomato and goat cheese drop biscuits. They were so easy and so delicious, they became an instant hit.
But what about gravy? I had heard of ‘Southern Biscuits and Gravy’ a lot but never had the privilege of trying the dish until recently. Well. WELL. As a savoury, carb loving, protein craving monster… I mean, come on! Happy. Days.
This is by no means a traditional take on the dish, but then again, I’m not from the American South soooo… I hope I’m forgiven for not sticking to tradition.
As I wrote in this recipe, good sausages can be a really handy shortcut for quick, easy cooking. Pro: they bring all their own flavour and seasoning with them, so you don’t have to add more. Less ingredients! Extra easy! The only caviat is that your dish will only be as good as the sausage you buy, so get some good stuff. Make sure it’s punchy and flavourful!
| Rosemary Biscuits & Italian Sausage Gravy | Print |
- Biscuits:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ cup butter, very cold
- 1 cup cold milk
- 3 Tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
- .
- Gravy:
- 200g Italian sausage meat (roughly 2 large links)
- ⅓ cup flour
- 3 cups milk
- .
- Chives (garnish)
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar and black pepper. Using a cheese grater, grate cold butter into flour mixture. Using your hands, quickly rub flour and butter together until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add rosemary and stir to combine. Add milk and mix together with a fork until a dough forms. Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and roll out until it is roughly 1 inch thick.
- Using a biscuit cutter,* cut out as many biscuits as possible and place on the lined baking sheet. Take care to press the biscuit cutter down, but do not twist it as you form the biscuits- this will stop them from rising as much as they should. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out further biscuits until most, if not all, the dough has been used up. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until golden brown.
- While the biscuits are cooking, you can prep the gravy. Crumble sausage meat in a medium saucepan and cook on medium-high heat until browned. Reduce heat to medium-low and start to sprinkle in the flour, a little at a time, stirring until incorporated each time. The excess fat from the sausages will form a roux with the flour, which will in turn thicken your gravy.
- Slowly pour in the milk, stirring constantly, until the gravy thickens. The gravy will continue to thicken after it is removed from the heat so if it gets too thick at any point, loosen it up with another splash or two of milk.
- Serve biscuits hot out of the oven topped with a big scoop of sausage gravy. Garnish with chives.
These biscuits and gravy look and sound so amazingly delicious and comforting too. Perfect for the winter weather here in Australia now!
Definitely good snuggle-weather food. Gotta look out for my Southern Hemispherites! 🙂