Breakfast Serial #24: Biscuits and Gravy and an Overdue Reunion

Do you want to know one of the things I miss most about Earth, readers? It's probably going to surprise some of you, given the way my last several entries have gone, but it's this: camping. No, I am not joking!

Harper, haven't you had enough camping? You've camped more days than not since you arrived on Ocasta! I hear some of you yelling at your screens, and I can't disagree with that observation!

But more specifically, I miss the business of making breakfast while camping. Some of my longtime readers might recall my recipes for skillet corn cake and cheesy eggs from our beach camping excursion when we landed on Ocasta. That's the kind of meal that reminds me so much of home, of my old life, in Canada.

There's something about being immersed in the early morning air and sunrise first thing in the day as one is trying to remember how to make coffee and crack eggs that I find centering. It makes me remember that I am present in the here and now and have an entire day of wonder ahead of me. And in the here and now, even half awake, I'm capable of making a great pot of coffee for my loved ones.

So it was in this mindset that yesterday I dug through our supplies and after several weeks of minimal cooking on the trail of our friends, Sam and I kept camp for a while longer to make a proper breakfast. And I mean proper proper, with hot coffee and an oven going and spiced gravy and everything.

Perhaps it was the scent of so many good morning things at our little campsite that lured them to us, or maybe it was that we finally stuck around in one spot long enough for them to find us through the sea of trees, but just as I was pulling the biscuits (see recipe below) out of the oven, who should stroll in to camp but Pele!! And not just Pele, but yes! Our missing pastry chefs from Central Outpost, Taran Lockley and Dasiana Rrazne! You can bet that Sam was smug as all get-out about his code-breaking skills. He really did get us headed in the right direction. Yes, I gave him an extra biscuit for his efforts.

Dasiana and Taran had an incredible tale to tell us about [REDACTED BY THE WORLD ORGANIZATION FOR INTERSTELLAR SAFETY DUE TO VIOLATIONS OF CODE 59.b.24-Z]

I'm writing this recipe up from the road, as we're all headed back together to Outpost 3 to report in with our findings and maybe get back to the business of settling in to our new lives. But what an adventure this expedition has been! I'm going to miss camp breakfasts, but I'm glad my family recipe for biscuits and gravy was in small part what reunited us with friends old and new out here in the woods of a strange and wild world.

FLAKY BUTTERMILK HONEY-PEPPER BISCUITS AND SAUSAGE GRAVY

For the biscuits:

• 8 tablespoons good-quality salted butter (1 stick), divided
• 240 grams (2 cups) all-purpose flour, re-sifted
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons fresh cracked black pepper
• 3/4 cup (6 1/2 ounces) buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon honey

Instructions:

• Preheat your oven to 450ºF
• Melt half of your butter (4 tablespoons) into an 8" square baking pan and set aside.
• Whisk together your sifted flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper, then mix in the rest of your (unmelted!) butter by hand until the mixture is more or less close to cornmeal consistency. Some chunks are fine, as long as it's all coated in flour.
• Mix the honey into the buttermilk and stir until dissolved (it can help to warm it up for this but make sure you get it fully chilled again before moving on to the next step)
• Make a well in your flour-butter mixture and pour in the honey-buttermilk. Stir just until it all comes together into a shaggy lump.
• Dump your dough lump onto a well-floured surface and pat it down with your (floured) hands until it's about a 1" thick rectangle. Fold the rectangle kind of like a letter, then into a square, then smoosh it back down to 1" thick and repeat this process. It's sort of like you're laminating for puff pastry but with no need to be so precious or precise. You're just working in some layers to that butter and flour! Be sure not to overdo it, though. 2-3 times is plenty.
• Roll the dough out again to 1" thick (or thicker if you want really tall biscuits, up to you) and cut with a 3" cutter that has been dipped in flour. I didn't have a cutter on-hand in our camping gear, so I used a sharp knife. Just be sure to cut downward and then pull straight up without twisting or turning the knife/cutter! That's how you get those perfect straight edges and visible layers.
• Chill your biscuits in the freezer about 15 minutes to firm the butter up again. Don't let them sit for longer than an hour, and if it's going to be more than 15 you're better off sticking them in the refrigerator instead.
• This next step will require some care and probably some small tongs or chopsticks: take out your hot pan with melted butter in it and one at a time, place your biscuits into the melted butter and then flip them over so each side is coated. Do this with all of the biscuits into the pan.
• Bake until browned, about 12-15 minutes, and serve immediately.

For the gravy:

• 1 pound ground pork breakfast sausage (or if you want plant-based, go with 10 ounces of fresh, diced mushrooms mixed with a little diced onion, sauteed in vegetable oil and seasoned with herbs of choice!)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (approximately; you might need a little more or little less, depending)
• 2 cups whole milk (or plant-based milk of choice)
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• Cracked pepper and salt to taste
• 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
• Fresh thyme

Instructions (while the biscuits are baking):

• In a 12" cast iron or heavy-bottomed skillet, saute your sausage or mushrooms. If you're going the mushroom route, be sure to add a little extra oil for the gravy, and if going the sausage route do not drain the grease.
• Turn the heat down to low. Sprinkle flour over your mixture in the pan and stir to make a roux, saturating the flour completely. Cook for about 2 minutes until the flour is cooked
• Sprinkle your paprika in now and stir to combine, then slowly pour in half of the milk, stirring it into your mixture as you go. Raise the heat back up to medium and pour in the rest of your milk, stirring and cooking until the gravy is thickened.
• Add in your pepper and nutmeg and stir to combine. Add salt if needed and adjust seasonings to taste.
• Serve hot over warm biscuits and sprinkle with fresh thyme.

The Breakfast Serial is the fictitious food blog of interplanetary colonist Harper Luna. While the events and people are all made up, the recipes are quite real, human made and human tested (and delicious!), I assure you. The Breakfast Serial is written by Mia V. Moss.