A Few Odds and Ends: Hearty Pepper Soup with Homemade Buttermilk (Ok, Plain Yoghurt) Biscuits

I could not decide what I wanted for breakfast yesterday.  Many ideas went through my mind.  All I knew was that I wanted something rich in carbohydrates.  Yes, I am trying to get rid of my belly, and eating foods rich in carbs is the best way to do it, right?  Hmmm... Would it not be a better world if that were true?

Carbs.  Yes, so I decided to make buttermilk biscuits.  Huh, no buttermilk.  No problem.  Add four tablespoons of white vinegar (which I had) to one cup of whole milk and let sit for about 10 minutes=quasi-buttermilk.  No milk.  Huh?   Still no problem.  I have one more trick up my sleeve. You'll see below.

I have something to confess.  Before this weekend, I had never made biscuits from scratch before.  (Oh, and what I refer to as biscuits are not what are referred to as biscuits in the UK.  Biscuits, where I come from, are a type of bread that accompanies a meal, often be not necessarily breakfast.  Hmmm... I guess you might be able to compare them to a savoury scone--arms up to block my face; don't hit me.)  I had to do a Google search to find ideas for a recipe.  I say ideas for a recipe and not a recipe because I just gotta make it my own: partly because I cannot always find recommended ingredients in my kitchen or neighbourhood.  After gleaning ideas from a few sources, I came up with the following.  Oh, and I was out of milk, so a substitute was made based on an idea I gleaned from an amazing pancake recipe a couple of years ago.

Ingredients and method:

In a large mixing bowl, add:

2 cups of all purpose flour

1 tablespoon of baking powder

¾ teaspoon of salt

Stir together together.

Cut in 4 tablespoons (about 50g) of butter.

Make a well in the centre of the mixture.

Pour in 1 cup of plain yoghurt (YAY!!! This is the big gun I pull out when I do not have buttermilk!!!)

Stir until just mixed!!!  It will still be be wet and sticky.

Pour the mixture onto a floured counter top.  Roll the lump to just cover with flour.

Knead the dough about six times, not too much or the dough will become too chewy when cooked.

Then spread out to the desire thickness and cut.

Bake at 200 Celsius or around 375 Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes.

Simple.

Good.

I had these with egg on Saturday, then on Sunday, I uses the leftovers with some homemade pepper soup as the starch.  No rice or garri.  Oh, and with this pepper soup, I made what I call a hearty pepper soup and added more vegetable.  I am just getting over being a bit under the weather and really needed some extra vitamins.  Just take your average pepper soup recipe and add some chunks of carrots, leeks, bell peppers, slices of okra and other vegetables you like.

However, it was so good!