In the spirit of Independence Day, we butchered our meat birds this morning (my gentle, vegetarian readers may want to stop reading here). It was a feeling of great self-sufficiency and independence to raise these birds on our own land, and fill our freezer with some good food. Our four meat birds were old enough to eat, plus two stew hens, so we butchered and froze all but the biggest, juiciest one, which I turned into fried chicken. I decided to go all out and make a fried chicken dinner with beet and turnip greens, buttermilk biscuits, corn on the cob, lavender lemonade and lemon icebox pie. I had to do all of this without gluten and dairy in keeping with my son’s food allergies, so it was an adventure in culinary substitutions! How did I do all this without using wheat, gluten or dairy, you might wonder? I had the help of Bob’s Redmill Gluten-free All-Purpose Baking Mix. I used this as breading on the chicken, and for the biscuits. Since we have been trying cultured dairy in small amounts for the kids, I did use buttermilk in the biscuits, so these weren’t really dairy-free, but coconut milk also works great with a little splash of vinegar to give that sour buttermilk flavor.
I have a deep, heartfelt appreciation for southern soul food. I don’t know why. Maybe it comes from all the really healthy, low-fat meals my mother made while I was growing up. I don’t think we ever fried anything. Not to say that I fry things very often, but every once in a while, a fried chicken dinner is a real treat. Fortunately, we have a great restaurant here in town called Papa’s Soul Food Kitchen where one can get their soul food fix. It’s a lot of work to cook a proper soul food meal! But, I am a do-it-yourself sort, so every summer I’ll go all out and make such a meal. A few years ago, I found the Fannie Flagg’s Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook. If any of you have ever read her book, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, or seen the movie, and drooled over the description of southern BBQ, fluffy buttermilk biscuits, crunch fried green tomatoes, and icebox pies, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Whistle Stop Cafe Lemon Icebox Pie
(from Fannie Flagg’s Original Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook)
1 1/2 cup vanilla wafer crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 8-oz package cream cheese
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 6-oz package frozen lemonade concentrate
1 4-oz package frozen whipped topping thawed
Combine crumbs and butter and press firmly into 9 inch pie plate. Chill. Beat cream cheese until fluffy and gradually beat in condensed milk, and lemonade concentrate. Fold in whipped topping and pour into pie shell. Chill four hours. Serve topped with more whipped topping.
* A Note: To make this pie gluten-free and dairy-free friendly for my kids, I substituted a Nourishing Traditions nut pie crust (basically ground nuts, coconut oil, and arrowroot starch), canned coconut milk for the condensed milk, Tofutti for the cream cheese, and organic dairy free whipped topping. I also candied some lemon slices for the top.
Whistle Stop Cafe Buttermilk Biscuits
2 cups self rising flour
2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Combine first three ingredients, make a well in the center and add wet ingredients. Stir until just mixed by not sticky. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Knead dough 4 or 5 times on a well-floured surface. Cut out with 2 inch biscuit cutter, and bake on a lightly greased baking sheet for 10 minutes.
* A Note: To make self-rising flour, add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/8 tsp salt to every 1 cup of flour or gluten-free flour mix.
Lavender Lemonade
(summer is finally here!)
A lovely food feast, cheers Marie
Looks like an incredible meal! Your family is so lucky to be eating your cooking!
Wow, I'm amazed at how fast those meat birds grew!