Backseat Saints, Biscuits and Hot Pepper Jelly

This post has taken forever for me to get out!  I read the book weeks ago, then made the biscuits and bought the ingredients for the hot pepper jelly.  The biscuits alone were not right for the book - I needed the spunky and spicy jelly in order to represent the spunky and spicy (and slightly crazy) main character in Joshlyn Jackson's Backseat Saints, Rose Mae.  So I made the biscuits, photographed them, saved three and brought the rest to my sister, my brother in law reportedly quickly ate them all, but still, I could not get my act together to make the hot pepper jelly!  Finally, this weekend, after a few weekends away and friends visiting I got around to making the jelly. I think the process of sterilization is what held me up - I was just scared of it.   I will only give rough directions on this process after the jump, but will refer to you better sources - I don't want to be responsible for anyone getting sick!  More about the food and the fun book after the jump.

Joshilyn Jackson writes about sassy Southern Women that are rough around the edges and have a talent for getting into big messes.  Backseat Saints tells the store of Rose Mae, a woman who ran away from her small town home in Alabama, met a bad guy, married him, moved to Texas and lived a life of quiet terror  - always in fear of the next time he would beat her up.  When she moves to Texas she takes on a different persona  she was in Alabama - Ro Grandee - she is all smiles, girly and flirty and good.  In Alabama she was a bit of a hellcat, poor and doing whatever she could to survive.  When she was young, Rose Mae's mother left her and this understandably has haunted her since and shaped her life since.  One day, Ro drives her elderly neighbor to the airport and a gypsy asks to read her palms.  The gypsy tells her that she must kill her husband or husband will kill her.  After she leaves the airport she decides she must get away, not only because of the gypsy's warning but because she realizes the gypsy was her long lost mother.  She escapes her husband, travels back to Alabama to find her mother, and then on to San Francisco.  Readers of one of Jackson's other book - Gods in Alabama, will recognize some of the characters (including Ro) from that book.  I enjoyed this book as I did the other Jackson books - they are quick moving and engrossing.  Also, she creates characters that are so three dimensional.  I decided to do something Southern for the recipe  - the classic biscuits.  To go with it I went with the Hot Pepper Jelly cause I think the appropriately represent Rose Mae.

Buttermilk Biscuits and Hot Pepper Jelly
(Printable Recipe)   
Adapted from  The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook
Makes about 12 biscuits and 2 pints of Jelly

Hot Pepper Jelly Ingredients and Directions
2 pint sized, wide mouth Ball jars with rims and lids
1 dried hot chile, split open with seeds and stem removed
2 cups chopped red bell pepper
2 cups chopped green pepper
1 cup chopped jalapeno
3/4 cup distilled vinegar (I used cider vinegar)
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 box Sure-Jell or other brand Fruit Pectin (1 3/4 ounces)

To get the best directions for safely canning, please go to http://www.freshpreserving.com/getting-started.aspx.  This is the Ball company's directions.  I followed the Lee Bros directions below but best consult both to be sure you are 100% safe, I can't guarantee the steps below will be 100% safe (Can you guys tell I am a lawyer?) Directions:

1.  Fill a 3QT pot three quarters full of water and bring to a boil over high heat.  Using tongs, carefully set the jars and lids, along with a slotted metal spoon, in thew boiling water to sterilize.  Boil for 10 minutes, then remove from the water carefully with a pair of tongs or a jar lifter and set aside.
2. Put the dried chile in a bowl filled with warm water, let soak for 10 minutes until soft. 
3. Put the chile (taken out of the water but not dried), and all the peppers in a food processor with 2 tablespoons of vinegar and pulse until it is a chunky slurry.  A chunky christmas slurry! The peppers should be shredded but there is plenty of liquid too.  Go for about 6 seconds.  Don't liquify them completely.
4. Transfer the pepper slurry to a saucepan, add the remaining vinegar, sugar and salt and bring to a heavy boil over high heat.  Lower to heat and simmer for 3 mins.  Stir in the pectin, return to a boil and boil for 1 minute. 
5. This liquid will still be thin and it will thicken in the fridge.  After 1 day mine still had not thickened, hopefully soon! Poor the jelly into the sterilized jars.  Seal allow to cool and put in fridge, will keep in fridge for 2 months.

 

Buttermilk biscuits

2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons cold lard or shortening cut into small pieces
3/4 cup buttermilk (milk or cream would work fine too)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

1. In a medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients thoroughly with a fork then put into food processor.
2. Add the butter and shortening, pulse until the mixture is pebble like - about 5 two second pumps.
3. Transfer mixture to a bowl and add buttermilk, stir with fork till it just comes together.
4. Turn out onto a flour surface and knead until it just comes together.
5. Pat the dough into a 6 by 10 rectangle.  Now fold like a letter before you put it in an envelope.  Fold the top down a third then the bottom to meet it, pat it back into a 6 by 10 rectangle and repeat.  Do this 3 more times.  This is what gives the biscuit so many flaky layers!
6. Cut the biscuits out with a 2 inch biscuit cutter.  Place them onto a baking sheet a couple of inches apart.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes until tops just begin to brown.