Bruce Lee famously had to win a fight against the best hand picked martial artist in order to keep teaching Westerners the art of Wing Chun. He won, but barely, and was struck by how much of what he had learned wasn’t useful in actual combat. Lee decided a brand new approach was in order.
At that time, every martial art was very siloed. Even within the all encompassing title of Kung Fu, there were many different styles that required complete devotion and no outside influence or technique was allowed. Lee took all the moves, techniques, and philosophies that worked from each discipline, from Wing Chun, Judo, and Western boxing just to name a few, unceremoniously dumped all the poses and rituals, and kept only what could be applied to real life practical self defense.
And so Jeet Kun Do was born.
Instead of being locked into one philosophy with strict restrictions, Bruce Lee learned the best of each and always was open to learning and adapting new techniques. I like to think that the tao of this article series follows in the spirit of Lee’s philosophy. No restrictive food bans, no being locked into one way of eating, just take what works and dispose of what does not.
The recipes that end up here are the results of researching several different approaches to overhauling a certain dish, trying them exactly as written, figuring out why they are disappointing, and then coming up with additions or subtractions that make it work. The final result usually consists of parts of several recipes combined with my own additions, or ones I’ve created on my own using techniques learned over the years.
Biscuits are a great example of this philosophy. Back in my previous life, I thought biscuits came either as frozen hockey pucks or in an exploding can from the mega-mart. Each one tasted good enough, but those biscuits also had a habit of turning into a muffin…the muffin top over my jeans when I managed to get the top button fastened.
Then, as I started watching the cooking show Good Eats and buying Alton Brown’s books, I started making his biscuits, or I should say, his grandmother’s, and man o’ man, was that a game changer. If you have not yet transitioned away from eating simple carbs and processed flour, you owe it to yourself to look up his page and make these golden brown and delicious fluff bombs.
Once I began this new journey, I thought biscuits were a thing of the past, and the little kid in me raised on heavy southern breakfasts with biscuits and gravy was throwing extremely violent fat boy fits over that decision. So began the project to come up with a substitute that would allow me to continue a biscuit filled life without the processed flours and trans fats.
After several trials and major errors, I have taken the best of several recipes plus the techniques I learned from Alton and come up with what I think is a great alternative. Are they as fluffy and delicious as what Alton makes? Sadly, no. There’s no replicating that level of goodness. But, compared to the exploding pipe bomb dough and frozen offerings full of questionable ingredients and mystery chemicals, they are outstanding.
These biscuits taste great, are sturdy enough to be a delivery vehicle from everything to eggs to Red Beans and Rice (that’s called foreshadowing, kids…to be continued next week) and can even be tweaked for sweet desserts as well. I even use real buttermilk here, which is an absolute no go for most no-sugar-added people.
Listen, a cup of buttermilk has 12 grams of sugar. I’m using 1/4 cup, so a total of 3 grams is going in, divided over 8 biscuits. So just don’t eat all of them at one sitting, and you will be fine. And if you do eat all 8 at once, congratulations on being rescued from that deserted island, and I hope you find your volleyball soon.
Give these a go the next time you need biscuits in your life. I’ve done the leg work and eliminated all the stuff that doesn’t work. Pair it with my healthy gravy from past articles, drizzle a bit of raw honey on it, or dip it in a soup, and let the little fat kid raised on 5000 calorie southern breakfasts have a win.
Biscuit Kung Fu:
Ingredients:
280 grams fine almond flour (2 1/2 cups)
2 chicken eggs room temp
1/4 cup buttermilk room temp
30 grams shredded grass fed cheddar cheese (1/4 cup)
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
42 grams grass fed butter, chilled and cubed (3 tbsp)
Instructions:
Set out your eggs and buttermilk to come to room temp. Cut the butter into cubes and chill in the freezer for 10 minutes:
Shred your cheese and gather with the other wet team ingredients:
Combine all the dry team and whisk in a large bowl:
Cut the butter into the dry team by rubbing the butter into the almond flour with your fingers. If your hands run hot, wearing disposable gloves is a good idea. Rub the butter into the mix until it looks dry and crumbly. You don’t want the butter to melt, so work quickly. Then add the wet ingredients and cheese in and stir with a spatula just until it comes together. Do not overmix. Take the dough ball and place in a gallon plastic zip top bag, flatten down into a disk, and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Once 30 minutes gets close, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Portion the dough out into balls about 45 grams by weight. Shape into biscuits (wearing gloves hit with non-stick spray) and place on a cooking sheet lined with parchment:
Bake for 10 minutes, flip the biscuits, then bake for 3 to 4 minutes more:
Slice open and serve. Shown here under red beans and rice with some honey drizzled as well, because I can:
See the list of all Jason Murphy’s recipes at www.mysaline.com/jason-murphy.