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MEET THE SOUS CHEF
CARRIE MASHANEY, CHEF DE CUISINE, SPINASSE
Carrie Mashaney, chef de cuisine of Spinasse, in Seattle, Washington, wants to give a shout-out to her hometown. “Yeah! Tell everyone I’m from Carpenter, Iowa,” she exclaims with pride. “The 100 people that live there will be psyched.”
Mashaney left the Corn Belt 13 years ago to attend culinary school in Seattle; finding that the city suited her, she never left. But cooking school wasn’t a fit for the chef, who dropped out after a year, then enrolled in the baking and pastry program at a local community college. Following an externship in France, she returned to Seattle where she has lived and worked since.
She has cooking in her blood: Mashaney’s mother owned a restaurant in Iowa. “I grew up in the kitchen,” she says. “I washed dishes at the restaurant and grew up watching Great Chefs of the World.” And though she may have grown up in the industry, Mashaney says, “There’s always so much to learn. Trying something that you’ve never tasted before--it brings me back to being a child, that feeling of experiencing something for the first time.”
Mashaney and her husband, also a chef, make breakfast together at home every morning. She frequently makes biscuits, which inspired her Sous Chef Series recipe. Topped with griddled ham and paired with a tomato salad, they're a fine way to start the day.
TRACK THIS CHEF
DAY IN THE LIFE
Jump Start
"Breakfast is the only meal of the day I actually sit down for," says Mashaney. She cooks the morning meal at home with her husband, a chef at a sushi restaurant near their West Seattle home.
TIPS & TECHNIQUES
Keep It Cold
When Mashaney makes biscuits, she chills the flour and the butter in the freezer for 15 minutes before combining them, a trick she picked up from a pie-making class she once took.
Use Your Hands
For ultraflaky biscuits, Mashaney prefers to mix biscuit dough with her hands rather than using a pastry cutter or food processor. She uses her fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until the mixture is in pea-sized lumps, then adds the buttermilk.
YIELD
4 servings (2 biscuits per person)
INGREDIENTS
Biscuits
Cold unsalted butter, 1½ sticks (cut into ½-inch cubes)
All-purpose flour, 3 cups plus extra for rolling
Baking powder, 1 tablespoon
Baking soda, ¾ teaspoon
Salt, 1 teaspoon
Granulated sugar, 1½ teaspoons
Buttermilk, 1½ cups
Melted unsalted butter, 2 tablespoons
Thick-cut ham steaks, 2 (about ¾ pound)
Extra-virgin olive oil, 2 teaspoons
Tomato Salad
Extra-virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons
Champagne vinegar, 1½ tablespoons
Fresh mint leaves, ¼ cup (finely chopped)
Fresh flat-leaf parsley, ¼ cup (finely chopped)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Cherry tomatoes, 2 cups (halved)
EQUIPMENT
Mixing bowls
Ruler
Baking sheet pan
DIRECTIONS
1. Make the biscuits: Preheat the oven to 450°. On a small plate set the
- Unsalted butter cubes
Place in the freezer for 15 minutes. Set the fine-mesh sieve (or use a flour sifter) over a large metal bowl and add the
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Granulated sugar
Freeze for 15 minutes. Remove both the butter and flour mixture from the freezer and use your fingers to pinch the butter into the flour mixture, working quickly, until most of the butter is worked in and there is a variety of small and large pieces of butter within the flour mixture. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add
- 1¼ cups buttermilk
Use the wooden spoon to stir the mixture together until it becomes hard to stir, then switch to using your hands to gently toss and turn the mixture until only a few dry spots remain, drizzling in the remaining ¼ cup of buttermilk a little at a time as needed.
2. Sprinkle a cutting board with some
- All-purpose flour
Turn the dough out onto the floured board and press it into a rough rectangle shape. Lightly flour the top and use a rolling pin to roll it into a 12-inch by 14-inch rectangle that’s about ½-inch thick. Fold the dough into thirds like a business letter. Turn the dough so the long edge is parallel to the long side of the cutting board. Roll the dough into a ½-inch thick rectangle and repeat the folding. Roll again, this time rolling the dough only slightly into a 10-inch by 12-inch rectangle about 1-inch thick. Use a 3-inch biscuit cutter to cut out as many biscuits as you can (you can gently push the dough back together and flatten it by hand, then cut out more biscuits. Discard the remaining dough. Place the biscuits on a nonstick baking sheet (or a parchment paper-lined baking sheet) and refrigerate for 10 minutes.
3. Remove the biscuits from the refrigerator and use the pastry brush to coat the tops with the
- Melted unsalted butter
Place the biscuits in the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 425°. Bake until golden brown on top, about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheet midway through baking. Remove from the oven and use the metal spatula to transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool.
4. Make the tomato salad: In a medium bowl, whisk together the
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Champagne vinegar
- Chopped mint
- Chopped parsley
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Add the
- Halved cherry tomatoes
Gently toss to combine and set aside.
5. Use the biscuit cutter to cut out 8 circles from the ham. Heat a large skillet over medium heat for 1 minute. Add the
- 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Ham-steak circles
Cook until browned, about 2 minutes on each side. Use a metal spatula to transfer the ham steaks to a plate to cool.
6. Separate the biscuits horizontally into two parts. Add a browned ham steak to biscuit bottoms, cover with the top half of the biscuit and serve with tomato salad on the side.