A 45 minute drive from San Diego along the northbound Interstate 15 leads to Rainbow, California. A tiny rural area with a population of less than 2,000, they draw attention with a retro diner sign. Just visible among the surrounding trees, The Rainbow Oaks Restaurant is a gathering place for local vintage car collectors and middle-aged bikers, as well as a fantastic spot for inexpensive, quality home cooking. It has been operating since the 1940s, even after closing enduring the wildfires that wreaked havoc throughout Southern California in 2007. Although the building has a new look, the food is still as delicious as it was when my family ate there throughout my middle and high school years. Every so often we would wake up early on a Saturday morning and pile into the car, sleepy and hungry, anticipating the salty, greasy scent of frying bacon, perfect pancakes and thick, runny yolks of eggs over medium. Whenever I felt particularly indulgent, I opted instead for their biscuits and gravy. Hot, flaky biscuits smothered by thick, savory white gravy studded with tiny pieces of sausage are deliciously tempting, especially on a cool fall morning, to anyone with a heart and a stomach. Though I have not yet visited the South, Rainbow Oak’s biscuits and gravy are the best I have ever eaten.
All photos by Christine Chan/THE CHIMES
The best, and possibly most dangerous, part of biscuits and gravy is how simple they are to make at home. There is no reason you cannot enjoy them whenever you happen upon a craving for Southern cooking, perhaps on a cool Saturday morning this fall. While I admit that there is obviously nothing nutritionally redeeming about this hearty breakfast, it also does not hurt to enjoy life every once in a while. Besides, it is almost sweater and scarf season, even in Southern California, perfect clothing while you work off a couple helpings of biscuits and gravy before swimsuit season comes back around. You know, because you can’t eat just one.
Biscuits and Gravy
Biscuits:
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
3 1/2 ounces butter, cold
1 egg
2/3 cup buttermilk, cold
extra flour for rolling out dough
The key to making successful biscuits is keeping the butter in the dough cold. Do not soften the butter before using it; pull it out of the fridge just before you need it. This way, the butter only melts when the biscuits bake, releasing steam that creates perfect, flaky biscuits. Also, if you do not have a rolling pin, any cylindrical object such as a tall glass will work in its place.
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Combine the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a medium bowl. Cut butter into large chunks and add to the bowl. With your hands, rub the butter into the flour until the butter becomes smaller, about walnut size.
Whisk together the buttermilk and egg. Pour into the dry ingredients and combine just until homogeneous. Using your hands is a great, albeit a little messy, way to make sure all the ingredients are moistened without over mixing.
Dust a counter top or table with flour and roll dough into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Fold one end of the dough over two-thirds of the rectangle, then fold the other side over to create a letter fold. Roll the dough out again, this time to a one inch thick rectangle. Using cookie cutters or the opening of a glass dusted with flour, cut the biscuits to your desired shape and size. I have found that two-inch circles are a good size, though it is up to you to decide if you want dainty or Texas size biscuits.
Refrigerate your cut biscuits for 10 minutes, in order to firm up the butter before baking. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 10 – 12 minutes. They should smell delicious and be light, golden brown and puffy when ready to be removed from the oven.
Gravy:
Adapted from: thepioneerwoman.com
4 sausage links, any flavor desired – herbed sausage makes amazing gravy
4 tablespoon sausage grease
3 tablespoon flour
3 cups milk
Salt – to taste
Pepper – to taste
Heat a pan over medium heat. Chop up sausage into bite size pieces and cook until nicely browned in the pan. When fully cooked, remove from skillet and place on a plate covered with a paper towel to keep warm. Reserve the grease in a small bowl.
Measure four tablespoons of the sausage grease back into the pan and whisk in the flour until smooth. Whisking occasionally, let cook until it becomes a deep tan color, past golden brown. Whisk in milk, one cup at a time, letting the gravy thicken before the next addition. If the gravy becomes creamy and viscous — it should pour off a spoon instead of dropping in clumps — before all the milk is added, save the milk to drink with the meal; you do not want the gravy to become too runny.
Season with a couple pinches of salt and pepper; taste the gravy in order to decide how much to add. If it tastes bland, it needs a little more salt. When it makes your heart happy, it is ready.
Cut the warm biscuits in half and place on a plate. Pour as much gravy as you desire over the biscuits. Finish your plate with a little bit of sausage, then sit back, relax and enjoy the simple joy of Southern cooking.
