Soda Bread

Nothing beats freshly baked bread but you don't always have the time to make it. I know the actual mixing / kneeding process doesn't take that much time but waiting for it to prove take a chunk of time you may not have, especially if you are trying to make some on a day when you need to go out / to work etc.

The solution: Soda bread as you are not waiting for for the yeast to do it's thing. The bicarbonate acts as the rising agent.

This is one I made a couple of weeks ago. There are loads of soda bread recipes out there and they all appear to be essentially the same in terms of the ratio of ingredients. All I have done here is scale them up to the volume of buttermilk I had and then exchanged some of the flour for oats. The oats gave it a nice oaty flavour but I don't think they absorbed as much of the liquid as the flour would. Might well play about with the ratio a little next time I make it.

Making it couldn't be easier. Take a large bowel, mix all the dry ingredients well and then stir in the buttermilk making sure it is all combined well. Take the resultant dough and shape it into a rough flattened ball and place on a baking sheet. Make a large cross on top of the loaf and place in the oven. 200C for ~ 40 minutes.

Especially good still warm with some good cheddar...

Ingredients:
560mls buttermilk
260grams white flour
260 grams wholemeal flour
100grams porridge oats
1tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

Another Beef

No, not a moan, just an off the cuff beef recipe. I mentioned I had done this on FB and one of my friends asked me if I'd followed a recipe or invented it. I said invented but that probably makes the process sound rather more erudite and conceived than it actually was. Made up as I went along might have been slightly closer to the mark...my apologies if this post rambles a bit as well!

Anyways, what did I do?

I had bought a piece of topside with the intention of roasting it. Some hot for dinner and leave the rest to go cold and eat it over the next day or two. Oven heated up I put the beef into the roasting tray along with some black pepper and then thought to roast some onions as well.

This quickly turned into an idea for a "gravy". The use of quotation marks should indicate that some people may not consider this to be a proper gravy but what the heck...

So, roasting tray, beef, black pepper. Now add 2 large onions chopped into quarters, one vegetable stock cube and half a bottle of Chocolate porter (or chocolate stout) and cover with foil / lid of your roasting pan.

Place in the oven at 190C. I left it for 30mins/lb plus 30 (uncovering it half way through). This should have left me with well done beef - as I was intending to let some go cold. However, presumably due to the liquid it wasn't that well done. Actually medium-rare / bit pink still in the middle. Perfect for eating hot in my book, but, not what I was aiming for. Didn't discover this until I went to slice it though...

While the beef was resting I tipped the remains of the cooking liquid and onions into a saucepan and brought it to the boil reducing the volume down to make the "gravy" / sauce. Simple as it gets!

The final plate was mashed potato, some generous slices of beef and spooned over the top was some of the onion and "gravy". Delicious, especially with the remains of the porter to drink.

In a few days I shall say what I actually did with the the other half of the beef...

Idiots guide to cooking fish....

Take 1 piece of fish....

Place on a piece of foil along with a knob of butter...

Add any other flavourings (herbs / pepper / lemon etc )...

Wrap the foil around to make a parcel, sealing everything in with the fish...

Put that in an other foil parcel to ensure it is sealed...

Place in an oven at 180C for 30-40 minutes...

Take out of oven and enjoy a moist piece of fish...

An Egg and Ham Pie?

A dish of bits left over in the fridge at the end of the week...

You all know the feeling - left over ingredients which need using but what to do with them? This happened to me (again) a couple of weeks ago when I was looking at some left over short crust pastry in the fridge and wondering if there was anything I could do with it. In the end I decided to try and make a "pie" (for want of a better word) with the last 2 eggs, a bit of cheddar and some sliced ham that was also in the fridge.

The pastry was thinly rolled out in order to line a stoneware bowl. To this was added some slices of ham and a bit of grated cheddar. 2 beaten eggs were then poured in before some more ham and grated cheddar were added. On top of this some mornay sauce was poured (Mornay is a béchamel with grated cheese added). Finally, a bit more grated cheese on top.

Simply put in the oven at 220C. I gave it 20 minutes but it probably could have done with a bit longer. It was only just cooked as it was still a bit liquid (though hot) in centre. I'd guess an extra 5-10 minutes (especially if you shouldn't be eating raw egg for any reason).

Given the left over nature of the ingredients I have decided to enter this for Frugal food Fridays being hosted this month by Caroline of Caroline Makes on behalf of Helen of Fuss Free Flavours.

Strawberry and mint swirls.

Simple, quick and easy to make these are a great summer snack / party food.

Inspired by the Lemon and Pistachio Pinwheels in Marian Keyes' Saved by Cake (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Saved-Cake-Marian-Keyes/dp/071815889X) these are sweet yet somehow refreshing with the mint.

Ingredients:
Ready made puff pastry - 1 sheet (this is supposed to be quick and simple and, frankly, you can buy some really good ready made pastry).
Strawberry jam - 2 tablespoons
Mint, finely chopped - 1 teaspoon.

Method:

Mix the strawberry jam and the mint.
Thinly spread this mix over the sheet of puff pastry.
Roll the sheet of pasty up and then slice up. Make the slices about 1cm thick.
Place the slices on a baking tray and out in the oven at 210C for 20 minutes.

Job done. I said they were easy! Ignoring the cooking time, making them takes about 5 minutes. The only cautionary note I will add is not to add too much filling - if you do it just oozes out and is prone to catching if you are not careful.