Traditional Irish Soda Bread

I remember from a trip to Ireland that my friend’s mother lamented she could never make Irish soda bread in the US that could rival the Irish soda bread you could make in Ireland. She informed us that this was due to a difference of flour. One of the tasks we had to do was go shopping and bring bags of flour back from Ireland. So you see, I have some background with being particular over Irish Soda Bread.

You all know that I love my little town of Murphy’s. But there is one thing that makes my skin crawl and my eyes flash with fury. In March, our local market carries a manufactured yeasted hot cross bun without icing that is labeled and sold as Irish soda bread. This sweet yeasted bread bears not a speck of resemblance to Irish soda bread. I understand that it lets the manufacturer extend their hot cross bun production, but I’m not amused. True Irish soda bread is based on flour, baking soda, a dash of salt and preferably buttermilk. To this you may choose to add a tablespoon of sugar, currents, raisins or dried fruits.  You could modernize it with spices and fruits and play with your flours. But, once you take out soda as the leavening or add yeast – it simply is not a soda bread. There is a distinctive taste to the soda within the bread that does not appeal to all and the lack of any fats mean that it will dry to a brick and be a lovely doorstop the day after you’ve baked it (in Ireland, my sister likened eating soda bread to be as pleasurable as eating sawdust). I have a taste for and like the real thing. Do have to remember not to serve it to the locals here as I’m sure, given their expectation,  I’d be greeted with a loud GAACK from folks expecting a sweet yeast bread.

Now that I’ve set reasonable expectations, let’s proceed to the bread. An Irish soda bread is made like a biscuit. If you knead or work it too much it will toughen – light touch is required. I base my recipe on one by Marion Cunningham that’s in Baking with Julia (I understand this was companion to a series, though I never saw the tv show, great book with one top recipe from each of many renowned bakers).

Traditional Irish Soda Bread recipe:

4 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 cups buttermilk

 

Maggie’s version Irish Soda Bread:

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon sugar

3/4 cup raisins

2 cups buttermilk

Oven 375

Grease in 8 inch pie plate or baking sheet. Stir the dry ingredients together with a fork. I’ve mentioned in other posts that I like to press my baking soda through a tea strainer to ensure it has no lumps. Add the buttermilk and completely blend. Add the raisins. Turn onto a lightly floured board and work for a scant 1 minute. Do not overwork this dough. Pat into a six-inch disk an X across the top. Place into your pan or on your cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 50 min. until light golden brown. Transfer to a rack and cool. This bread is delicious with some rich creamy butter and a cup of tea.

Warm ‘n Hearty Spanish-style Black Bean Soup

This weekend they’re forecasting yet another record-breaking cold storm with snow, perhaps breaking a 30 year record with snow in the Bay Area. Stocked up on the water, the batteries, the dry wood – dry being the operative word – and food. When I’m looking at a storm that could take out my power for days, I like to plan dishes that can be cooked or reheated in one simple pot. If you have to go to the garage to get your jugs of icy water to wash dishes because there’s no electricity for your well , you get very selective about how many dishes to employ throughout the day. During the last power outage I was so happy I’d made my wonderful pot of lentil soup as an easy go to, spicy meal.  For this possible outage due to storm, I decided to indulge in a nice large pot of my garlic laden Spanish-style black bean soup.

The chipotle chili powder in this recipe really brings a nice flavor and depth – with just a tad of heat – to this dish. It’s worth searching out. I looked over a few recipes in developing this one; it’s only very loosely based on one of the back of a Sunny Select bag of beans.

Spanish-style black bean soup

16oz bag Black Beans

7 cups water

5 large stalks of celery chopped

5 large carrots sliced

8+ large cloves of garlic chopped (I use about half a head)

1 medium onion chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

3/4 teaspoons dry mustard

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder

1/2 lemon

Sort and rinse your black beans using either a quick soak or overnight soak method. For quick soak cover with water boil, for 2 min. and let stand in a tightly covered pot for more than an hour. Discard the soaking water. For overnight soak, sort and rinse the beans, cover with water in a large pot, let stand overnight, drain soaking water. Put the oil into your soup pot; add the onion and garlic and sauté until the onion is translucent. Add the chopped celery and sliced carrots, sautéing a few minutes longer. Add the dry mustard, chili powder, and chipotle chili, stir while on the heat to bloom the flavors for a minute or so. Add the water and prepared black beans. Simmer for one hour; test that the beans are very tender. If not cook until the beans are tender. Remove from heat and squeeze in the juice from the lemon. Purée (stick blender, food processor or blender) leaving it a little bit chunky. I like my soups very thick, you may want to thin with warm water at this point. Salt to taste. Serve with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt. This soup reheats well.

The picture linky parties I participate in are linked at the bottom of this post.

Absolutely Perfect Pear Cobbler with Cranberry Streusel

Although I have a respectable collection of cookbooks, I tend to go to two favorite spots on the web when browsing recipes. One is Epicurious.com where I’ll focus on the recipes from Bon Appetit and Gourmet; the other is Food network.com where I’ll sort to certain chefs (Ina Garten, Tyler Lawrence, Bobby Flay if I’m in the mood for spicy or Alton Brown for something seen on his show). On one such browsing adventure for cranberries, I found this recipe that has become a favorite.  I use it to lure my friends up for a weekend, “if you come up I promise I’ll make the pear cranberry cobbler”. It goes unsaid that it will be served with rich vanilla ice cream. However with the threat of power outage yet again hanging over my head, I made this with the intention of having it as a breakfast treat with some plain yogurt.

Love cooked pears they’re so very light sweet and mild and the cranberries add the perfect punch in this flavor palate. This particular recipe from Tyler Florence is absolutely fantastic as published and has a solid five-star review over@foodnetwork.com . I can’t seem to help from making minor adjustments to recipes, in this case I like to add one cup of walnuts to the streusel topping. I also prefer to make my topping by keeping the butter ice cold and using my small food processor to quickly pulse the streusel together. In this particular batch I was thinking breakfast and not “company dessert” so didn’t bother to peel the pears. Because there was less surface area of pear to absorb the vanilla, I cut that in half. I like it both ways – peeling does give it an edge of just a bit better presentation. The most difficult thing about this recipe is not giving in to the temptation to hide it from everyone else (no one will look at that table on the icy cold porch instead of the fridge 🙂 ) and simply devouring it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Tyler’s Pear Cobbler with Cranberry Streusel

4 pears (Tyler specifies Bartlett but I use D’Anjou quite often)

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Streusel Topping:

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 Cup Walnuts

2 cups cranberries

1/2 cup whipping cream, beaten to soft peaks

Unsalted butter, at room temperature, granulated and sugar, for the baking dish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Peel the pears and cut them in 1/2 through the stem end. Use a melon baller to scoop out the cores. Put the pear halves in a large bowl. Sprinkle over the vanilla; toss. Then sprinkle over the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and and toss to coat the pears with the flavorings. Line the pears up in a buttered, sugared baking dish rounded sides up.

In the same bowl, mash together the butter, brown sugar, flour, walnuts and salt with your hands for the topping (or use your processor). Toss in the cranberries. Crumble the topping mixture over the pears in the baking dish and bake until the topping is crunchy and browned and the pears are very tender, 35 to 40 minutes. Serve with whipped cream, ice cream or yogurt.

The picture linky parties I participate in are linked at the bottom of this post.

Winter Perfect Creamy Curried Lentil Soup

Well folks, I’ve been babbling about our snow storm and extended power outages this weekend. And yes, in addition to heat, no power means no well and that means no water. Also, the dang oven, although a GE gas stove, has electrical controls only. I can use knobs to get gas for the warmer rack and burners, but can’t warm the kitchen and bake with the oven. Serious design flaw but can’t justify replacing it yet. What does this rant have to do with curried lentil soup? Well, thank the gods that I just happened to make up a big batch the day before my power abandoned me for 24 hours, came up a bit and then out another 8 (that’s one weekend I won’t get back). It was wonderful to have a homemade nourishing meal at my fingertips where the only requirement was one saucepan. As I was washing pans and dishes with icy cold water from milk jugs I keep in the garage (ever the girl scout, I am prepared), this was truly a treat. When I’d made my first batch I was a bit concerned that I’d overdone it with the spicy hot curry – but with the house frigid except for an area around the fireplace – I was so glad that spice was there. I almost titled this my life saving lentils as it was absolutely the perfect warm and rich dish to have on hand.

I adapted my recipe from one by Bon Appetit. They use twice as much garbanzo beans as lentils, and well, I like lentils so I reversed that. It appears I also like carrots and garlic a bit more than they do. And, with lentil soup, I’m definitely a fan of creamy and have my handy dandy stick blender at the ready.  If you’re not a hot and spicy fan – use regular curry powder. If you use only 6 cups of water, you’ll have a VERY thick lentil puree that could be a spicy dip on pita. Add a bit more for a nice stewy concoction on brown rice, or a tad more for a rich creamy soup. Your call. Didn’t put a garnish in the ingredient list as it you make it hot – I prefer a dollop of yogurt, but you can also garnish with a thin lemon slice, green onions or even very finely chopped parsley. Your choice.

Creamy Curried Lentil Soup adapted from Bon Appetit.

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 medium carrots, finely chopped

5 large garlic cloves, chopped, divided

3 tablespoons curry powder – your choice hot or regular, adjust this to your taste (I use 4T)

2 cups lentils

7 cups (or more) water, divided

1 ~2 cup can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained, rinsed

2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter

salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; Cook until onion is translucent. Add carrots and curry powder (you can add but not subtract so don’t add excess right off); stir a few minutes until fragrant. Add lentils and water. Increase heat and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes. Add chickpeas and butter and warm until butter melts.

Season to taste with salt, pepper, and additional curry powder, if desired. Puree (in blender, food processor or in the pan with a stick blender).  If you like, return to pan and add water by 1/4 cupfuls to thin to desired consistency.

Serve as soup or over rice.

This post is also participating in the following linky parties:

Decidedly Healthy or Horridly Decadent, Hearth and Soul, My Meatless Mondays,

Rustic Raspberry Tart – Easy and Oh So Satisfying

Well, because of that blackberry failure I told you about, I’ve been craving berries. Not to mention that the two extended power outages have wrecked havoc on things in the freezer. After snow induced 24 hour freezing power outage one, I decided to pop the oven on and make a very easy rustic raspberry tart.  I’ll be sharing this with the Decidedly Healthy or Horridly Decadent swap, which is mostly from scratch. So, I’ll link you to the recipe I like for the pie crust – but know this time around I resorted to fast and easy Pillsbury. For U.S. folks, I do think we should all launch a campaign to them to get them to return to the folded rounds of pie crust. This rolled business is ridiculous as either  the inside of the roll is too cold to roll and breaks or the outside is too warm, floppy and won’t bake up as well. Most business books will forewarn that the biggest mistake most make is not knowing when to stop pouring money into something and admit it was the wrong choice. Coke did it for classic Coke, but that’s unusual. I say we all respond to their @Pillsbury tweets with a “please bring back the folded piecrust – if Coke could admit their mistake and move on – you can as well!” Sigh, but you don’t come here for me to stand on my soapbox and preach, so back to baking.

So, pie crust. I often grab Martha or Barefoot Contessa’s recipe – but most have you (with good reason) putting your dough in the fridge every little bit. What happens for me is that when I take the dough out of my fridge to roll – it’s a hard block that I end up wacking with the rolling pin and having the worst time rolling out. Doing a bit of attack, putting it back in the fridge, attacking some more. Not handling yet rolling out a solid brick isn’t as easy as they’d have you believe.  I do keep solid Crisco and generally go for the crusts with some butter and some solid shortening. But, when I’m not up for that much strenuous exercise in the kitchen, I go with Jacques Pepin rustic pie crust – just butter, flour, salt, ice water. It works and it’s yummy.

I also like this as it’s less than a pie – more servings for four. Oven to 375.

Piecrust – Jacques Pepin rustic pie crust or Pillsbury (you can’t use a formed in pan crust here)

2 cups raspberries or one packet (12 oz works, you get more with squashed & frozen )

2 Tablespoons sugar plus 1 teaspoon for sprinkling

2 Tablespoons flour

If you’re using frozen berries, let them mostly thaw in the packet. A few cold and stuck together is ok but you don’t want a mass of frozen block. In a bowl, stir the sugar, flour and raspberries to distribute the flour and sugar evenly.  I like to make this in a pie pan as the berries do bubble over and it contains the “damages”. Place your crust flat into your pie dish. Mound the berry mixture in the center, keeping it about an inch and a half from the edges of the bottom of the pie dish. Take the edges of the pie crust and gently tug and fold it toward the center – from the picture you can see you don’t try to get all the way to the center but just come in enough to have a nice strong edge. Lightly sprinkle the white sugar over the top. Bake about 45 minutes (start checking at 40 – you want the crust to start to brown). Cool enough to not damage yourself or guests. Great with yogurt for breakfast or vanilla ice cream for a rich dessert (or plain when the power is out!).

This picture linky parties I participate in are linked at the bottom of this post.



Failures – Recipes Gone Wrong

Has it happened to you? You line up the recipe, you buy the ingredients, if you’re a food blogger you scrub every counter and surface within an inch of its life (unfortunately, I’m a messy cook – clouds of flour follow me though my kitchen; smudges of batter mar my counters the moment I’m in action – it’s a battle against the odds to get photos of food that look appetizing and not as though they were prepared in a place the health department was on the verge of shutting down, but I digress), you follow the instructions to a T photo journaling each step, sigh, bite into your lovely creation and gasp “what were they thinking!” (if you’re polite) as you head to the trash with your dish. I’ve had 2 such occurrences over the past few months and will share them with you as a warning – do not ever try these recipes.

 The first disaster was this past week. I wanted fruit – berries to be precise and pulled out a packet of frozen ones. Had been planning to make a crisp – you know, berries, nice crunchy topping from oatmeal, brown sugar, nuts and butter. But I saw a recipe on the packet (this wasn’t a national brand, more regional). Generally food producers have good recipes – it’s in their interest for you to like what you make and want to make more. I promise you, I will NEVER make a recipe offered by this particular company again. They called it an easy cobbler. It was easy, I’ll give them that. 

  

You melt butter in your pan. Then basically mix milk and flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder (mine was new and fresh having just picked it up for Christmas baking) and sugar. They said use a hand mixer – I had the thought – isn’t this more like a biscuit? But, hey, cake mixes grab the mixer so I did, just a quick minute to thoroughly blend the ingredients (they didn’t specify). You pour the mix into the pan where you have your melted butter, then drop the still frozen blackberries all over the top. They tell you they’ll sink during baking.  Oven as specified. Bake, the berries sank as promised. Looked deceptively lovely out of the oven. Cooled about 15 minutes. Cut into it – tad thick on the bottom (and purplish grey, not visually attractive). Added a dollop of ice cream and took a nice big, much awaited as I really wanted dessert and berries, bite and GAH! Library paste gummy, the sputum of a grandfatherly goblin (saw this phrase of word artist Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds and had to borrow it – so perfect for how this turned out), icky in the 9^th degree. Please don’t waste your time and luscious berries trying this. Stick to traditional cobbler; make a crisp or a pie – anything but this!

  

The second disaster was part of my healthy more grains kick. I recalled a recipe for 100% whole wheat no-knead bread in a bread cookbook of mine. I’d made it once and only vaguely remembered that it hadn’t blown me away. Thought I’d give it another go, perhaps build on the recipe. First, I tried it exactly as documented. BLECH! Indubitably, I am not a fan of 100% whole wheat bread. Now I know why I’d only ever made that recipe once years ago. I can safely break my OCD habit of not writing in my cookbook collection and scribble skull and crossbones on this recipe. There may be a small handful of you out there that can enjoy 100% whole wheat, but I know I cannot number myself within your ranks. I need a bit of white flour to offset the density, I bit of sweetener to offset a slightly bitter taste (nope, my whole wheat flour wasn’t rancid). If you want to go to more whole grains, don’t jump headfirst into the deep end of the pool. I can do items with 50% all purpose and 50% whole wheat flours and enjoy them – for many that’s even a bit strong and you might want to start with recipe percentages of 1/3 whole wheat to 2/3 all purpose, or even less. Whatever you do – don’t just jump in to 100% if you truly want to enjoy the labors of your home baked bread effort. Mine was tossed off the back porch to be enjoyed by the local bird population (well, I hope not the skunks or mice, which is why I only feed in the mornings – no bread crumbs for night eaters).

You now stand truly forewarned – there are so many delectable recipes and food combinations out there – avoid the above at all costs and you won’t be scooping spoonfuls of hot salsa in your mouth to rid it of a horrid lingering taste.

This post is participating in the following linky parties:

January Blog Hop Wrap Up

Well, I hate to admit it folks, but the majority of hits on the Decidedly Healthy or Horridly Decadent hop are not from those of us seeking wonderful, healthy, whole grain recipes. The utter temptation of a great recipe for a truly decadent treat is what’s driving our fingers as we click on our interests. I’d started the hop after seeing Bon Appetit’s Food Lover’s cleanse that was chock full of healthy recipes (but a bit too prescriptive for me to follow exactly for two weeks). However, I wanted to push myself to add more to my repertoire in the healthy, veggie or fish and whole grain category. I simply had to keep in a portion of the permission for the blog hop for decadent items, as we all do entertain and the fastest way to drop a healthy resolution is to make it so narrow you can’t have any fun. If any of you do try out their recipes that fit the hop theme – be sure to blog about it and share that post on the hop.

All that said, you truly need to indulge yourself, take a moment and browse the January recipe hops to see the various delights our capable foodies are sharing. Without even scratching our delectable bread and grain entrees, a few highlights include (click on the picture to visit the site).

Barbara’s stunning rendition of an entremet should not be missed.

Caroline’s Blueberry Oat Snacks Caroline's Oat bars are the perfect snack when teamed with their blueberry topping. Trisha's Paneer Bhurji

 Trisha’s Paneer (Scrambled Cottage Cheese with extras) would be so perfect stuffed in a warm pita sandwich.

SimplyLife’s Cookie Dough Truffles

 just one visit ahead of Erin’s Brazilian Fudge.   

Erin’s Brazilian Fudge

Chaya’s Ginger Salmon

Want to add more fish to your diet? Check out Chaya’s wonderful ginger baked salmon. 

Nisa’s Methi Paratha

Nisa makes her paratha look so simple, I’m determined to try it soon.

Your top choice in January was Lisa’s completely decadent Cinnabon clone recipe, the most popular of the recipes posted over the 4 weeks of the blog hop. 

Lisa’s Cinnabon clone A very close second, only 2 visits behind, was Bree’s Matt’s brownie’s. Bree’s Matt’s brownies

 SimplyLife’s Cookie Dough Truffles was your third interest, 

   

  

Of Festivals and Cakes

Did you know that snakes emerging from their dens was the original weather omen of spring? Punxsutawney Phil and groundhogs are new to the game, perhaps a tad cuter, but the timing is traditional. For those of us north of the equator, it’s the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.  In the Irish tradition, it’s called Imbolc.  Others may observe the Feast of St Brigid (the Irish goddess Brigid, later Christianized), plain old Groundhog Day or Candlemas/Purification of the Virgin. The obligatory tomb in Ireland aligned with the rising sun flashing in on the dates of Imbolc and Samhain (Halloween to most) can be found in County Meath.

As it generally marks the beginning of spring, this festival is a time of new beginnings – first ploughing, first planting, new romance, pregnancy of the herds. Time to clean out winter by burning the greens brought home at solstice. Hearth fires, candles, or a bonfire if the weather permits, represent the return of warmth and the increasing power of the sun.

And, as with all the festivals, special cakes are baked. 

I enjoy giving a nod to the seasons and I’m not quite up for the gardening chores yet – so, baking it is. I’ve been pondering what kind of special cake to bake to acknowledge the season – a horridly rich chocolate cake as a contemporary consideration of special or throwback to tradition with a bannock or soda bread?  I also have an oat scone recipe I love (no light fluffy sweet muffin imitations in a triangle shape here, a scone that has substance) and oat cakes fit the traditional concept while large round scored bannocks today can be considered a scone. Like everyone else, I’ll do my soda bread next month. And, if I’m going to make it, I want to enjoy it. So, although original griddle cooked bannocks were unleavened and made with only barley or oats – I’ll go for a more contemporary take on a Bannock recipe that’s more pleasing to today’s (and my) palate. This version could be called a scone – it is very light and flaky, like a good biscuit, but not sweet like some of the marketed scones you might find.

Bannock, adapted from Gourmet’s all white flour recipe at Epicurious.com

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting

½ cup old fashioned oats (the kind you cook for 5 minutes to get oatmeal, no instant)

½ cup whole wheat flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into small squares (less than an inch) NOT room temp, think pie dough or biscuit

1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk

3/4 cup diced dried cranberries, raisins or currants

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Given that I like the ease kitchen appliances bring, I prefer to do use my Cuisinart when crumbling butter with flours. I use the 4 cup Cuisinart Pro Plus compact Food Processor; I don’t cook for huge groups often so this totally meets my needs. When I do this recipe, I do it in parts. I place the whole wheat flour, oats, butter and 1 cup of the flour in my smaller processor and pulse in bursts until the mixture resembles coarse meal with small lumps.

I then place 1 cup AP flour, the baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in my mixing bowl and whisk those. Add the crumbly butter mixture from the processor in and blend.  If you have a larger processor – just toss all the dry ingredients in the bowl with the butter chunks and pulse. If not using a processor, whisk together flours, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a bowl and blend in the butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender. Like a biscuit or pie dough, the lighter your touch, the flakier this will be.  Pour in buttermilk, stirring until the dough just comes together. Add your dried fruit.

You might need some of that additional ¼ cup of flour now.  I like my dough just a tad sticky so I don’t knead it so much as give it a few good rolls while in the bowl then just let it sit 5 minutes. Note that it also can’t be so sticky that you can’t shape it or get it to your baking surface.  I shape mine on a floured surface and pat it into a 1 ½ to 2 inch-thick round that I score.  

Bake it on a pizza stone (an ungreased baking sheet works as well). Bake in the middle of the oven until golden, about 35 minutes.

Transfer bannock to a rack and cool to warm. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into wedges.

I’m resurrecting this post for two “favorites” parties. It’s now August and we’ve just passed the harvest festival of Lughnasadh (Aug 1st) – the time of first harvest and celebrations of gratitude to ensure the impending harvest is plentiful and safely reaped before winter sets in. Those of us blogging no longer consider late rains, issues of mildew or early frosts. But here in wine country we’re still connected to the seasons for the continued health of the local economy, I know the vintners breathe a deep sigh of relief after their successful “no rain” no mildew” harvests and each winery hosts their own parties to celebrate. In Europe and Ireland people continue to celebrate the holiday with bonfires and dancing. The Christian church established this day as ritual of blessing the fields. As bannock is traditional for this harvest as well, thought I’d pull up this post and bake one myself. To see other bloggers favorite posts, check out Half Past Kissin Time’s Saturday Sampling or the Gallery of favorites at 21st Century Housewife.

Standing stone photo from Wikipedia.

This post is being reborn at the Gallery of Favorites that Alea at Pre-meditated Leftovers hosts with April of The 21st Century Housewife