(My First) Irish Soda Bread

Dear Lemon Love Notes,

Not so long ago I came back from an unforgettable trip to Ireland. The green, the craic and the food are still lingering in my mind. Ireland is so much more beautiful than anything you can imagine. I spent my time soaking up the scenery :) (pardon the pun, as we all know what the weather is like in Ireland), meeting & visiting people, and dining out with friends. I have more or less managed to shed the excesses of hearty Irish breakfasts by eating fruit and porridge in the morning.  However, I must confess that I really love my carbs and, more to the point , I am in love with Irish soda bread. Drooling and dreaming on won't be of much help to me, unless I roll up my sleeves and start getting the kitchen dirty. How can I make soda bread? Any tips?

Love xx

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My dear friend,

I was very happy to read your lovely letter. We have so many things in common. Firstly, I must also confess that I also love carbs, and bread especially, but who doesn't? "Bread is the warmest, kindness of all words" as they say it. I would go as far as to say that Irish soda bread encompasses the defining trait of the Irish; you may have noticed how warm-hearted, generous and hospitable the Irish are. Freshly baked bread with butter and rhubarb jam and a cup of tea are a simple treat, a modest meal in itself, but they show the hospitality and good nature of the host. Actions speak louder than words.  Sometimes we might not have much, but sharing what we have with somebody we love, with a neighbour, a friend, or just a stranger makes us so much stronger. Keep the memories alive by making your own soda bread, the easiest thing in the world: flour, buttermilk., soda and lots of love. If it doesn't raise, if it's crunchy at surface but raw inside, try your luck once again until it comes right out of the oven, as practice makes perfect.

 Irish Soda Bread (and a few holiday snapshots)

Ingredients

2 cups of self-raising flour

1 cup of oatmeal flour

1 cup of buttermilk

salt

1 tsp of baking soda

1 sachet of baking powder

onion seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cumin seeds etc

Method

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.

In a large bowl mix together the flour, seeds, salt, baking soda & powder. Add the cup of buttermilk and knead slightly. Shape the dough into a round and mark a cross on top of the bread. To be creative, you could also sprinkle some seeds on top before sending it into the oven. Bake it at around 160' Celsius for 40 minutes and 180' C for the last 10 minutes. This way the inside

 will be well done and the coat will be crunchy to perfection.  :)

breakfast in KK, Ireland

Irish breakfast @ Langton's, Kilkenny, Co. KK

omelette on Irish soda bread, Langton's, KK

Kilkenny

For my first soda bread I am very happy with the result. Next time I bake soda bread, I will use wholemeal flour.  Perfect with my mother's perfect zacusca (a delicious Romanian dish similar to chutney, bar the Indian spices), a cup of Earl Grey and your loved ones close by.

my mother's perfect zacusca

xoxo

Naan. Nan. Nang ... and a slice of history

Naan bread reminds me of... Saudi Arabia. It's because I had it there so many times, either in private homes or restaurants. I must admit, home-made naan bread is much better than the one served in restaurants. It's softer, creamier, sweeter.
There are many Naan recipes that you can find either online or in Indian cookbooks, but here is my version.

Naan with honey and onion seeds

What you need:

3 cups of white flour

1 slice of butter

3 big spoonfuls of yoghourt

1/4 cup of warm full-fat milk

15 g fresh yeast

a spoon of honey (for extra sweetness)

a pinch of salt

garlic

onion seeds

extra virgin olive oil (for moisture)

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast in warm milk and melted butter and honey, mix lightly. Add the yoghourt and let it rest for a couple of minutes.

2. In a deep bowl, mix the flour, salt, garlic (freshly grated or powder), onion seeds.

3. Pour the dissolved yeast (no. 1) onto the flour and knead till the dough becomes smooth. Let it rest in a warm place.

4. When it raises and doubles in volume, you know it's baking time. You can now be as creative as you wish and shape the naan in a variety of forms. You can take a small ball of dough and flatten it and make small naans, or you can make tamis style.
Put it in the oven (@ 200 degrees Celsius) for 5 minutes- watch them, they bake and swell quite quickly.

Options

Because naan is eaten hot with curries, dips (raita, chutney), or tarkha dahl, you probably won't have the chance to use all the dough. So, wrap it tightly in plastic foil and let it snooze in the fridge.

You might want to.... revamp it later! :)

Here is my Naan...a l'italienne.

So I came back home late the other night and I wasn't in the mood to fix dinner or make something special.  As I looked in the fridge, I found the rest of the dough and asked my husband: would you fancy a pizza?
Although he said that naan would definitely not rhyme with Italian, I decided to give it a try and make a Naan...pizza. Call it fusion!

Method

I flattened the dough and once I had a thin base I brushed it with olive oil.

I opened a can of diced tomatoes from Cirio (http://www.cirio.co.uk)- they are very handy especially in winter- and I added some Camargue salt with basil, a pinch of rosmary and a clove of garlic.

I brushed the pizza with the tomato sauce and I sprinkled the grated mozzarella, then I finely sliced a green pepper and some slices of salami. I used Salam de Sibiu, the original. (http://www.sibiusalami.com)

source: www.phoneline.ro

After less than 10 minutes in the oven we had a surprisingly delicious meal, accompanied by a glass of Prahova Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Well, a sip or two on my part and more for Mike.

Food for thought
I find that sometimes when you are a bit adventurous in the kitchen and you are not afraid to experiment and sample ingredients, you can make amazing discoveries. Well, sometimes you make amazing mistakes as well :) but intuition and common sense can save you from kitchen disasters.
For my naan I used milk instead of water and honey instead of sugar. I think that gave my naan bread an extra wow factor. It was so sweet, tender and velvety.

Salam de Sibiu is one of oldest Romanian brands which has survived Communism and managed not to be swamped up by other similar products, even though the competition is fierce. I wonder if people outside Romania  have heard of this brand of salami or if they have ever tasted it? Don't want to use my blog to boast its taste, flavour  or qualities (just because I am Romanian), but it's really good! So good that on the Romanian market alone there are many (cheaper) versions of Salam de Sibiu. But they are, as I just said, mere copies.
If you want to read more about Salam de Sibiu, check out this link: http://www.sibiusalami.com/history.html

Mezze

This is a very easy recipe to make when you are a bit peckish and you need to feel a gap.

Hummous with pine kernels, Raita and Tamis

Type of cuisine: Middle Eastern/Indian
Difficulty: super easy
Time: 5 minutes for the Hummous and Raita, 20 minutes for the Tamis
Cost: very cheap

For the Hummous, you will need:

a can of chickpeas

a jar of yoghurt

2 spoons of tahina sauce

cumin

coriander seeds

sweet paprika

a pinch of salt

freshly squeezed lemon juice

pine kernels and sumac for decoration

Method
Place all the ingredients in a bowl as in the image below.

Use the vertical blender or the food processor to mix everything thoroughly until it becomes a velvety paste.
Adjust the taste with salt and lemon and decorate it with pine kernels, a drizzle of olive oil and some cumin or mint.

Raita

a jar of yoghurt

a spoonful of cumin

salt

lemon juice

olive oil to pour on top

Method


Mix them and enjoy! 

Tamis

In a bowl mix the flour, salt and zataar (or thyme). 
Dissolve the yeast in warm milk, pour it over the flour and knead for 5 minutes then let it rest next to the oven or a warm place.

Roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle and flatten it.

Leave them in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius till they swell and change colour.

Enjoy! 


(sorry for the quality of the shots, it wasn't a special occasion or anything like this, just a quick snack)