Irish Soda Bread

Made Irish soda bread today. As I managed to get buttermilk-sticky flour and raisins all over my counter, the process reminded me of a forgetful baker who first conceived the recipe. At first, it is like making a biscuit dough, but then caraway seeds are added and then it seems like you're making rye bread but without the rye flour nor the yeast. You think a savory bread is going to be made until raisins are added. I divided the mass of dough into four portions and shaped them all into mini rounded soda bread loaves. A floured kitchen towel works really well for kneading sticky dough.

This ingredient ratio comes from the Seattle Times. Nearly all of the ingredients are represented, except for the heavy cream for the egg wash. I substituted buttermilk. In retrospect, two cups of raisins is too much for this recipe. There were so many unused raisins,  I had to stick the stragglers back into the dough. And, while baking, the dough pushed some of the raisins out to the surface. 

Ingredients

4 c. unbleached AP flour, sifted
1/4 c . organic granulated sugar
1/4 c. unsalted butter, cold
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp caraway seeds
2 c. organic seedless raisins
1 1/3 c. buttermilk
1 whole egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp buttermilk (for egg wash, optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

1. In a food prep: sift together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Cut in unsalted butter until coarse crumbs form.

2. Empty food prep into a large mixing bowl. Stir in caraway seeds until evenly distributed.

3. In a 2-cup measuring cup, mix together buttermilk, an egg, and baking soda. Pour into flour and stir to combine. Fold in raisins. Dough will be sticky.

4. Turn out dough onto a clean, floured kitchen towel. Knead a few times so that the dough comes together and shape it into a large ball; or divide into four equal portions. With a sharp knife or the edge of a pastry scraper, make a cross 1/4" deep in the center.

5. (optional) Brush bread with beaten egg yolk and buttermilk before baking.

6. If baking one large round, bake in a preheated oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. If baking smaller rounds, bake for 50 minutes. 

Bell Pepper with Shitake Mushrooms

This is also pretty straightforward. I am writing it up as a post because I think the flavors taste good together. To rehydrate dried mushrooms, simply place them in a large bowl and add boiling water. Let them soak before using. The leftover liquid is mushroom dashi and can be used to flavor soups.

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

3 large bell peppers, sliced into 1/2" pieces
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 c. dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated
1 tbsp low-sodium natural soy sauce
sea salt, to taste
olive oil, for frying

Directions

1. In a large frying pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil easily spreads across the bottom of the pan, add garlic and stir until lightly browned.

2. Add bell peppers and mushrooms and stir fry until the peppers have changed color. If using green bell peppers, the green with be a much richer lawn-green color. This should take no more than five minutes.

3. Season with soy sauce and sea salt while frying. Remove from heat and serve.

Foil baked trout

This is a pretty simple recipe and can be done in less than a half hour, provided that the trout is already gutted and cleaned. And, as long as the oil doesn't leak out of the foil packet, clean-up is easy. Assume serving size is one trout per person. I would recommend using olive oil on both sides of the fish to keep the skin from sticking to the foil.

Ingredients

1 trout, cleaned
fresh or dried herbs: thyme, parsley, garlic, poultry seasoning, whatever is available
lemon slices (optional)
unsalted butter, up to 1 tbsp
olive oil
sea salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Tear out enough aluminum foil to wrap the fish in a rectangular package and lay fish, scored diagonally on both sides, in the center. Drizzle olive oil on both sides of the fish before adding herbs, salt and pepper.

2. Place two lemon slices, fresh/dried herbs, and butter inside the fish. You can also sprinkle a salt-free seasoning blend on both sides of the fish, or season with some sea salt and black pepper.

3. Wrap fish with aluminum foil and place on a baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

Well, definitely this batch of cookie dough needs to be chilled before forming and baking. I did a test batch of six tablespoonfuls of batter onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and the cookies did what I thought they'd do. Melt and spread out into very thin discs. While they are tasty, the cookies did require more baking time than I thought, about 15 minutes, which gave the cookies a rich, dark brown color. Looks like rounded teaspoonfuls will have to be the measure for this ingredient ratio.

This is what happens when unchilled cookie dough is used.

Ingredients

1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 c. organic granulated sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar, lightly packed
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
3 c. old fashioned rolled oats
1 c. dried cranberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. In a food prep, cream butter and sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla extract. Blend together until well combined.

2. Add to the food prep, flour, salt and spices. Pulse until combined.

3. In a separate bowl, mix rolled oats and dried cranberries. Fold together with butter mixture.

4. Let the cookie dough chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before forming into rounded teaspoonfuls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

5. Bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on your oven), until the cookies are lightly browned.

6. Cool cookies on a wire rack before storing or eating.

Beef and Eggplant Ragu

The taste reminded me a lot like a ratatouille. The sauce was burdened by eggplant flavor, however. Perhaps one large aubergine was too much for this simple beef recipe. Also, I couldn't taste the fennel at all. So maybe next time I should use fresh fennel instead of fennel seeds and dice the eggplant into smaller bits. This ragu is traditionally served over pasta, but fried brown rice is an acceptable substitute.

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef
1 large aubergine, diced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp EVOO
One 15 oz can organic diced tomatoes
1/3 c. tomato paste
1/2 c. dry marsala wine
1/2 tsp organic granulated sugar
1 tsp each fennel seeds, garlic powder, dried oregano, dried basil, dried thyme
freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a heavy-bottomed pot, brown garlic, ground beef, and olive oil together over medium heat. When all the pink is nearly gone in the beef, add the eggplant, tomatoes, and tomato paste. Let this mixture simmer for 10 minutes before adding the wine, sugar, and spices. Cover and let cook for 20 minutes, or until the eggplant is cooked.