A comfort blanket ...

 ...for an Autumn day! It's chilly outside so what could be more inviting for lunch than home-made bread or dumplings to go with your bowl of soup – so comforting, so simple.

First up the bread and I make no apology for repeating this recipe – I use it again and again!

Soda bread

170g self raising wholemeal flour

170g plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

290ml buttermilk

an optional sprinkle of semolina – try a sprinkle of semolina

to flour your baking sheet and after you've added your “x”

on top of the loaf

Pre heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Tip the flours, salt and bicarb into a large bowl and mix.

Make a well in the centre, pour in 290ml of buttermilk and mix quickly with a large fork until you have a soft dough formed. You may need an extra drop if your dough is too stiff but take care it should not be too wet or sticky.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.

Form the dough into a round and flatten slightly. Place on a lightly floured baking sheet.

Slice an “x” on the top of the loaf and bake for 30 minutes – the base should sound hollow when tapped.

Just to confuse the issue I've found buttermilk in different weights. A low fat version weighing 284ml and a full fat version weighing 300ml – a tip – if you can only source the 284ml rinse out the pot with a drop of milk.

Here it is :

Now for the dumplings!

A “BLT” with a difference

If, on the other hand, you didn't want to go to the expense of buying submarine rolls you could go the whole hog and make your own bread!

I've chosen soda bread – it's delicious, it's easy to make and it's very much in the cheap and cheerful category.

Soda bread

170g self raising wholemeal flour

170g plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

290ml buttermilk

an optional sprinkle of semolina – try a sprinkle of semolina

to flour your baking sheet and after you've added your “x”

on top of the loaf

Pre heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Tip the flours, salt and bicarb into a large bowl and mix.

Make a well in the centre, pour in 290ml of buttermilk and mix quickly with a large fork until you have a soft dough formed. You may need an extra drop if your dough is too stiff but take care it should not be too wet or sticky.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.

Form the dough into a round and flatten slightly. Place on a lightly floured baking sheet.

Slice an “x” on the top of the loaf and bake for 30 minutes – the base should sound hollow when tapped.

Just to confuse the issue I've found buttermilk in different weights. A low fat version weighing 284ml and a full fat version weighing 300ml – a tip – if you can only source the 284ml rinse out the pot with a drop of milk.

Here it is :

Slice the bread thinly – ideally you want three to four slices per “BLT” - you should easily get two from a loaf.

Have a look at “The “sub” assembly” and “You will need … and the extras” for inspiration on fillings and assemble. Use a bamboo skewer through the top of your “BLT” to secure until you're ready to devour.

Completely home-made!

I forgot to mention …

… as part of the sharing plates I made soda bread – two loaves – one to be eaten over the weekend and one for Brian to take home – it's his favourite and so a treat!

It's a while since I've made it so here's a refresher for you :

Soda bread

170g self raising wholemeal flour

170g plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

290ml buttermilk – you may need

an extra drop and so purchase in a 300ml pot

is convenient

semolina for sprinkling and dusting

Pre heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Tip the flours, salt and bicarb into a large bowl and mix.

Make a well in the centre, pour in 290ml of buttermilk and mix quickly with a large fork until you have a soft dough formed. You may need an extra drop if your dough is too stiff but take care it should not be too wet or sticky.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.

Form the dough into a round a flatten slightly. Place on a lightly floured baking sheet. You can use flour or semolina

Slice an “x” on the top of the loaf sprinkle with a little semolina and bake for 30 minutes – the base should sound hollow when tapped.

Just to confuse the issue I've found buttermilk in different weights. A low fat version weighing 284ml and a full fat version weighing 300ml.

This bread makes great toast too!

Another easy peasy and inexpensive treat.

Whilst I'm on the subject of bread ...

Chapter XV – handy snacks and lunches …

...for an Autumn day! It's chilly outside so what could be more inviting for lunch than home-made bread and a bowl of soup – so comforting, so simple.

Not for nothing have I chosen this recipe – it's delicious, it's easy to make and it's very much in the cheap and cheerful category!

Soda bread

170g self raising wholemeal flour

170g plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

290ml buttermilk

an optional sprinkle of semolina – try a sprinkle of semolina

to flour your baking sheet and after you've added your “x”

on top of the loaf

Pre heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Tip the flours, salt and bicarb into a large bowl and mix.

Make a well in the centre, pour in 290ml of buttermilk and mix quickly with a large fork until you have a soft dough formed. You may need an extra drop if your dough is too stiff but take care it should not be too wet or sticky.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.

Form the dough into a round and flatten slightly. Place on a lightly floured baking sheet.

Slice an “x” on the top of the loaf and bake for 30 minutes – the base should sound hollow when tapped.

Just to confuse the issue I've found buttermilk in different weights. A low fat version weighing 284ml and a full fat version weighing 300ml – a tip – if you can only source the 284ml rinse out the pot with a drop of milk.

Here it is :

Then there's the soup, this is a firm favourite – as an added bonus it's healthy too!

Carrot, Coriander and Chickpea Soup

1lb/500g Charlotte potatoes, peeled and diced

l large onion, finely chopped

4 large carrots, peeled and diced

2 stockpots, vegetable or chicken

1 litre of water

1 tsp mild curry powder

1 heaped tsp coriander

Salt and black pepper

Rapeseed oil

1 can chick peas, drained

Soften onion and carrot in drop of rapeseed oil for approx 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add curry powder, coriander and black pepper, cook the spices with the onion and carrot for 2 minutes so that the flavours are released.

Add the stockpots, plus 500ml water and simmer until the pots have melted.

Add the diced potatoes and the remaining 500ml of water, bring to the boil then simmer for 10 minutes until the carrot and potatoes are cooked. Taste, then add salt to personal taste.

At this point you can set aside the soup until you are ready to serve.

Before serving pop 3 ladles of soup into a food processor/liquidiser and blitz. Tip the thickened soup back into your remaining soup, add the chick peas, heat and serve.

By blitzing a portion of the soup no artificial thickening is required. You also get visible vegetables with your chick peas.

Note

Don't put potatoes in with the carrots, onion and oil – the starch that is released from the potatoes means that they will cement themselves to the bottom of your saucepan!

If you're lucky you might get two lunches – yum.

Editor's December Picks #10 - Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread Photo Guide

Editor's note: A picture is worth a thousand words, and some of them are definitely going to be 'yum'. Again my personal tastes are a big influence here but I can't be alone in learning that you can make bread using beer and not want to give it a go! The last photo is surely enough to persuade even the hardiest soda-bread purists out there.

The Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread photo guide

Here goes :

the dry ingredients

the jugs – Guinness and yogurt

the bowl of black treacle

slowly add the Guinness to the treacle

to loosen

add the yogurt to the Guinness and treacle

and whisk together

the dry combined with the wet

ingredients

the bread on the baking tray – see the

dusting of flour underneath

the loaf, marked into quarters -

the long handle of a wooden spoon works

beautifully!

Ta dah – fresh from the oven

sliced in half – looks good enough to eat

a quarter, ready with a pot of butter

it would be rude not to!

Editor's December Picks #9 - Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread

 Editor's note: This week from the archives is a fab recipe for soda bread that's most certainly a bit of something different! Baking bread became a big trend during the lock-downs and I would like to point out that this posting originally came the month before we were all confined to barracks - ahead of the curve some may say! This introduction covers what you need, and how to assemble but stay tuned for a pictorial walk-through.

I promised a treat or two … one savoury, one sweet – here's the savoury

Every now and again a recipe catches my eye. It has been a while but recently I came across “Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread” in the January edition of Waitrose Food January 2020 -The Feel Good Issue.

I have always had a weakness for good bread. There's nothing like home-made bread – the only problem is that it's a bit of a faff and it takes too long … unless you're making soda bread – no yeast or kneading needed – what's not to love.

Not surprising then that this caught my attention. The recipe looks easy – the photo is fab so lets give it a go. This is genuine research – so many recipes are a let down, inaccurate – you're drawn in by the clever photography and the Food Stylist.

What follows is the exact recipe from the magazine, followed by some hints and tips and finally a photo guide.

“Wholesome, rustic soda bread looks and tastes like something that hours of love and care have gone into. In reality, it's wonderfully simple and with no yeast or kneading required, a warm loaf can be out of the oven in about an hour”.

Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread

400g strong white bread flour

extra for dusting

100g strong wholemeal flour

50g jumbo oats

10g fine salt

1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda

40g unsalted butter, cubed

150g Guinness

175g natural yogurt

60g black treacle

You can see why I fancied this loaf!

The method and hints and tips.

Pre-heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6. Grease a large baking tray or line with baking parchment. Put the flours, oats, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a mixing bowl and toss together. Add the butter and, using your fingertips, rub it into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. In a jug or second mixing bowl, stir together the Guinness, yogurt and treacle, until the treacle more or less dissolves – this will take a little while, but stir patiently and it will come together.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and, with a spatula, wooden spoon or firm hand, bring everything together into a rough dough. Knead for a moment on a worktop, just until the dough has come together, then shape into a rough ball and put on the prepared baking tray. Dust the ball of dough liberally with flour, then use the handle of a wooden spoon to press a deep cross into the dough, ensuring you don't go all the way through the dough, so all 4 quarters are still connected. Bake for 50 minutes until golden, crispy and steaming.

This is the recipe taken directly from the magazine. I've a few suggestions that will make life easier.

It mentions “grease a large baking tray or line with baking parchment”. In all my bread making I've never greased or lined a baking tray. I sprinkle a non-stick baking tray with flour and “swirl” so it covers the tray. The bread doesn't stick – ever.

If you take your butter straight from the fridge as you begin, weigh and cut it into small cubes and place on a piece of cling film by the time you've weighed the remainder of your ingredients your butter will be soft enough to rub into the dry ingredients.

With regard to the “wet” ingredients you'll find life much easier if you begin by weighing the black treacle directly into a small mixing bowl. Weigh your Guinness and yogurt in separate jugs. Make sure your mixing bowl is set on a non slip mat – if you don't have one then use a dampened j cloth.

Gradually drizzle the Guinness into the treacle, stirring all the time and it will loosen, continue until combined. Use a small whisk when adding the yogurt to prevent it splitting. The process takes no time at all.

There's more …

Winter menu – treat of the week!

My treat of the week is a simple, veggie recipe and one of my favourites – cream cheese and cashew nut paté – it has to be the easiest paté ever – here it is :

Cream cheese and cashew nut paté

1 carrot, finely grated

225g cream cheese

100g roasted cashew nuts, crushed to a rubble – not

to a dust!

1 tbsp of chopped chives

salt and black pepper

black olives – pitted and sliced (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together, box and fridge.

Serve on whatever takes your fancy – rice cakes, gluten free cheese oatcakes, toast or even as a sandwich filling – a toasted bagel would be good too.

Freshly baked bread is the perfect partner to the paté so here's an extra treat for a “comfort” lunch – soda bread!

The following Soda bread is the easiest and fastest, faff free recipe and the most reliable I've ever used.

Soda bread

170g self raising wholemeal flour

170g plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

290ml buttermilk

Pre heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Tip the flours, salt and bicarb into a large bowl and mix.

Make a well in the centre, pour in 290ml of buttermilk and mix quickly with a large fork until you have a soft dough formed. You may need an extra drop if your dough is too stiff but take care it should not be too wet or sticky.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.

Form the dough into a round a flatten slightly. Place on a lightly floured baking sheet.

Slice an “x” on the top of the loaf and bake for 30 minutes – the base should sound hollow when tapped.

I use St. Ivel low fat buttermilk which comes in 284ml pots. If the dough is a little dry, add a drop of milk – just a drop! You can always add a drop more if required – you can't take it back.

A tip – Instead of flour I sprinkle semolina on the baking sheet and sprinkle a little over the loaf before baking, for a crusty top.

If you're thinking of making soup, serve it with thick slices of toasted soda bread, buttered of course.

Before we move on to the next series of ideas – “pick a pie” – I thought it was time for a sweet indulgence … followed by the return of the rant.