 Some of the world's most enduring, culturally rich recipes were born out of necessity and hardship, and Irish Soda Bread is a fine example of this. For 200 years it's been a staple of the Irish diet, as well as a cornerstone of Ireland's culinary history.
Traditional Irish Soda bread is a fabulous recipe to have on hand. It has no yeast, making it one of the fastest breads to get on the table - just 1 hour from start to finish! The taste is really moreish and not dissimilar to a scone or damper, although the addition of wholewheat flour gives it a bit more grunt and texture. The raising agents are bi-carb soda and buttermilk. It's that classic chemical reaction of sodium bicarbonate mixed with an acidic liquid that creates bubbles of carbon dioxide, and it's these bubbles that produce the lift needed for a high, light loaf. There are two important factors that will help deliver the perfectly risen loaf: Firstly, the buttermilk needs to be cold. And secondly, once the buttermilk is added to the dry components of the bread, don't dilly-dally - get it into the oven straight away, ideally within 10 mins of mixing your dough. No buttermilk, no worries! If there's no buttermilk in your fridge it's a cinch to make. All you need is cold, full cream milk and a dash of white vinegar or lemon juice. Combine the two (½ tsp vinegar or lemon to 1 cup milk) and leave to sit for up to 10 mins - you'll notice it will turn the consistency of runny drinking yoghurt. It's a fool-proof solution and works for pancakes, dressings and anything that requires buttermilk. Enjoy soda bread fresh from the oven spread generally with butter. Honey and golden syrup are delicious topping options. Use soda bread to mop up stews and soups, serve slices of it alongside a ploughman's lunch, or with butter and jam for morning tea. Sliced and frozen soda bread can be warmed quickly in a pan or microwave, or pop it still frozen straight in the toaster for the ultimate toast and butter experience.
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 I am often drawn to Indian flavour profiles when I'm cooking with pulses because what other cuisine is so adept at turning humble legumes into such a rich variety of dishes?
We're calling these delicious morsels fritters. In India they go by many names like pakora,vada and bora depending on the region. These are somewhat like a falafel, although the outside is much crunchier and the inside lighter and fluffier. Whereas a falafel is made of Chickpea flour (aka Besan), these use split chickpeas - Chana Dahl that are simply soaked, blitzed and fried. Another selling point is there's no need to pre-cook the chana dahl. I like to serve these with a variety of accompaniments for dipping. For a quick meal, chutney and natural yoghurt are an excellent, no fuss choice, or you can go accoutrement crazy. Think palak (spinach curry), coconut chutney, tomato and tamarind chutney, mint and coriander chutney and lime pickle. I served mine with tomato and tamarind chutney, mint and coriander sauce and spinach curry. (pictured above)  Nothing says slow weekend mornings like a breakfast table laden with pancakes and all the trimmings. There is, however, just one niggling issue with them: it's not the greatest time for the person cooking them. Pancakes are best straight out of the pan, & you can generally only make one or two at a time. So the nominated pancake cook doles them out onto the plates of beaming and satisfied loved ones, who sit down to enjoy them while they're still steaming. The cook, on the other hand either eats theirs standing up or waits to the end to sit down and enjoy theirs. Those pancakes have the cook on a tight leash.
Enter Oven Pancakes. They go by a few names: Dutch Puff, Dutch babies, German pancakes, Bismarck, Hooligans and Hootenannies! Personally I would like to call them Freedom Pancakes because they free the cook - they're baked in the oven as one giant pancake before being sliced into portions and topped with whatever you fancy. If, instead of standing over the stove for 30 mins, you like the idea of sitting down to leisurely enjoy a cuppa while a delicious, high & light pancake bakes in the oven, then this is the recipe for you.  Risotto is a classic crowd pleaser, but I think in recent years it's been wrongly tainted with the ‘difficult’ brush. We've seen it break aspiring supercooks on reality shows, and judges on these shows talk solemnly about the ‘risotto curse’, advising contestants to think carefully before attempting it.
But honestly, if you're not serving it at a fine dining restaurant, getting the consistency of a risotto exactly right just doesn't matter or affect the enjoyment of it at all. I'm of the firm opinion that a good-enough risotto is still utterly delicious. The babysitting that cooking a risotto requires is a different story - when it comes to mid-week dinners most of us are after more of a set-and-forget recipe. What if you could skip the stovetop stirring, pass most of the work to your oven and still produce a delicious risotto? Our ‘cheat's’ risotto is just that. It's been well and truly tested and tweaked. Hands-on time is just 15 minutes! It requires a small number of ingredients, yet the flavour is nuanced and delicious. All you need is a lemon, a few sprigs of rosemary and a little parmesan. Enjoy it as a stand-alone dish or use it as an accompaniment to the main event. We hope you love this creamy, luxurious feeling classic with a shortcut twist!  For the first recipe of Winter 2024 I wanted to make a soup. Something versatile that most of us could produce with a quick pantry raid.
And so we give you Tuscan Bean & Barley Soup. It's my spin on a classic White Bean Soup & involves a variety of dried beans and some pearled barley. It's a versatile recipe with wiggle room to incorporate the beans and grains you have on hand in whatever ratio you fancy. The only caveat would be to stick to beans that hold their shape when cooked and don’t get too mushy. The reason this recipe works is because even though different beans and grains I use need different cooking times, the ones that cook the quickest don’t dissolve into the soup by the time the slower cooking pulses are done. This is such a gloriously comforting soup. We look forward to you trying it out - let us know how it goes! |
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