Bread Beginnings - Soda Bread

I have gifted myself with a fabulous cook book, well baking book to be correct.  I've watched a couple of episodes of 'The Great British Bake Off' and saw a Paul Hollywood book 'How To Bake' on the Tesco shelf and thought, well why not!  If you are going to learn something from the British, I suppose baking would be one.  I gingerly picked the book off the self and started leafing through it.  After reading a few pages (and seeing a few pictures) I was totally hooked.  It was the amazing bread recipes in particular that got me.

Bread = weakness

I made sure I packed my new baking book for my long weekend down to Sevenoaks and started familiarizing myself with kneading, rising, proving, and baking while on the plane.  I have also identified a few baking utensils that need to be added to my kitchen collection!! :)  soon... hehe.  Something called a Scotch Scraper will be my first essential bread baking tool, then working upwards eventually to a fabulous mixing machine (the ones in bright metallic colours!!)

Without much objection my new baking book was greatly accepted in the Sowden/Wood household. 

Let the bread making begin :) 

Soda Bread

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

• 500g plain white flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 400ml buttermilk

Instructions:

Heat your oven to 220C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl, then stir in the buttermilk. to form a sticky dough.  Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and mould into a ball.  Flatten the dough sightly with your hand and cross-cut the dough.  Lightly dust the top with flour.

Bake for 30 mins or until the loaf if golden brown.  Leave to cool on a wire rack.  Tear it up to serve :)

Lemon & Thyme Salmon

This recipe is inspired by bits and bobs lying around the kitchen. I had no idea what to cook for dinner so resorted to scratching around the kitchen. The end result was actually so good I had to share it :)

There was tons of left over Lemon Thyme in the kitchen from the Cider Roast Pork Belly recipe we did over the weekend.  I couldn't let it go to waste so I decided to zshoosh up my Salmon with the Thyme and a lemon I had in the cupboard.  I then used almost re growing spuds to make some smashing mash potatoe as my Salmon's fluffy pillow.  Some household additions of butter, milk, salt & pepper completed my dish.

Try this its so easy and really yummy!

Ingredients

• Salmon fillets
• A couple sprigs of fresh thyme
• Lemon zest
• Olive oil
• Potatoes
• Milk
• Butter
• Salt & Pepper

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 120ºc.
• Boil some potatoes for mashing later.
• Finely chop some thyme into a small mixing bowl and add lemon zest from a small lemon.  Add some olive oil, enough to make a seasoning paste.
• Brush salmon skin with oil and place on a foil covered baking tray.  Brush the top of the salmon with the thyme mix and let stand for a couple of minutes for the mix to penetrate the fish.
• Pop into the oven for 10 mind (may be more or less depending on the size of your fillets and how well you like it cooked).
• While the salmon is in the oven, smash up your boiled potatoes.  Add some butter and milk to get that creamy smooth texture to the mash. Season well with salt & pepper.
• Spoon some mash onto a plate and gently place the cooked salmon in top. Drizzle the left over thyme mix and the juices from the baking tray over your salmon.
• Add a quick squeeze of lemon and you're ready to go!

Cider-Roast Pork Belly with Fennel

Don't be fooled - this is a beautiful pork belly with fennel and not a strange
looking roast chicken!!!

A pure Donna Hay recipe as simple as easy as she promises.

5 Ingredients - BAM!

And this recipe is absolutely delicious.  I had to admit I wasn't sure about the fennel because I am not a fan of liquorice, HOWEVER, it's never a bad thing to try something new.  And boy did this fennel really make a difference to the pork.  A-mazing :)

Karen and I had our first chill weekend together in ages, so we filled our Saturday with morning shopping (Zara!!), grand cooking in the afternoon, some SA vs NZ rugby for me, and a movie for the evening (Prisoners, with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhall).  Now as I write to you on Sunday we watch a spot of Harry Potter before settling into X Factor this evening with amazing left over dinner from last night! Brilliant..

So... to the cooking.
After fighting with all the blunt knives in our kitchen, Karen and I finally managed to scour the pork fat using a combined effort of a bread knife and tiny vegetable knife (If someone is reading this post and is around me for x-mas, birthday, etc, a proper Master Chef knife would be an awesome gift ;) hehe).

We managed in the end and after 45 mins in a high oven, plenty of salt and some lemon thyme sprigs under the pork belly, we had ourselves some crackling :) Oh yes.

We added in some cider and the huge fennel's and popped the pork back into the oven for 1 hour, along with some roast veggies and potatoes.

The end result was the most divine, succulent pork with subtle hints of fennel and thyme.  The fennel, even after being cooked, I didn't enjoy on its own.  I would only cook with fennel again as a flavour additive rather than a veggie itself.  But that's just me ;)

If you keen on making this recipe (and you should), here you go:

Recipe (serves 4):

• 1 kg Pork Belly
• Sea salt
• 8 Sprigs Lemon Thyme
• 4 Bulbs fennel, halved (I would only use 2)
• 375ml Cider

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 220 degrees.
• Dry the pork using a paper towel.  Score the skin at even intervals.  Place in a baking dish and genorously run with sea salt. 
• Tuck the Lemon Thyme under the pork and roast for 45 minutes or until you get a good crackling on top.
• Reduce heat to 120 degrees.
• Add the fennel to the baking dish and add the cider to just cover the meat but not touch the skin.
• Bake for 1 hour.

Strawberry Coconut Cheesecake

Now Scott doesn't like cheesecake at all.. until he ate mine!  Immediate success.. this cheesecake is the best one I have ever had - including ones from the restaurants (and I'm not trying to boast here!).  Even miss Princess loved it.

The thing about cheesecake is it can be overly 'cheesy' and not really taste like a dessert.  This recipe solves every doubt you had about glunky 'cheesy' cheesecake.

The secret is in the exotic coconut!  Result = a tropical island sensation with the ability to convert a stubborn Man United anti-cheesecake fan into a cheesecake appreciator.  So its got to be worth trying right?  Go for it :)

Ingredients & Instructions

Crust

• 6 tbs unsalted butter, melted, divided
• 3/4 cup Graham crackers, crumbed
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted,
• 1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 200C.  Blend crumbs, coconut, sugar, and butter in medium bowl.  Press mixture into a large oven proof dish and cook for 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool.

Filling

• 1 cup cream cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 tbs corn starch
• 4 large eggs
• 1 can coconut cream (not milk, and don't use reduced fat either - it wont set as well)
• 1/4 cup coconut rum

Beat the cream cheese, sugar, butter and corn starch with an electric beater.  Beat in eggs 1 at a time.  Beat in coconut cream and rum.  Pour batter over crust.
Place dish in a larger roasting dish and fill roasting dish with ot water until it reached halfway up the cheesecake dish.  Cover roasting pan with foil and place in oven for 1 hour.  After 1 hour remove foil and bake until puffed, pale brown, and just set in the centre.  Take out and cool.
Can be made 2 days ahead!

Topping

• 1/4 cup strawberry jam
• 2 tbs water
• Strawberries (or other berries)

Simmer jam and water in a small saucepan.  Brush top of the cheesecake with the jam.  Overlap berries on top of the cheesecake, covering the top completely.  Use the rest of the jam to brush over the top of the berries.
Chill.
Can be made 8 hours ahead.

Brilliant Angus Beef Burgers

I know its bad, no post in 3 weeks!!  But, to be fair, I have just moved to Scotland and hardly had time to cook anything worth posting.  I didn't think honey on toast made the cut for my first Scrumptious Scottish recipe.

I have been in Scotland almost 3 weeks now and finally putting my first post up.  And seeing as I am living in Dundee, what better way to start off my Scrumptious Scottish recipes than a recipe with some award winning Angus Beef!

Cue drum roll.... Brilliant Angus Beef Burgers :)

These burgers are amazing!!!  I have made a few burgers over the months and not quite found the best recipe yet.  Each time I made one I thought 'this is good!' until this recipe...maybe it has something to do with the Angus Beef :)

Scott came to visit last weekend and I decided it was time to introduce him to my mad burger making skills. We both dove into the kitchen and began the exciting process of burger making.

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until combined.  For best results roll up your sleeves, crack your fingers, and get those hands dirty!
Once combined, separate the mix into 4 medium sized meatballs.  Scott and I were feeling greedy so we made 3 bigger meatballs to get 3 huge burgers! Hehe.

Heat a pan (or grill is better) and coat with some Olive Oil.  Flatten the meatballs into patties with your hands and sizzle away.  5 minutes each side should do the trick.  Don't over cook the patties!

While the patties are cooking into mouth watering delights, prepare some garnish.  We slices up some tomatoes, cheese and lettuce.  I considered pineapple (Hawaiian burgers are my favourite) but couldn't find any. Other popular toppings are bacon, gherkins, onion, aubergines, other types of cheese, pepperdews, mushroom, etc.  When the patties are cooked to perfection, assemble and voila!!

Best enjoyed with Steers Barbecue Sauce.  Since we didn't have :( Tomatoe Sauce was a fine substitute :)

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 500g Beef Mince
• 1 Egg
• 2 tsp Mustard
• 1 Red Chilli, finely slices
• Hand full of Parsely, finely chopped
• 1 crushed garlic
• Salt & Pepper