Irish Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread

I want to be a master bread maker, however history has proven that I suck at making bread. I was looking at bread recipes and thought that Irish Soda Bread would fit into my abilities because there's not much to it. Put it all together, not much kneading, bake, butter, eat - how hard can that be? It turns out to be not hard at all. It was just as easy as the recipe said it was and I'll be dipped if it didn't disappear in a matter of minutes after it cooled and some butter was introduced to it. You'd think people around here hadn't eaten in days the way it went down. I have to admit it was pretty dang good. The next time I don't think I'll cut such a deep cross into it - maybe just 1/2 inch or so. Despite the appearance not being exactly what I wanted the taste was spot on! I'm so freaking happy it turned out, I wanted to raise my fists in the air and run around yelling "I am the Irish Soda Bread Champion" - first time in history I've made bread other than pizza crust I wanted to eat.

3 Cups all purpose flour
1 Tsp salt
1 Tbsp oil
1 Heaping tsp soda, sifted
1 Cup + 2 Tbsp buttermilk
bit of water - maybe 2 tablespoons or so - depends on your dough you want it kinda sticky

Grease and flour a 9-12" round bread pan (maybe 2 - 3" high sides. Put flour in a bowl, add salt and soda - mix well. Make a well in the flour mixture and add the butter milk, and oil. Mix well using a spoon adding a bit of water at a time as needed. This will form a very soft (and sticky) dough. The brilliant thing is that next no kneading is needed. Once the dough has come together turn it out onto your flowered counter. You do want to knead it a few times (really only 5 - 10 times), and roll into a ball. With a sharp knife, cut a deep cross across the top of the dough - about an inch or so deep. Give the top of the bread a quick dusting of flour. Put your dough-ball into the prepared pan - make sure the cross is still prominent in the dough - if not do it again. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 45 minutes. Turn the bread out and let cool on a wire rack. Serve with heaps of butter...

Happy Baking & Bon Appetit...

~Nikko

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Kings Head Brittish Pub - St. Augustine, Florida

The Kings Head is my favorite pub in the greater Jacksonville area. The pub itself was shipped over from England, and it's full of interesting items that Ann (the owner) brought over with her. For the past 3 or so years I've gone there for New Years Eve and it's a blast. The best part is that they celebrate on England time! So at 7:30 we're sing ole lang sine and getting on with the evening - home before the whackjobs hit the streets... That makes me sound really old but it is fun...




The fish and chips - The best thing going at the pub if you ask me. I get it almost every time I'm there. They do a proper fish and the chips are spot on... No mushy peas though :(












Curry chips - These are the best curry chips I've had outside of England...















Garlic Shrimp. I'd pass - I'm glad I tried it once but it really wasn't all that good. They do so many things perfect that they have to have one downer in the bunch... A lot of people seem to order it but it just wasn't my thing.









Stilton soup. OMG this is so dang good. It's rich and creamy - good to the last bite...















Escargot - It's fantastic

Cheese Plate - They usually have a few nice selections and good crackers

Scotch Egg - Well I can do better at home, but it's not bad...










Me enjoying a black castle... Half Guinness and half Newcastle...















May I introduce you to Anne - She owns the pub. What an interesting person...














If you're ever in the Jacksonville / St. Augustine area I'd highly suggest stopping in for a pint.

Bon Appetit...

~Nikko

Beef Wellington

The origin of the name is unclear... But the goodness that comes from making the dish is known by all who has tried it (if you tried it and didn't like it then there could be something wrong with you). Beef Wellington is the combination of beef tenderloin, pate (which I opt not to use), duxelles, all wrapped up in a puff pastry... I've seen some recipes include wrapping the coated meat in a crepe to retain the moisture and prevent it making the pastry soggy - but I've yet to try that but it sounds like a good idea... Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

The Beef Tenderloin

Start with good meat. These came from my local market. Trim off any fat (if there is any), and give them a nice salt and peppering. You will want to sear these off on a grill or a rocket hot pan. Depending on your desired doneness you can throw them in the oven for 10 min or so to cook them a bit - I like mine medium...

Duxelles

1 lb mushrooms, chopped
3 Tbsp butter, unsalted please
1 Shallot, finely chopped
1/2 tsp dried thyme (or can use fresh)
1/4 Cup Dry vermouth, sherry, or white wine
Salt
Pepper

Pulse the mushrooms and shallot in a food processor until you get a fine dice but not a paste. Put the mushroom mixture into a clean towel and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Heat a large (10-inch) non-stick skillet over a burner set between medium and medium-high. Add in 1.5 tablespoons of the butter and let it melt. Add mushrooms, shallots, a pinch of salt, a pinch of black pepper, and thyme. In about five minutes the mushrooms will start to seem dry and will start to brown. Stir in the remaining butter, then once incorporated add the vermouth, sherry, or wine. Cook, stirring frequently, until the vermouth has evaporated. Remove from the pan and let cool.

Puff The Magic Pastry

Feel free to make your own but I buy my from Pillsbury... Thaw the pastry according to the package.

Assemble

Add a base of the mushrooms to the center of the pastry, then put on the beef. Top with more mushrooms. fold over the longer sides, brushing with a simple egg wash (1 egg 1 Tbsp water) to seal. Trim the ends if necessary and brush with egg wash and fold over to completely seal the beef. Save the ends to use as a decoration on top if desired. Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash then make a couple of slits in the top of the pastry using the tip of a paring knife. I find that you will have a crisper crust if you put in a few vents - letting the steam escape makes since right? Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until pastry is golden brown. Remove from oven and rest before serving. You can use an instant read thermometer to test the doneness of of the meat.

Medium-Rare	145 °F
Medium	155 °F
Medium-Well	165 °F
Well Done	170 °F

The finished dish...

This is really easy to do. It's one of my favorites...

Bon Appetit...

~Nikko

P.S. - I have a video for this dish but really need to remake it... It's long and the video quality sucks...

Cornish Pasties - The Research

Cornish Pasties

I've been wanting to make my own Cornish Pasties for some time now. I'm working on finding a great recipe and the technique to get a proper one made. With the help of some friends and YouTube I think I've found the recipe and how-to knowledge to get the job done.

Photo by: Jim Hammer

According to Wikipedia - The Cornish Pasty is commonly associated with Cornwall, United Kingdom. It differs from a pie as it is made by placing the filling on a flat pastry shape, usually a circle, and folding it to wrap the filling, crimping the edge to form a seal. The result is a raised semicircular package. The traditional Cornish pasty is filled with diced beef, sliced potato and onion, and baked.

Just about every recipe I could find had turnip (or swede) in them as well. There is a woman who comes to a lot of the farmers markets in the area that makes pasties of all sorts, and they're pretty darned good - I'm on a mission to do better!

The Pastry:

The pastry part of the recipe I'm using came from a video I found on YouTube by a lady named Dianna Tennant (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu40YWWdDC0 - it's a great video and I suggest you check it out...). I looked at a multitude of recipes and hers looked the best out of all of them! She stated she had some 60 years of experience with making them so that's good enough for me! The only thing I changed from what she did in the video is add shortening/lard to the recipe. She did all butter for these because as mentioned in the video someone there was a vegetarian. I might add a simple eggwash for the top of the pastry before baking but I'm going to play with that thought for a while...

12 ounces all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2.5 ounces cold, unsalted butter
2.5 ounces lard/shortening
10-12 tablespoons cold water

Put the flour in a large bowl and stir in the salt. Grate the cold butter and lard/shortening into the flour. Lightly rub the fat into the flour - do not over mix it - there will be some large bits of the fat left over (I'm guessing this will be a uber flaky pastry once baked). Start with 7 tablespoons of the water and mix it in . Add another 3 tablespoons of water and continue to mix with your hands. Move the part of the mixture that has come together to one side of the bowl and add the remaining two tablespoons of water to the dry part. You do not need to knead the dough much - just bring it together. Divide the dough into for equal portions and roll out on a well floured surface one at a time. I will have to play with it but it looks like she rolled them out to a 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness. Fill, crimp in that special Cornish Pasties way, poke a small hole to let steam escape, and cook them on partchment paper for an hour at 400 degreese (200 C).


The Filling:

I couldn't find one recipe for the filling that really knocked my socks off - so I've talken a mixture of some of my favorites I found and came up with my own...

10 ounces chuck steak, trimmed and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 small Idaho potato, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 turnip, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (or more if your a pepperholic like I am)

Basically I'm guessing I'm just going to prep everything and divide it up amongst the 4 pasties. No prep is involved other than washing, peeling (where needed) and dicing the items. They all go in uncooked and everybody gets well seasoned as they go in.

I'm going to try these out in the next few weeks and will post a video and the exact recipe I end up using - so make sure to come back and see my triumph or tragedy in the Cornish Pasties challenge...