St Patrick's Day: 24 hours celebrating Irish flavours: breakfast
This year (2012) St Patrick's Day falls on a Saturday which I think is a great excuse to spend an entire 24 hours celebrating. And why not start by recreating traditional Irish dishes using some of the fantastic Irish ingredients available globally. Even if Irish food brands are hard to find in whichever corner of the world you live, by using the freshest premium-quality ingredients, you can capture the essence of Irish flavours.
To help you with your 24 hours of celebration I'm suggesting a 'St Patrick's Day' menu so you don't have to spend any time worrying about what to cook. This menu is as '40 shades of green' as it goes. From traditional brown soda bread and easy-to-make soda farls for breakfast to a contemporary blue cheese and pear salad for lunch to my personal twist on the great traditional 'bacon & cabbage', all the dishes are simple to make and brilliant for sharing. All you'll have to do is to plan who to invite to the celebrations.
Remember, we Irish like our tables full of food, folk and fun!
And just to make things oh-so-easy, I've illustrated a recipe guide for the main element of each meal that you can download by clicking through the link at the bottom of each post. Print out, follow and enjoy!
Today's post is St Patrick's Day Breakfast.
St Patrick's Day Celebration Menu
Breakfast: Irish Brown Soda Bread
Makes 1 loaf
240 g wholemeal flour
70 g white flour
40 g bran
40 g wheatgerm
1 egg
15 g black treacle
30 ml water
285 ml buttermilk
(or a milk and unsweetened yoghurt mix or squeeze some lemon into milk to turn it sour)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
jumbo rolled oat flakes (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Place flours, bran, wheatgerm, salt and bicarb of soda in large bowl.
In another bowl gently beat the egg with the buttermilk.
Dissolve the black treacle in the water and add to the egg milk mix.
Add the wet mix to the dry mix. Stir to incorporate to a wet sticky dough.
Line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment.
Add the wet dough and tap the tin on the worktop to make sure there are no air holes. Flatten the top of the bread dough then with a sharp knife score a line on the surface along the length of the loaf to allow for expansion.
You can brush the surface with a beaten egg to get a richer colour or you can scatter the surface with some oat flakes. Or not.
Place in the oven, cook for 50 mins then test if cooked by inserting a knife. If it comes out clean the it is cooked. Alternatively the bread is ready if the base sounds hollow when tapped. Turn off the heat. Remove the loaf from the tin and turn it over and place back diagonally in the tin. Leave back in the oven for 5 mins.
Cool on a wire tray or for a softer crust, wrap in a clean tea towel.
.........
Click on the link to download your illustrated recipe guide of
Irish Brown Soda Bread