Cook me quick! I'm Irish soda bread.

Knead-less Irish soda bread and liptauer cheese.

It's St Patrick's day today so to celebrate, today's recipe is for some homemade Irish soda bread. 

With only 5 ingredients and no kneading necessary you can have fresh homemade bread in under 40 minutes!  Apart from only taking 5 minutes to prepare, what is also great about this Paul Hollywood recipe is you can keep all the ingredients in the store cupboard for a rainy day. 

My family love to eat this bread fresh out of the oven for lunch served with cheese, meats, pate or liptauer (see image, more about this on another post).

brunch

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My little Alsace obsession...

Flammkuchen: 'classic' and 'blue cheese and walnut'

Could flammkuechen be Europe's best kept secret?

'Flammkuechen' or 'tarte flambee' originates from the Alsatian region of south-west Germany and east France. It's a super light bread dough rolled out thin and traditionally topped with creme fraiche, onions and bacon, although many variations now exist.

Over the past couple of years flammkuechen has become my 'thing'. Weeknight dinners, drinking food, BBQs, lunch time treats, I can literally find any excuse to whip up a few of these delicious crowd-pleasing alternative pizzas. They are so versatile, can be topped with anything you fancy and take minutes to prepare.

I'm so passionate about them that at one point I even wanted to start my own flammkuechen restaurant. But don't just believe me, try them for yourself! This recipe is for the 'classic' bacon and onion flammkuechen. I have many favourite toppings (which I will be sharing with you on this blog) but everyone seems to agree you just can't beat that light, creamy base topped with sweet onions and salty bacon, served with a crisp glass of white wine.

Ingredients: 

• 200g plain flour + extra for dusting (wholemeal also works well) 
• 2 tablespoons of oil 
• 125ml water
• 200g creme fraiche
• 2 large onions 
• 100g bacon (the really thin bacon works well) 
• 1 tablespoon butter
• salt and pepper

Method: 
1. Preheat the oven on the highest temperature.
2. Lightly grease two large baking or pizza trays.
3. Add the flour and a pinch of salt to a large mixing bowl.
4. Add the oil and water and mix well into a (non sticky) dough.
5. Cut the dough in half and use a rolling pin to roll each half into a large thin base. 

6. Place the bases on the trays and pre-bake the base for 3-4 minutes.
7. Finely slice the onions and cut up the bacon.
8. Melt the butter in a frying pan on a low-medium heat.
9. Gently 'sweat' the onions until soft.
10. Add the bacon and fry for another 2 minutes.
11.. Spoon and evenly spread half of the creme fraiche onto each of the bases.
12. Evenly distribute the onion and bacon topping and season with pepper.
13. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until the edges look crispy.
14. Remove from the oven, cut into pieces and ENJOY!

Serving suggestion: Serve with some white wine or good beer. Warning flammkuechen are very light and extremely moreish, make plenty if feeding a crowd. :-)

savoury

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The perfect dippy egg!

While at University I perfected the art of cooking eggs: poached, scrambled, fried, soft-boiled...you name it, I can do it! So here is my fail-safe guide to cooking perfect eggs every time!

I start with the all time favourite soft-boiled egg (or dippy egg): delicious seasoned with salt and pepper and served with buttered soldiers (with a lick of marmite) and a cuppa.







Ingredients: 

• Egg(s) 
• Water 

Method: 

1. Place egg(s) in a saucepan and cover with water.
2. Bring to the boil.
3. As soon as the water starts bubbling- start your timer!
4. Large eggs: 4-4.5minutes, Small/Medium eggs: 3.5-4 minutes.
5. Once the timer goes off, turn off the heat and serve. 

TOP TIP! If you are unsure whether your egg is cooked properly, take the egg out of the water, carefully crack open the top with a knife and check if the egg white is cooked enough. If it's still a bit runny/transparent, don't worry, simply pop the top back on the egg, wrap the egg tightly in tinfoil and place back in the boiling water for up to a minute.

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Easy peasy poached eggs

Poached egg with avocado, bacon and brown toast

Love poached eggs but never sure how to make them? Not got a pan big enough to make more than two at a time? Don't worry, with this method you won't ever be swirling or vinegar-ing your water again!

For this guide, I owe credit to my mother. She discovered and taught me this method and I have never looked back since. There is just one essential element to this recipe- coffee filter bags. You can find coffee filter bags in most supermarkets for very little money and usually come in packs of 50-100. You will need one bag per poached egg.

I have included photos below the recipe to help demonstrate how to use the bags.

Ingredients:

• Egg(s)
• Water
• Coffee Filter Bag

Method: 

1. Fill (about 3/4 full) a small saucepan with cold water and bring to the boil.
2. Once the water has started boiling, get a mug or glass and place the coffee filter bag in the mug, so the opening of the bag is facing upwards and is wide open.
3. Crack 1 egg into the coffee filter bag and quickly place the bag into the boiling water
4. Repeat if poaching multiple eggs.
5. Put the timer on for about 4 minutes for 1 egg, and 5-5.5 minutes for more than 4 eggs.
6. Once the timer has gone off, turn off the heat, drain each egg on a slotted spoon, and serve.

Serving suggestion:
Serve eggs on a brown toast with mashed avocado and topped with crispy bacon. YUM.

savoury

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