Bibliocook: All About Food

The No-Knead Bread recipe from Mark Bittman - aka the New York Times' Minimalist - is one of those recipes that has taken on a life of its own. Published in the newspaper in 2006, it still keeps cropping up on other people's blogs and, finally - it was on my list of recipes-to-try for ages - I've gotten around to making it.

The first time I used this recipe was three days before our wedding. Awake at 4am one morning, I thought it was a good time to start the 18-hour proving (it sure beat writing wedding preparation lists!) so I threw the ingredients into a bowl and forgot about it until 6pm that evening. We were on our way to the airport to collect the Husband's Cousin, so it got a quick shaping and was abandoned while we whizzed down to Cork, collected the HC, and brought him home. While they brought the bags into the house, I ran ahead to turn on the cooker and start preheating my cast iron casserole - I don't think the bread came out of the oven until midnight but it was certainly worth waiting for. It had a gorgeous, crackly crust, (although somewhat over-floured by yours truly, panicking after trying to shape the wet, shaggy dough) and firm, chewy crumb. We ate it the following morning for breakfast and I was looking forward to trying it toasted - until I landed almost the entire loaf in a sink full of washing-up water as we raced around, getting ready to leave for another airport trip!

Friday night, after we arrived at the cottage, I started the bread mixture, this time substituting one cup of rye flour for one of strong flour. As I wandered off to nearby Longueville House for an indulgent, and prolonged, lunch with the Kerryman's mother, the Husband had to step into the breach for the final shaping although I did make it home for the cooking. This time round, I kept it safe from the sink, we enjoyed the loaf over three meals and it is fabulous toasted, especially when rubbed with a clove of garlic and drizzled with a little olive oil.

For the recipe, I'll refer you to the New York Times. I cook it in my 29cm oval cast iron casserole and these are the proportions that I use:
2 cups strong flour
1 cup rye flour
1 sachet instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt

Update 31/07/07: For a great step-by-step picture guide of how to make this bread go here and Clotilde has adapted the recipe for the metric world over on Chocolate and Zucchini - but, I have to reiterate this, be very careful when you're transferring the dough to the pan to the cooker. It is VERY HOT (last weekend's lovely oven-shelf-shaped blister on my arm is now finally healing after lavish amounts of aloe vera).

Rabbit is in season at the moment, at least according to one of the emails I got from Eat The Seasons a few weeks ago. I should tell the Husband although, with lush, fresh grass everywhere at the moment, I'm not sure our rabbits would venture into one of the cages for a carrot (even if it was a recently pulled one!) At least they've stopped trying to dig their way inside the fenced-off veggie garden recently and our purple sprouting broccoli, kale, sweetcorn, beans and silverbeet are all thriving.

Check out the article on rabbit here - like all Eat the Seasons entries there's information on the history of the rabbit and tips on buying, storing and preparing your bunny. No tips on cage-enticing though. There are also a few recipes (One-Pot Rabbit, Pot-Roasted Rabbit with Baby Leeks, Stuffed Rabbit with Harissa) that I might have to try the next time we get our hands on one and, for the vegetarians, they even include a recipe for a Welsh Rabbit!

Sitting on the N4 on Saturday night, watching the car temperature gage climb dangerously in the not-moving traffic and the clock moving much faster than we were able to, I was glad that I was heading off to dinner at Richard Corrigan's Café La Serre rather than continuing on with the crowds to Barbra Streisland's first Irish concert in Castletown House, near Celbridge. We were taking my American Cousin and her Fiancé for a long-awaited dinner in advance of their August wedding - we didn't realise that our trip to their Celbridge home was going to coincide with one of the flashiest traffic jams in years. Tickets, after all, were priced from €118.50 to €885!

After we had called the restaurant to let them know we would be late for our 8pm booking, we relaxed, kept our fingers crossed that the engine temperature wouldn't climb too far into the red, and started to play a game of Spot the Barbra Fan. That expensively-coiffed couple in the chauffer-driven Merc beside us? Definitely. The girl in the Mini, with the sound of Kings of Leon floating out her open windows? Perhaps not!

After more an hour-and-a-half crawling through traffic, we were delighted to turn out of the concert traffic and towards the Village at Lyons, picking up the AC and Fiancé en route. Our little red Fiesta was a little dwarfed by the giant gates which mark the entrance but fortunately the sensors recognised that there was a small waiting car and slowly swung open. The setting, all mature trees and beautifully restored buildings, is wonderful but we didn't have much time to appreciate it as we ran through the rain, searching for the discrete - in other words, we couldn't see any signs for it - entrance.

Continue reading "Café La Serre, The Village at Lyons" »

Watch out on television tonight for a programme called Home which features none other than finger-lickin' Monica Sheridan! I discovered Monica or, rather, one of her cookbooks, in a second hand bookshop in Athlone last year and Monica's Kitchen is a treasure indeed. As well as useful recipes it is full of entertaining opinions - my favourite is her take on boned chicken: "Frankly, I wouldn't recommend it, but, if you want to see green in the eyes of the women and hear the praise of gluttonous men ringing in your ears, well, here goes." - and ahead of her time recipes and ingredients (anyone for foie gras and risotto in 1960s Ireland?).

The website for the show is here and there is a little more information on Ireland's first - and now almost forgotten - celebrity chef in the Meath Chronicle. I wonder if her other cookbooks are as full of character? Maybe we should start a Monica Sheridan revival here!

Home is on at 7pm on RTÉ One tonight at 7pm.

The new Bridgestone Irish Food Guide didn't see the Husband and I wrong on a brief trip to Carlow this weekend. Just released, it is a compendium of food producers, delis, markets, cafés and restaurants up and down the length and breath of the country. This is Sally and John McKenna's eighth edition - the last one was published in 2004 - and it is a lovely chunky book, rammed full of great eating and an essential companion for any trip around Ireland.

Along with the favourites that I've written about in the past, including the Cake Café, Ardagh Castle Goats Cheese, Al-Khyrat, Country Choice, Glebe Gardens, Fallon & Byrne and Sowan's Organic Bread Mixes, it's great to see that there's also a lot of blogger involvement. Val of Val's Kitchen is a contributing editor and, while you're flicking through the book, watch out for Murphy's Ice Cream, La Cucina, Bubble Brothers and Ummera.

We took our copy with us on the train down to Carlow on Friday night and, after quickly dumping our bags at Barrowville Townhouse, it led us to Lennon's Café Bar for dinner, a duck liver salad for me, monkfish wrapped in Parma ham for himself. The food was tasty, definitely above average Irish pub grub standards, although finishing with an underwhelming and over-chilled cheese plate may not have been the best move. The next morning, after a very substantial breakfast, we tackled the Bridgestone-noted Farmers' Market in the town centre. Not wanting to carry loads back on the train, we limited ourselves to two types of cheese - sundried tomato and basil Carlow Farmhouse Cheese and Coolattin Cheddar - cherry jam, beetroot chutney and raspberry tonic from Malone Fruit Farm and a bag of the most divine fudge from The Truffle Fairy. Small, but very well formed, the Carlow Farmers' Market has a lot to recommend it, not least the fact that it's situated right in the town centre where no one can forget about it - unlike the now abandoned Fermoy Farmers' Market. Wandering around town, we also spotted Bosco's but unfortunately the Carlow Craft Brewery was closed - the Husband is a big fan of their O'Haras Celtic Stout.

There are far too many chancers in the food industry in Ireland. I really don't think that there can be any excuse for a muffin served, still in its packet, as happened me yesterday in Lemon Jelly on Joyce Street. Although I wouldn't necessarily agree with the McKenna's assessment of Munchies in Fermoy, for finding great food in out of the way places, it's difficult to beat the Bridgestone Irish Food Guide.

A recent request for the Gingerbread recipe from the first of Paula Daly's McDonnell's Good Food Cook Books brought back a host of memories. This was a cake that was often made at home, first by my mother and then, when I was allowed to get stuck into more complicated recipes, by me, standing on top of a chair to stir the sweet, sticky mixture (and sneaking tastes whenever I could!).

Although I still love Gingerbread I hadn't made it for a while and hadn't used this particular recipe in years. Although, unlike the loaf I made last year, there is no syrup drizzled over it when it comes out of the oven, this is still a lovely damp, moist Gingerbread, especially when you wrap it up and store it for a day or two before cutting it - if you can wait that long!

With this recipe, as with anything involving melting ingredients, I find it easiest to put the saucepan on the scales, measuring the ingredients as I add them. Makes life a little easier rather than trying to wrestle golden syrup or molasses into the measuring pan and then into the saucepan. The only changes that I made to the recipe was to substitute one of the teaspoons of ground ginger with cinnamon, use honey instead of golden syrup and molasses instead of treacle. And, of course, use butter instead of margarine.

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