rachelallencooks Verified Pan-fried mackerel, straight from the sea, a quick filleting and then into the hot pan with butter & sea salt. It’s the simple things 💙 🐠
450g (1lb, 31/2 cups) plain flour 1/2 teaspoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 300-600ml (1/2 – 1 pint, 1 1/4 – 2 1/2 cups) sour milk or buttermilk
METHOD
Sieve the dry ingredients. Make a well in the centre.
Pour in all the milk at once. Using 1 hand, with your fingers stiff and outstretched like a claw, stir in a full circular movement from the centre to the outside of the bowl in ever increasing circles. The dough should be softish, not too wet and sticky. When it all comes together, turn it out onto a well-floured work surface. Wash and dry your hands. Tidy it up and flip over gently. Pat the dough into a round, about 4cm deep.
Cut a deep cross on the loaf and prick in the four corners.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes then turn down to 200deg C for 30 minutes until cooked. If you are in doubt, tap the bottom of the bread, when it is cooked it will sound hollow. Cool on a wire rack.
Tip! Soda breads are best eaten on the day they are made, but are still good the next day.
Spotted Dog
Follow the recipe above adding: 1 dessert spoon of sugar, 100g sultanas, 1 egg.
Add the sugar and the sultanas with the flour and drop the egg in with the milk before missing. Spotted dog is also called railway cake in some parts of Ireland.
Stripy Cat
Follow the spotted dog recipe replacing the sultanas with 75g of roughly chopped best quality chocolate.
Come to savour culinary delights at Ballymaloe House Hotel.BOOK YOUR STAY
Rachel Allen’s pan-fried fish with herb butter, asparagus, new potatoes.
Ingredients
Serves: 4-6
For the herb butter:
50g soft butter
1 tablespoon chopped herbs such as dill, fennel, chives, parsley
A squeeze of lemon juice
Salt and pepper
For the pan-fried fish:
4 fillets of flat fish, such as John Dory, plaice, sole, brill or turbot, or part of a round fish fillet, like salmon, cod, grey mullet, etc. (allow 175g for a main course and 75g for a starter)
Approximately 4 tablespoons flour
Extra virgin olive oil or soft butter
A pinch of sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Dry the fish fillets on kitchen paper.
Season on both sides with sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper.
Heat a cast iron or non-stick frying pan on a high heat until smoking. Add a dash of olive oil and put in the fish fillets.
OR you can dust the fillets with seasoned flour then spread some soft butter over one side.
Place buttered side in the pan first. Turn when golden on one side, then cook again until golden on the other side.
Place a couple of slices of herb butter over each fillet and serve immediately with asparagus and boiled new potatoes.
You will have just as much fun making and dusting this cake as you will eating it. This deliciously simple recipe comes from Rachel Allen.
Ingredients
For the Cake:
100g (3½oz) butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
350g (12oz) caster sugar
2 eggs
225g (8oz) plain flour
50g (2oz) cocoa powder
¾ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
225ml (8fl oz) buttermilk or sour milk
For the Meringue:
3 egg whites
150g (5oz) caster sugar
275ml (9½fl oz) double or regular cream
Icing sugar, for dusting
Method
Preheat the oven to 165°C (325°F), Gas mark 3. Line the bases of the cake tins with rounds of baking parchment, brush the sides with melted or soft butter and dust with flour.
To make the cake, place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat until very soft. Add the sugar and one of the eggs and beat again, then add the other egg and mix. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a separate bowl and set aside. Measure the buttermilk and set aside also.
Now, start the meringue. Place the egg whites in a bowl and whisk until frothy using an electric food mixer or hand-held electric beater. Add in half of the sugar and continue whisking until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Turn off the whisk and fold in the remaining sugar.
Next, go straight back to the cake. Fold in the sifted dry ingredients and the buttermilk, then divide the mixture between the two cake tins, making sure they are level. Divide the meringue between the two cakes and spread out evenly over the cakes.
Cook in the oven for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Take out of the oven and allow to sit in the tin for 15-20 minutes before loosening around the sides with a small, sharp knife, removing the cakes from the tins and allowing to cool completely meringue side up.
When ready to assemble, whip the cream until it just holds stiff peaks, then place one of the cakes (save the best cake for the top) on a cake stand. Spread the whipped cream over the top, then sit the second cake on top of the cream. Dust with icing sugar and serve.
This is a Japanese tear-and-share loaf of bread with the most wonderful pillowy soft texture. It’s inspired by the Yudane and Tangzhong method where a little bit of flour and water or milk (both in this case) are cooked together to make a white sauce before mixing in the remaining ingredients. This method pre-gelatinises the starch in the flour allowing it to absorb more liquid, giving you a super-light loaf that stays fresh for longer as it retains the moisture.
It also is divine with cinnamon, cardamom,dried fruit and/or candied peel added as a sweet treat.
Here’s the recipe 👇🏽 below in Comments in 2 parts! Happy baking 🧡
This bread can be made so easily using a Thermomix @thermomixukandireland too!Edited · 3h
rachelallencooksVerifiedThis quantity will make one 23 cm tear-and-share loaf.
50g water 50g milk 15g strong white flour
375g strong white flour 15g milk powder 25g caster sugar 1 teaspoon salt 115g milk 1 egg, beaten 25g fresh yeast or 12g dried yeast 50g butter, melted
Pour the water and the milk into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Add in the 15g of flour & cook, whisking all the time, over the heat for a couple of minutes until the liquid has thickened to a white sauce. Tip the white sauce into a bowl & cool. Place the 375g of strong white flour in a mixing bowl, or the bowl of an electric food mixer (with the dough hook attached) ) with the milk powder, the sugar & the salt, & mix. Now place the milk in a separate bowl & add in the beaten egg, the yeast,the melted butter & the white sauce. Stir then pour all of this liquid into the dry ingredients & mix to a dough. Knead for 8-10 minutes by hand or in the machine until you have a smooth and almost springy dough, don’t add flour while you’re kneading, the dough is supposed to be slightly sticky. When I’m using a stand mixer for this I scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times during kneading. When the dough has been kneaded enough it will be smooth on the outside. Press it with a floured finger and the dent that you make with your finger should spring back a little bit. Place the dough into a bowl that’s large enough to take the dough when doubled in size (or leave it in the stand mixer bowl) & cover the bowl with a clean tea towel or a plate. Place it somewhere warm, not above 45’C, or just standing on the counter in your kitchen and allow the dough to double in size, this may take 2 hours. If you wish you can place the covered bowl of dough in the fridge overnight. When the dough has doubled in size, using a floured fist, punch the dough down to knock it back then knead it for just 1 minute. Brush a 23cm spring-form tin with melted butter, then dust with flour. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, each weighing about 90g. Keep all dough covered with a clean tea towel while you work with one ball of dough. On a very lightly floured work surface, place one ball of dough.2 likesReply
rachelallencooksVerifiedOn a very lightly floured work surface, place one ball of dough. Fold the edges, all the way round, into the centre of the ball of dough, squashing it down in the centre as you go. Turn the ball over so that the folded side is on the underside and the smooth side is on top. Roll the ball gently under the palm of your hand to make a round roll then place into the prepared tin. Repeat with all the other balls of dough so that you end up with 7 around the sides, spaced apart, and one ball in the centre. Now cover with the tea towel again and place on the worktop or somewhere a little warmer, again not above 45’C , and allow to rise again until almost doubled in size, about 35-45 minutes. Preheat an oven to 200’C. The dough is ready when you make a little dent with a floured finger and it doesn’t spring back. Also, the balls of dough should have joined together at this stage. Whisk the egg with a pinch of salt and brush very gently over the top of the risen bread. Place the bread in the lower part of the preheated oven to bake for 30-40 minutes. The dough, out of the tin, should sound hollow when you tap it on the base. If you wish you can bake the bread out of the tin for the last 5 minutes of cooking time. Place on a wire rack to cool.2 likesReply
leanwithlesleyLooks delicious, reminds me of your ciabatta/tabata 😂❤️Reply
This recipe comes from the original Swiss Bircher muesli, where porridge oats are soaked in a little water, then sweetened with delicious seasonal or dried fruit, and sometimes nuts and seeds too. Strawberries and raspberries work particularly well in this muesli recipe, as does grated apple, to which you could also add a smidgen of ground cinnamon.
The recipe was created in the early 1900s by the Swiss physician Dr Maximillian Bircher-Benner, who knew that a diet rich in nutrients was essential for the recuperation of the patients in his hospital.
Place the porridge oats in a bowl with the water. Allow the oats to sit for 10 minutes, then add in the strawberries. Mash with a fork before adding enough light agave syrup or honey, whichever you’re using, to sweeten the mixture.
Serve the muesli on its own, or with cream and brown sugar; or topped with natural yoghurt and toasted, chopped hazelnuts or almonds.
Serves 2-3.
You will need:
75g (3oz) porridge oats
150ml (5fl oz) water
110g (4oz) strawberries
2-3 teaspoons light agave syrup or honey
To serve, you will need:
Cream and brown sugar (optional)
Natural yoghurt and toasted chopped hazlenuts or almonds (optional)
Place the porridge oats in a bowl with the water. Allow the oats to sit for 10 minutes, then add in the strawberries. Mash with a fork before adding enough light agave syrup or honey, whichever you’re using, to sweeten the mixture.
Serve the muesli on its own, or with cream and brown sugar; or topped with natural yoghurt and toasted, chopped hazelnuts or almonds.
