Cooking On The Range: April 2012

If you don't have any Buttermilk hanging around, and lets face it, not many people do , then use this dead easy quick recipe to make your own in under 15 minutes, using only 2 ingredients. So much cheaper, and you don't end up buying Gallons that you'll never use. Yay!

Ingredients;

250ml Milk
1tbsp Lemon Juice

It's as simple as this; Put the Milk and Lemon Juice in a Jug, mix together and leave to stand for 10 minutes. Done. Simple as that Simply double or halve the recipe as many times as needed (If completing the Soda Bread recipe, just use the same amount of lemon juice for the 230ml)

When the Buttermilk is ready, it should look slightly lumpy

It should keep for several days, as the truth is, it's just soured milk. Very useful to stop buying tons of the stuff

Okay, Well here is my Comeback Recipe after a most delightful week in the Lake District. Ate this today, with fresh butter and grated cheese, and to be honest, it was a hell of a lot easier than I thought it would be, and a darn sight tastier too! Fantastically fast, easy and delicious. Just the way I like my food. If you've never seen the Baker Brothers, they are adorable! Their recipes are traditional and the believe in the old fashioned way of doing things, which means the quality is fabulous. I'm a big fan, so I thought I'd share this Soda Bread recipe with you, and I might just have to post my photo on here of when I met Henry! This recipe requires household ingredients and can be made and cooked in under 45 minutes. Fantastic. Dead Easy, and you probably don;t need any of my help, but I thought I'd put the S-B-S anyway

Ingredients (Serves 4);

300g Wholemeal Spelt Flour (I didn't have any, so I used Plain Flour, and it worked perfectly)
Big Pinch of Sea Salt
2tsp Baking Powder
230ml Buttermilk (If you don't have any, then I've posted a Alternative method of making it quickly simply using lemon and milk)
Flour For Dusting

TIP; I dug out my mother's baking stone, but if you don't have one, then just use a normal baking tray

Preheat the oven to 230'C / 450'F / Gas Mark 8 and weigh out the flour into a large bowl. Add in the rest of the dry ingredients as well as the water and mix together with a wooden spoon. Then measure in the buttermilk and mix again. This will create a very sticky dough, which is exactly what you want. This is the hardest part. The trick is to try and keep the mixture in a ball while putting it on a well-floured surface. Now use your hands to 'hug' it into a ball to keep it together. Use more flour so it stays in shape and place it onto your baking stone or tray (lined with baking parchment / paper). Using a sharp knife or whichever utensil you choose, score a cross shape on top of the dough. Now bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the outside is golden and when you tap the base it sounds hollow. Enjoy warm and Fresh with real Butter, Perfect!

(I spilt some of the salt, which caused me to go into a fit of throwing it over each shoulder, just to stop any bad luck.) What a nutter I am...

Measure all The dry ingredients and mix together with a wooden spoon

Add The Buttermilk which will bind all the ingredients together for the dough

Mix this in, and very soon you'll get a dough. The dough is very sticky, this is what you want.

This is where it gets messy; Somehow put the stickiest mixture on the planet onto a lightly floured surface, attempting to keep it in a big ball type thing. I used a bowl palette to get all the mixture out. Keep beating it with a spoon to try and keep it all in one place if you're having difficulty