weekly bread

rachel allen's seed bread is quickly becoming a weekly sunday baking event in my kitchen. i recently purchased one of those new-fangled gold tinted bread pans and it is a definite must have. the bread is great too with irish butter and honey. it is a yeast bread that requires no kneading.

bread and jam

some of you asked me how the cherry/golden raspberry/apricot jam i made the other day turned out

really good. i was able to get 4 jars for the amount of fruit i had so they'll have to be strictly rationed and enjoyed. i tried rachel allen's wheat seed bread again today. came out much better the second time. definitely a recipe to keep around.

orange yellow

farm market this evening. abundance as far as i could see, but i quickly zoomed in on these golden raspberries and yellow french cherries. the only trouble ... have to do something with them tonight. 3 apricots in my refrigerator, some turbindo sugar and some lemon verbena from my garden later, i decided jam making is in order for the evening.

i think i will call this batch - summer berry sme(a)ry

tomorrow's to do list - make more wheat seed bread.

tonight's dinner - roast pork and wheat seed bread

too bad you did not come for dinner tonight. you missed out.

pictured above:

Rachel Allen's Whole Wheat Seed Bread (an interesting bread that uses yeast but is more like a soda bread)

Roasted Pork stuffed with Apricots, Rosemary and Garlic and basted with olive oil and honey

and yes, plenty of roasted peach ice cream as well for dessert.

cheese and honey pairings and a new contest

Recently, I decided to do a pairing of cheese and honey since I've been busy making infused honeys this early summer. I invited ms. cookworm to come over and she generously helped lay everything out and then helped me taste it all. We set up a little tasting station out in the garden on one of the tables I built recently and I brought out a number of tiny bowls from my collection for all the honeys to be contained in, and some of my antique spoons for the drizzling.

I had done some reading and research about which cheeses to choose and what honeys they should be paired with. As it ended up, I was surprised by which I liked the best.

our first pairing:

La Tur with rose infused honey

La Tur is a mixed milk cheese from Piedmont, Italy and comes with an interesting curling pattern across its face. It is a mix of cow, sheep and goat milk and is very soft and delicate. The pairing of rose infused honey was definitely the right choice, the floral quality of the roses mingled well with the cheese. This was my 2nd favorite of the testing.

our second pairing:

aged Gouda with rose infused honey

Aged Gouda is similar in texture to a Parmigiano-Reggiano. It is rich and crystalline and has a salty taste as well. It was paired with lavender honey (not infused but the bees were busy in the lavender to make this one). This one was ok but ended up being my least favorite. Perhaps some wine might have brought out something more complex in the taste.

our third pairing:

fresh goat cheese and Chaumes with rosemary infused honey

Chaumes is a strong smelling but mild tasting cheese and is my favorite when I do grilled cheese right. It is a cheese that definitely needs to sit out before eating to let it get properly runny. Goat cheese is, one of my other best liked, and I found a wonderful one at the store which was very creamy and mellow. Both of these were paired with a savory, rosemary infused honey I made last week. This pair turned out to also be a definitely one to remember. I think this time the cheese enhanced the honey instead of the other way round.

our fourth pairing:

Passendale and buckwheat honey

I was a little skeptical at first about this one. Buckwheat honey is really the molasses of honeys. It is deep and strong tasting and very thick. Passendale is a flemish cheese and is similar to Chaumes. It is creamy but firm and has a fairly upfront but not overpowering taste. And together, by far my favorite of the night. The Passendale does something complex to the buckwheat honey, some sympathetic magic. If you get a chance, definitely give it a try.

so on to the contest ....

I am going to give away a jar of the rose infused honey, handcrafted by me from the roses in my garden, to one lucky winner here on the blog. I'll run this contest until July 1st.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post about cheese or honey, a memory of yours or a favorite recipe suggestion. Whatever you'd like to share with everyone. On July 1 I'll randomly pick a winner.

As a brief teaser, this year has been exceptional in my garden due to it being cool and rainy early on in the spring. A vintage year for rose infusing.

infusions of honey

honey is of course a miraculous substance for many reasons. one of my favorites is its ability to draw essential oils and scents out of other plants when they are infused/steeped in the honey. shown above (right to left) is honey infused with mint (peppermint, pineapple mint, ginger mint and apple mint), rose infused honey just packed and lastly rose infused honey after a week.

as the honey draws all the flavor out of the herbs it, in essence, dehydrates the petals and leaves.

for any of these recipes use a light flavored honey (i am using poplar for these), fill the jar with fragrant rose petals, mint, rosemary, lemon verbena, etc... and let it sit for a week, turning the jar over now and then to make sure everything is getting mixed, then use a sieve to strain the honey into new jars and enjoy.

as the herbs start to dehydrate i'll add in more honey until the jar is full.

rosemary honey is great on lamb. rose honey i use on anything and everything, and the mint honey i use in a vinaigrette with other fresh herbs. i'll be bottling some of this to sell down at Wildcard in Lawrenceville in the coming weeks so look for it there

tonight's dessert - caramelized mango bread pudding

bread pudding:

caramelized mango

blackberries

raisins

dried cranberries

1 loaf of challah

maple syrup

milk

3 eggs

ginger honey

vietnamese cinnamon

nutmeg

cook, tear, whisk, mix, let sit, pour, cook, eat

Update

ok seems some people might like a real recipe instead of my shortened version. if so then here you are:

2 mangoes, peeled and cut into chunks

2 tbl butter

1 loaf of challah or any egg bread or even a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread will work (3 cups of chunks)

2 cups milk

3 eggs

1/4 cup sugar (raw works very well)

1/4 cup maple syrup or honey

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 package blackberries

preheat oven to 350degF

in a large skillet or saucepan, heat the butter and maple syrup or honey until the butter is melted, add the mango and toss to coat. let this cook on low heat until the mango starts to brown and caramelize (stir only now and then making sure everything gets nicely browned).

in a large bowl whisk together the milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

tear the bread into chunks and add this to the bowl, followed by all the other fruits.

stir and mash this down so everything gets properly soaked.

when the mango is done add it to the bread mixture and pour everything into a dutch oven or large casserole dish.

let this sit for a few minutes until the oven is ready.

cover and cook for 40-50 minutes or until it seems set.

a small weekend project

i had some walnut i bought recently that just needed to have something made of it. one of the boards was cracked down the center so i decided to use it building a rustic tray; something bread could rise in or fruit be contained in. this tray about 9"x14" in size. have some ideas for others of course, so look for something new soon. i am most happy i was able to match the grain color in the 3 pieces that make up the bottom of the tray.

i was also featured today on wildcard's facebook page.

tonight's dinner - grilled flatbread

i've been wanting to make Mark Bittman's Grilled Flatbread recipe for a week now and tonight i had the time to do so. i used whole wheat flour since its a bit healthier. will definitely make this recipe again. had it with hummus and lox tonight and i'll take some with my lunch tomorrow. plenty to last me a few days.

tonight's dinner - tuscan style pork

rubbed with rosemary, sage, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted inside of a baguette, this recipe for pork tenderloin comes from joanne weir's site. very easy to make and great to eat (the bread really soaks up the meat juices and garlic well).

tonight's dinner - curried cauliflower flatbread

so this is a mark bittman/new york times recipe and they have a lot of 'its ours and copyrighted' info on their site so for the recipe go here and get it from them.

i ended up not using coconut milk but regular skim milk because i dont happen to like coconut so...

its comes out smelling great and is bready and crisp and quite good. be sure to really oil your pan well or use a nonstick one. wondering now if i could make some weird sandwich with it as the bread and maybe some ham.

tonight's dessert - honey scones with homemade clementine marmalade

new scone recipe from the honey cookbook i bought last week. very very different texture for these then i usually find in scones. 

tonight's dinner - a fish and a cheese course

scallops sauteed in lime juice, butter and pepper and wrapped in scallions.

open face grilled cheese with a french rosemary boule, raclette and grayson cheeses and chives

tonight's dinner - grilled cheese

as promised did the grilled cheese tonight (using the english porter cheese as well as a cotswold) along with some cajun shrimp. the porter got very melty and molasses looking, quite good on the hearty wheat bread i bought to go along with it. the cotswold was another story but still quite good with its chive and onion flavor

bread and cheese

found a very interesting cheese today at whole foods while i was buying ingredients for my inaugural batch of ice cream in my new maker (stay tuned for further posts on that). its an english cheese with porter in it, and coupled with some very earthy bread and some irish butter, it should make for quite a grilled cheese sandwich tomorrow.

tonight's dinner - seafood bruschetta

shrimp, scallops, scallions, red pepper and mozzarella with plenty of olive oil on half a loaf of ciabatta. and i was supposed to use artichoke hearts but i forgot until too late.

tonight's dinner - tomato soup

allie made this last weekend for her friends and told me the recipe

tomato soup with bread

several cloves garlic, smashed and diced

1 medium onion, diced

3 to 4 anchovies, chopped and added (if you like, we both agree it adds something) and the oil

saute in some olive oil for a few minutes til the onions are translucent

two 16oz cans of whole skinless italian tomatoes (no fire roasted ones sez allie!, mush them some in the pot)

1 liter of organic chicken stock

cook on medium heat for 10-15 minutes

add 1/2 to 2/3rds or so of a loaf of good sourdough (i used ciabatta) bread, stale and chopped into cubes

simmer for 25-30 minutes

serve

allie says hers turned out a bit different than mine, her bread disintegrated, mine was still chunky

so up to you

tonight's dinner - three ingredient bread

three ingredient bread, what could be easier. i was talking to my friend mir today about the recipe and decided to continue my exploration of simple dinners by baking some tonight. this recipe is unusual in that you bake it for the first 30 minutes under a metal mixing bowl.

three ingredient bread - serves 4 comfortably

3 cups flour (i like to use 2c wheat and 1c bread flour)
1 1/2 cup milk
2 tsp baking powder

do not over-mix
knead lightly (5 times should do it)

form into a boule-shaped loaf and place on cookie sheet, cutting slight cross in top

place a metal mixing bowl over the loaf

bake at 450deg F for 30 minutes, covered by the bowl

take bowl off and bake another 30 minutes or so or until done. the loaf should make a nice hollow sound if you knock on the bottom of it

for dinner then: bread with good irish butter, brie i had left to warm for an hour on my table while the bread was baking, and a bowl of rainer cherries with rosewater (scroll down to find the "recipe" for this)