I've done a couple of soda breads recently, and I'm fairly confident in my ability to make them now. Soda bread is a quickbread, and it's very simple and fast to make. I think recipes with eggs and butter are just more work for a similar outcome so I wouldn't bother with them. Save your eggs for breakfast and your butter for the bread when it comes out of the oven. I had the wheaten/brown bread with my Guinness and lamb stew and it was fantastic! I tagged this as vegetarian because of the soda bread.
Soda Bread (White)
1 lb of flour (this works out to 3.5-4 cups of AP, but I recommend using a kitchen scale if you have one)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups of buttermilk (you probably won't need the full 2 cups)
1)Preheat your oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
2)Put the flour, salt, sugar, and soda in a medium bowl and whisk together until well mixed.
2)Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in most of the buttermilk. All but maybe a quarter cup. Using a wooden spoon or your clean hands, mix the buttermilk in until you have a ragged ball of dough in the bowl. If all the flour is mixed in and the dough is very sticky, add a tablespoon or so of flour to work it into mass. If you still have quite a lot of flour in the bottom of the bowl (say over a half cup), trickle in a bit more buttermilk to incorporate it. What you're going for here is a mass that incorporates most of the flour and that you can lift out of the bowl and drop on a baking sheet without having half of it stuck to your hands.
3)Plop your bread dough onto the parchment and shape it into a round that's about an inch and a half tall and maybe 8 inches in diameter. If you have rags of dough in the bowl still, just grab them and pat them into the top of the loaf. Wet a sharp knife and make slices in a cross about halfway into the dough.
4)Pop it in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400 and let it bake another 35 minutes. To check for doneness, turn the loaf over (using a hot pot mitten because it is VERY hot) and tap it on the bottom. It should sound hollow. If you like a soft crust wrap the loaf up in a clean towel to steam the crust. I prefer mine a bit chewy so I skip this. To keep it fresh, store your bread in a plastic bag (like the ones you use for produce) in a bread box or your microwave. You can always nuke a wedge for 20 seconds if you like it hot.
Variations:
-For brown bread/wheaten bread/whole wheat soda bread, sub in whole wheat flour for 1/2 or up to 3/4 of the AP flour (not all of it because whole wheat flour is heavy and you'll probably end up with a dense wheat brick instead of bread. Soda can only provide so much lift), throw in a fistful or 2 of rolled/steelcut oats with the flour if you wish, use 2 tsp of sugar and 1.5 tsp baking soda instead of 1. Mix and bake in the same way as the white soda bread.
-Push raisins or caraway seeds into to the top of the loaf before baking or mix them in with the flour mix before adding buttermilk. Don't stir them in after you add the buttermilk or you'll just make the bread tough. Some people think you must have caraway and raisins for it to be soda bread, but really soda bread just needs soda, flour, salt, and soured milk. The caraway seeds are traditional in certain parts of Ireland, but raisins in soda bread were only traditional for soda bread made for special occasions, not your everyday soda bread.
-By all means, feel free to go without sugar. It's not a strictly traditional ingredient and there's so little that it will likely not affect the flavor. I mostly include it because it helps with browning.
Guinness & Lamb (or Beef) Stew
1.5 lbs stew meat (either beef chuck or lamb shoulder)
salt
pepper
1/4 cup flour
2-3 tbsp canola oil
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 ribs celery, chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 14.9 oz can Guinness
4 cups beef or lamb broth (I used this stock/glace concentrate.
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 sprigs of fresh thyme, or 1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried crushed rosemary (optional)
1/2 lb pearled barley or farro
1)Toss cubed meat with about a half tsp kosher salt, a few grinds of pepper, and 2 tbsp flour.
2)Heat 1 tbsp oil in a dutch oven on medium until smoking and brown half the meat, shaking off excess flour. Ensure meat is dark golden brown on all sides and transfer to a plate (the meat will not be fully cooked at this point). Do the same with the other half of the meat.
3)Turn the heat down and add in the vegetables. Use a wooden spoon and veggies to scrape up the brown bits at the bottom. Once the veggies are softened, add in the other 2 tbsp of flour and stir and cook for a couple of minutes. Add in tomato paste and stir until evenly distributed. Pour in all but a couple of good swigs of Guinness, like 12-13 oz, the vinegar, and Worcestershire and soy sauces. Add the meat and all its juices from the plate and about 2 cups of broth. Don't add so much broth that everything is completely submerged. Strip the leaves from the sprigs of thyme and the rosemary if you like. Bring it all to a boil, then give it a good stir, turn it down to low, put the lid on and let it simmer for 45 minutes.
4)While that's doing, finish your can of Guinness and pour the farro or barley in a pot with the remaining broth. Bring it to a boil, then cover it and turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Then turn the heat off and let it absorb the rest of the liquid for another 5-10 minutes off the heat.
5)When the stew is done, the broth should have thickened a good bit. Taste and season with salt if necessary. Put some barley or farro in a bowl and ladle stew over the top. Eat with a wedge of soda bread and a pint of Guinness or your favorite beer or cider. This is actually better the next day.
From:http://www.sodabread.us/Recipes/sodabreadrecipes.htm and Chef Todd Davies
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