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The Ten Most Recent Comments By EuroCuisineLady

From Talk

Irish soda bread recipes

EuropeanCuisineGuy says, "Leaving out the raisins --" (which he doesn't care for -- ) he is entirely in favor of the latter recipe. (And adds, "Wow, would that go with goulash!") Caraway is a commonplace, being one of the herbs that grows well here: I forget which writer it was who said, about potato cakes baked in a Bastable oven, "They came out hot and hot from the oven, full of caraway and soaked with butter, and we ate them greedily..." Whiskey was also mentioned. :)

EuroCuisineLady at 2:46PM on 03/19/08

From Talk

Irish soda bread recipes

Can I suggest our soda bread article and master recipe (with variations) here?

Peter's Mum's soda bread recipe

P's mum made soda bread on site in Ireland from the mid-1920's until she died last year at the age of 90. She passed me her basic recipe and (much more importantly) her method, which works brilliantly. At her instigation I added video tutorials a while back.

The secret for getting it right seems to be mostly speed. Also good ingredients, and (agreeing with others above) buttermilk rather than plain milk. Also, yes, the "plain soda" version of the bread is supposed to be a bit on the dry side. It's not meant to be a keeping bread, but something you make fresh every day. For a moister product, you do need to begin tinkering with the more authentic approach, or adding fruit, sugar, cream, etc, as in some of the tea breads mentioned further down in the article.

(The article, BTW, also has directions for soda farl, which is the less well-known version of soda bread -- a little more northern, but much loved, especially as part of the Ulster fry.)

Also: Just this morning I experimented (can't believe it's taken so long) with the same recipe using the NY Times-style no-knead, hot-pot method. It works absolutely perfectly (but then the cake style of soda bread baked "in the pot" or Bastable oven is the stuff of many childhood memories here).

EuroCuisineLady at 9:16AM on 03/18/08

From Recipes

Time for a Drink: the Emerald

From the depths of County Wicklow, a thought: garnish with one curl of lime peel, one curl of orange peel, for a drink that grants both traditions "parity of esteem" (as they put it up North these days). ;)

Best! EuroCuisineLady

(BTW: you do know, don't you, that "brogue" is derived from a naughty Irish word coined to describe the sound of English-speakers trying to speak Irish? The word has ties to the word for the tongue of a shoe ... suggesting that native English-speakers' tongues were about that flexible when trying to wrap around the liquid and melodic sounds of gaeilge.)

EuroCuisineLady at 9:46PM on 03/17/08

From Required Eating

St. Patrick's Day Recipes

(waves) Thanks for the link back, folks! And Happy St. Patrick's Day to all from the wilds of western County Wicklow!

Best -- EuroCuisineLady

EuroCuisineLady at 2:32PM on 03/17/08

Responses to Comments by EuroCuisineLady

From Talk

Irish soda bread recipes

EuropeanCuisineGuy says, "Leaving out the raisins --" (which he doesn't care for -- ) he is entirely in favor of the latter recipe. (And adds, "Wow, would that go with goulash!") Caraway is a commonplace, being one of the herbs that grows well here: I forget which writer it was who said, about potato cakes baked in a Bastable oven, "They came out hot and hot from the oven, full of caraway and soaked with butter, and we ate them greedily..." Whiskey was also mentioned. :)

EuroCuisineLady at 2:46PM on 03/19/08

From Talk

Irish soda bread recipes

An interesting side to all this is the debate that could be indulged in as to whether a recipe should be used for its authenticity or for its deliciousness - as sometimes things with the same name can be more or less authentic and more or less delicious, too. Historic authenticity can be the only taste one might want (if one knows it and remembers it) but adaptation and improvement might be to other's tastes who do not have memory imprinted upon them.

Yes, yet another dry commentary. Oh well.

There is an excellent recipe for Irish Soda Bread (made in an inn in Cork) that includes yogurt, golden raisins, and caraway seeds - plus eggs and a bit of butter and sugar - in Sheila Lukin's Around the World Cookbook. Best one I've ever had.

Karen Resta at 9:38AM on 03/18/08