Green Onion and Cheddar Soda Bread... Is the Mayhem Really Over?

June…hem?  Just doesn’t have the same ring, does it?  Well, May might be over, but things will continue to be a bit shaken up around here.  I will continue to be homeless for probably at least another two weeks.  Not a lot of gourmet cooking going on in a hotel, even if it does have a kitchen.  So, to help me out, Seeley and I will be switching our post dates next week.  She’ll be posting on Friday the 10th, and I’ll be posting on Tuesday the 14th. 

In more exciting news, we have a fabulous guest who will be posting on Friday, June 17th.  Gemma Halliday will be paying us a visit to celebrate her latest release, Hollywood Confessions.  Yes, I mean THAT Gemma Halliday!  How awesome is that?  She’ll be sharing a recipe and cooking story with us, so stick around for the fun.  In the meantime, You can check her out here. 

Ok, that ends the news portion of this post, we now return to your regularly scheduled programming.  Green onion and cheddar soda bread.  Ever prepare a meal that could really use a slice of bread or a roll, but you don’t have the time or energy for making yeast bread?  Soda bread to the rescue.  It’s quick, easy, and delicious.  Add green onions and extra sharp cheddar to the mix, and it’s even more fabulous.  So, let’s get started on it. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 ½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
8 ounces extra sharp cheddar
½ green onion, thinly sliced
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
1 large egg

In a mixing bowl, sift or whisk together all the dry ingredients.  Cut your butter into small cubes and throw them into the flour. 

Mix on medium-low speed until it looks a bit like this:

If you don’t have a stand mixer, feel free to use pastry blender, two knives, or even your fingers.  Throw in the cheese and green onions.  As you can see, I used a very large grater for the cheese.  Regular graters are fine, or you can cut very small cubes.  Either way, mix it into the flour mixture until evenly distributed.   

Measure your buttermilk and then crack in the egg. 

Oops, I forgot about the pan.  Butter the bottom and sides of a square glass pan, and preheat your oven to 375°. 

Now, mix together the egg and buttermilk and pour them over the dry ingredients. 

Mix just until it comes together into a sticky mess, er… mass.

Scrape it from the bowl and plop it into your prepared pan. 

Wet your fingers and press it evenly into the pan.

Into the oven for 40 – 45 minutes.  The top will be a beautiful golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean. 

Allow it to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack.  Allow it to sit for at least another 20 minutes before you give into the temptation to cut yourself a big hunk.  It’ll help it stay together when you do cut it. 

Enjoy with butter or as a side for chili or any dinner.  Or simply nibble on it just the way it is. 

Stay tuned for more details about Gemma’s upcoming visit!   

Mayhem is Almost Over! Bread Pudding Part II

Yes, I know Taneasha posted Bread Pudding on Friday, but this isn’t the same thing at all. Bread pudding is one of those infinitely flexible dishes, like my biscuits or Taneasha’s baked potato. You can do just about anything with them.

Case in point: She cleaned out her fancy baking ingredient cupboard, and I dug wild things out of the dirt.

Recipe Guy and I got a ton of wild onions when we went digging in the yard, and that was just from one bunch. There were bunches all over the place. Until Mowing Man drove the John Deere into the front pasture, that is. Dammit. There goes the free food. Technically, it’s still there, but it’s no longer likely to reproduce and it’s a lot harder to spot. I mean, something that looks like this:

Kinda hard to miss.

When it’s hacked down to ground level? Not so much. Oh well, there were still berries in the back of the house and at the base of the power pole out front. Not to mention the herb garden. Herb gardens are lovely, fragrant, perennial and self-seeding. Very handy and very low maintenance if you’re looking for something to pretty up the front yard.  

And of course, you always have fresh herbs on hand. Like the dill we used in this recipe.  (No, there’s no dill in the pic above, the dill is on the other side and I don’t seem to have a pic of that side. You’ll just have to trust me that it’s there.)

Savoury Bread Pudding

What You Need:

• 1 large bunch of spinach
• 2-3 slices of cooked bacon
• 1 shallot or a few wild onions
• 1 tbsp bacon fat, butter, or olive oil
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
• 4 eggs (or equivalent)
• 1 c cream
• 3 c bread, chopped or torn into chunks
• 1 c grated cheese

What You Gotta Do:

You’ll want your spinach clean and ready to go before you heat the pan. The best way to get rid of any remaining dirt on the spinach is to put it in a sink full of cold water. The leaves will float, the dirt will sink. Plus, if your spinach is starting to look a little old and limp, a few ice cubes and a teaspoon of vinegar added to the water will perk it up nicely.

Once you’ve rinsed and dried your spinach leaves, stack a few of them on top of each other

and roll them up.

This works best if you put the biggest ones on the bottom. Now that you’ve got a nice little spinach burrito, slice it. Lovely shredded leaves. This technique works for any leafy green, from tender basil to mature romaine.

Dice the onions (or shallot, if you don’t happen to have wild onions in your yard) and the bacon, and drop them into a pan over medium heat. We started the pan with a tbps or so of bacon fat in it, but you could easily replace that with butter or olive oil.

It’ll take a few minutes for the onions to soften and the bacon to start sizzling again. Add the spinach and dill to the pan.

Cook until it's nice and wilted.

Assembling the pudding can be done any way you’d like.

Mix the bread, veggies and cheese all together; keep them separate, in layers;  any way you’d like… We mixed the bread and veg.

Any kind of bread will work for a pudding. A dense whole grain rye, a crusty baguette, or as we used, the soft centre bits pulled out of a giant loaf that we turned into a mufalletta sammich. Each will give the pudding a slightly different flavour and texture, and each is perfect for a savoury bread pudding.

Whisk together the eggs and cream.

The ingredient list says 4 eggs, but I had some egg whites in a container, so I used 3 eggs and the whites. Any combination will work, as long as you have the volume of about 4 eggs.

The custard for this pudding is pretty much exactly like the custard you’d use for a sweet bread pudding, only difference is in the seasoning. Taneasha used sweet vanilla, I added some nice hot cayenne.

Sugar and Spice, that’s what this is all about. ;)

Put half of the bread and veg mixture in the very well buttered small casserole dish and start sprinkling on the cheese.

Until it looks kinda like this:

Then the other half of the bread and veg mixture.

Now pour on the spicey custard (really, I’m so used to heat in my food that the tiny dash of cayenne wasn’t even discernable to me, but others noticed it, so I’m calling it spicey). The custard will soak into the bread, but you should have enough custard that it completely saturates the bread and squishes out if you poke it.

And then top with the rest of the cheese.

After it bakes in a 350 degree oven for about 50-60 minutes, a piece of spaghetti stuck in the middle will come out nearly clean (spaghetti’s longer than a toothpick and lets you actually test the centre) and the pudding will be golden brown and nicely puffed up.

The puff will soften as it cools, but it shouldn’t fall too much. If you’re planning on serving this to guests, I recommend doing it warm, fresh out of the oven while it’s still impressive and fluffy. It goes perfectly for dinner with a green salad, or as the centrepiece of a casual brunch.

For us, it was a handy little lunch that used up the almost wilted spinach.

It’s also the perfect thing to eat by the forkful right out of the fridge as you’re trying to decide what to have for a snack.

What do you eat straight from the container as you stand with the fridge door open?