What I did that was relatively Irish yesterday:
- Make cod for dinner
- Watch an episode of that new show "Vikings" on the National Geographic Channel
- Call my uncles and wish them Happy St. Patrick's Day. I incidentally also send cards.
The most relatively Irish thing I did though was to make this.
Thank you, Martha Rose Shulman of the New York Times and your truly awesome "Recipes For Health" blog, for Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread with Bulgar.
Now, I don't like Irish Soda Bread. I never have. And mum doesn't either. It's pretty tasteless, it's crumbly and doesn't stand up to jam or butter (therefore rendering both taste-giving methods useless), and I don't like raisins or currants in my bread.
So why would I make this you ask? It was a risk. It's got buttermilk in it, which means it's not Beetle-friendly. Which means there is only one person on this farm who can eat it. If it tanked, it would be left to mum, who doesn't like Irish Soda Bread. It was either going to be a success, or the squirrels were going to be reeealllllyyyy happy right about now. But I felt like I should do something, and I love bulgar, and I love M.R.S. and have never had a bad recipe off of her. So I went for it.
For starters, it was really hard not to eat the bulgar straight out of its little bowl instead of adding it to the dough. Bulgar is delicious and it smelled so earthy and carbohydratey that I almost caved. But it would have meant another half hour of soaking in boiling water and we had to go to Target, so I controlled myself.
The dough, I gotta tell you, was essentially liquid. I used exactly 2 cups of buttermilk as per the recipe. But when M.R.S. said "the dough will be slightly sticky" I don't think this is what she had in mind. It had no shape at all. When I put it on the baking sheet I literally had to scoop handfuls out and sort of pat it into a rough "circular bread loaf" shape and hope for the best. Having never made soad bread before, I was hesitant to add more flour because what if that was SUPPOSED to happen and I killed it? So I just went with and apprehensively popped it in the oven. But I have to say, the pale brown dough, with little pieces of bulgar making it all rough and stickey outey, looked a hell of a lot like cat vomit on parchment paper.
I crossed my fingers and set the timer.
Well it didn't end up like cat vomit, that's one thing. I did the whole 20 minutes at 450 and then 20 minutes at 375. I think maybe next time (there will be a next time, incidentally, yay!) I will reduce the buttermilk, or shape the cat vomit/dough into two smaller loaves, or maybe bake it at 400 for 40 minutes? I'll figure it out. The issue was that when I took it out at the proposed "done" time, it was still wet in the middle. I put it back in the oven for a little bit, until the bottom was aallllmoooost burnt, and then let it cool and hopefully finish up cooking. When I sliced it it wasn't wet anymore, but still sort of damp-ish.
The jury deliberated before dinner and the verdict was
- really good
- not at all like Irish Soda Bread (hence the really good)
- to be made again with the above modifications
I'm putting another picture in because it really did look super pretty, like an awesome rough farmhouse loaf. Which, considering it was St. Patrick's Day, is what I was going for. It was toasted this morning and spread with blue cheese and fig jam. Irish no. Delicious yes. As my Nana always used to say on St. Patrick's Day, "Erin Go Braless."
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