Calling All the Irish

Really my darlings, it seems like your luck has begun to change because I’m sharing a seasonal recipe before the big day arrives and departs.  Perhaps that’s because I’m inspired by the glorious Darina Allen’s Forgotten Skills of Cooking: The Time Honored Ways are the Best (Kyle Books).  For the last forty years the woman often called “the Irish Julia Child” has been collecting and restoring the kitchen legacies of Irish women and teaching them to the world at her famous Ballymaloe Cookery School outside of Cork, Ireland (www.cookingisfun.ie) where a 12 week course costs around $13,000.  And while I might forego nettle soup, I wouldn’t want to miss the annual occasion for Irish Soda Bread, lathered with creamy butter, strawberry jam and a pot of Irish tea. Mrs. Allen’s recipe is similar to my  Nana’s version, but better the loaf you know.  I like very much her technique for rolling the dough, which is barely kneading and produces a lighter loaf.

       You will need to mix your dry ingredients separately from the wet.

       Dry Ingredients

       3 ½ cups of unbleached all purpose flour

       2/3 cup sugar

       1 teaspoon salt

       1 tsp baking soda (Sarah's original recipe called for a cup, but one reader tried it and it didn't work)

       1 teaspoon baking power

       1 ½ cup seedless raisins

       Wet Ingredients

       1 ½ cups buttermilk

       2 beaten eggs

       4 tablespoons melted butter

       Optional: 2 teaspoons caraway seeds

Mix your dry ingredients and make a well in the center of your flour mixture. Pour in your wet ingredients and mix together well.  Mrs. Allen suggests:  “Using one hand with the fingers open and stiff, mix in a full circle drawing in the flour mixture from the sides of the bowl, adding more milk if necessary.  The dough should be softish, but not too wet and sticky…With floured fingers roll the dough lightly for a few seconds—just enough to tidy it up.  Then pat the dough into a round about 1 inches thick.  Transfer to a baking sheet dusted lightly with flour.” 

       Use a sharp knife to cut a cross on the top which is done to let the “fairies out”.  Make sure the cuts go over the side. Bake for 400 for 35 minutes. Serve warm with butter and jam.

       Soda bread is daily fare in Ireland, made fresh for breakfast and tea.  If the loaf is made with whole-meal wheat flour, it is known as brown bread; if made with unbleached white flour, it’s Irish soda bread.  When I lived in Gaelic speaking Connemara many lifetimes ago, my neighbors used sour milk, not buttermilk (or heaven forefend, milk soured by adding vinegar or lemon juice!).  Traditionally the milk soured because there was no refrigeration!  The milk came from the family cow and the eggs from the flock of chickens outside the door. 

       If you love history, scrumptious food and cherished traditions from the past, you’ll adore Forgotten Skills of Cooking, a perfect bedside cooking book if ever there was one.

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Comments

[Mary Jane Hurley Brant]

When I was first married I made soda bread. It was so terrible I had to get a hammer and a chisel to break it. I am not kidding.

I never knew what I did wrong with that bread and always suspected someone played a little trick on me and left something off the recipe!

So now I will begin anew and make this delightful recipe.

[Sarah Ban Breathnach]

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Sarah Ban Breathnach