Recipe for walnut and honey soda bread.

Sometimes, guests request our recipes and I often have very good intentions to share them and then, they don't quite make it to the blog. So, here is one which is often requested, if there's another that I've promised and it's never appeared, please leave a comment below to remind me and I'll do my best! Thanks to Edinburgh Cake and 21st Century Urban Housewife for prompting the eventual posting of this one.

Back to the bread, Chris baked these loaves last week and will bake them again in the morning. We have a couple of books from the River Cottage Handbook series and for this he uses handbook three, Bread. 

The recipe is very similar to the one at the link and copied below (for those too lazy to click). 

In terms of our tips, Chris doesn't warm the honey and water, he just adds them together and he finds that 275ml is more than enough water (but see how you find your dough). He also told me to mention that he kneads to a firm dough, not a soft dough as Hugh suggests and tends to make two round loaves from these quantities baking only for 20-25 minutes as that's when the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the base and is ready. Be warned, this bread won't last long and there's no danger of it surviving past 24 hours in our house!

Served with duck rillettes and plums last weekend.

Walnut and honey soda bread by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Sweet and savoury at the same time, with an incredible depth of flavour, this quick bread is wonderful with cheese. Serves six.

200g walnuts

200g honey

500g wholemeal flour

4 tsp baking powder

10g salt

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/ gas mark 6 and lightly oil a baking sheet. Divide the walnuts into two roughly equal piles. Put one half into a food processor or a mortar, then crush to a coarse powder. Using your hands, break the other pile of walnuts into large, rough chunks. Put the honey in a pan with 300ml water and heat gently until the honey dissolves.

Put the flour, baking powder, salt and all the walnuts in a large bowl and combine. Pour in the honey water and mix to a soft dough.

Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface, shape it into a rough, round loaf and place on the oiled baking tray. Slice a deep cross into the top, going almost right the way through to the baking sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, until well risen and golden brown. Remove, set aside to cool and serve immediately - at the very latest, eat within 24 hours. 

The same bread with duck rillettes and rhubarb, earlier this year at a private dinner at Hoscote House.

For the changing season (and for Jimmy and Nell), in pictures.

Tonight’s supper saw the very welcome return of friends, cake ladies and a couple of guests new to home supper clubs.

Usually, we begin our evening with a brief introduction to the real Charlie and Evelyn, but this time, they needed no introduction, as the guests were already familiar with the story. Instead, we introduced Chris’s maternal grandparents, James and Ellen (or Jimmy and Nell as they were affectionately known). 

This picture was taken on their wedding day and, like Charlie and Evelyn’s, sits on the mantelpiece in the dining room and watches over our suppers. The reason for a special introduction tonight was that remarkably, today would have been their 73^rd wedding anniversary. Something worth sharing and celebrating!

Tonight also broke several records.

First, for range of drinks served from G and T, cocktails, and fizz to cider, wine, coke, milk and water finishing off with “Baileys”! A great opportunity to showcase a good proportion of our glassware collection which brings me to the second record, number of glasses used. Total: 42.

And finally, a new record for Miss E. Tonight was the first supper club that she decided, the party really was too good to miss. How on earth she wasn’t sleeping at midnight is a mystery, surely it means a lie in tomorrow. Surely…

Anyway, enough of the history and the record breaking, here is the food:

To start: Duck rillettes, plums, homemade honey and walnut soda bread.

 To follow: Beef stroganoff, buttered pappardelle, chilli green beans.

 To finish: Baked apple crumble, rhubarb compote, coconut custard.

With coffee: Mini meringues

 Honeycomb truffles.

 E's still awake. How?

Almost midnight, post supper club supper. Left over bread, butter, delicious jam (a greatly appreciated gift from this kind lady who knows what it's like not eating until guests are full) and a cup of tea. 

Please share your thought by leaving us a comment, it will make for a happy Sunday.

Wanted: one orchard

We haven’t won the lottery (sigh) and we don’t have garden space for a coppice but that doesn’t stop me dreaming about blossom and fruit. And, this desire for a handful of trees has only been made worse by Nigel Slater and his recently published Tender: Volume II. With its detailed, fruit by fruit sections and many ideas, it’s especially handy when you find yourself with a glut of something; a situation I had recently with plums (and apples). Let’s face it, love crumble as I do, there’s only so much you can take.

I found this book as I was browsing for another plum recipe (more specifically for plum chutney) and this immediately caught my eye, with its simple ingredients list and ability to complement pork, beef, game or cheese. Sold. Well, not quite. I hurriedly snapped the ingredients list on my phone (below) and dashed home to make the delicious, mellow recipe (it's a heavy book, I didn't want to carry it all the way!).




Feeling smug but guilty, and convinced that this recipe would not be the only success story on the pages I bought a copy online. And I’m still captured by the introduction, I mean, how idyllic does this sound?

“The leaves are turning from green to gold, amber and rust, the last fruits hang crimson and smoky blue on the trees, the pumpkin-coloured dahlias and Michaelmas daisies have collapsed like drunks across the gravel path. The garden darkens to the colour of ginger cake, here and there a shot of saffron, brilliant ochre or deepest crimson…”

OK, dreams aside, in reality, the plum chutney was the perfect addition to our house chutney trio for Sunday’s individual cheese boards which shaped up like this:

With cheeses selected from this fine list in Herbies:


And completed with our buttery oat biscuits (recipe coming soon) and this homemade trio of chutneys (courgette, onion jam and sweet Perthshire plum), presented on this fabulous handmade board:

For now I’ll have to be content with delicious flavours, even if I didn’t grow my own!

Menu Twelve

To start

{Flash roasted beef}, squash, rocket, pear, rosemary

To follow

Pan fried halibut, madras curry, cucumber salad, sweetcorn fritters

To finish

Kilmorich plum crumble, cinnamon ice cream, brandy snaps.

Kilmorich Windfall Plum Jam

It's very windy up here in Scotland, so it's no surprise these poor little plums could hang on no longer. Making jam seemed like a rather obvious thing to do with so many and was yesterday's mission.






I am a jam making novice. In fact, I have never made jam before. I don't have a jam pan, thermometer, maslin pan or funnels and I still managed it.



I followed a very straight forward recipe for Savoury Plum Jam in Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook (you'll find it under July-August, I'm afraid up north our plums are a bit behind).



For 3-4 jars you need:

1kg plums (stoned)

750g granulated sugar (I used a bit of caster too)

300ml warm water

25g finely chopped stem ginger (you could get away with more ginger if you like the heat)


Here's what to do:

Halve or quarter the plums and remove stones.

Put everything in a thick bottomed pan and allow to stand for an hour.

Warm the mixture slowly to dissolve the sugar, stirring for the first ten minutes.

Turn up the heat and bring to a rolling boil. The recipe says cook for about 15 minutes but I needed 30 minutes to reach setting point.*

Jar, cover, seal and store for up to a year (in the fridge once opened).

Sarah does call this a savoury plum jam but I'd have to say it tastes pretty sweet to me. I'm not skilled enough to play with the sugar quantities just yet but I'm happy with a sweet jam for all my toast and jam sandwich needs.

*
To test the setting point, according to Sophie Grigson remove the pan from the heat. Take your saucer from the freezer and place a drop of jam onto the cold plate. After a few seconds push the jam with your finger.
If the jam surface wrinkles then it has reached setting point and is ready. If it slides about as a liquid, then it hasn't reached setting point and should be returned to the heat and boiled for a few more minutes before testing again.