Saturday 30 January 2016

Quick Bread two ways - #JarAmnesty with The English Provender Co.

It's Rebecca here again whilst Daniel is taking a break from the blog. Today I have a really brilliant recipe I have created, inspired by two of my favourite chutneys from The English Provender Co.

As part of the #JarAmnesty challenge with Foodies100 and English Provender, we have come up with a recipe to use up the jars of condiments that gather at the back of the fridge. Described as a 'jar forest' I'm sure it is a sight that is familiar in fridges everywhere!

I have to confess that whilst many condiments do end up sitting for months on end lost in the fridge, we don't often have that problem with English Provender products because they go so well with pretty much everything - and they get eaten quickly.

The English Provender chutney flavours are amazing and so I wanted to use my two favourites in a recipe so that they never end up stuck at the back of the fridge.

I am using Plum & Bramley Apple Chutney and Caramelised Red Onion Chutney and with one speedy quick bread dough these will be transformed into two types of satisfying and tasty quick bread:


  • Plum & Bramley Apple Chutney, Feta, Walnut and sunflower seed Quick bread
and
  • Caramelised Red Onion, Bacon and Cheddar Quick bread 

The great thing about quick bread is that you don't need yeast and so there is no lengthy wait for the dough to rise before cooking. Instead buttermilk and bicarbonate of soda are used as raising agents during cooking making the whole process speedy and easy. 

Ingredients:
For the dough - 
200g wholemeal flour
300g plain flour
400ml buttermilk (or make your own using 400ml milk mixed with 40ml lemon juice and leave for 10 minutes)
1tsp salt
1tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the Plum & Bramley Apple Chutney, Feta, Walnut and sunflower seed Quick bread you will also need:
60g feta - crumbled
30g walnuts - roughly chopped
10g sunflower seeds
75g English Provender Plum & Bramley Apple Chutney

For the Caramelised Red Onion, Bacon and Cheddar Quick bread you will also need:
60g cheddar
50g bacon / approx 2 rashers (uncooked weight with fat trimmed off)
75g English Provender Caramelised Red Onion Chutney

Method:
1. Begin by making your buttermilk if using the milk and lemon juice method. Set aside for 10 minutes.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line two baking trays with baking paper. 

3. Cut the bacon into pieces and cook on the hob - This should only take a couple of minutes. Leave to cool. Measure out the other ingredients you will need, reserving a small amount of each to keep as a 'topping'. 

4. In a large bowl mix together the wholemeal flour, plain flour, salt and bicarb. Once the buttermilk is ready also mix this in to form a dough. 
5. On a floured surface, split the dough into two pieces. Into one piece add the ingredients for the Plum & Bramley Apple Chutney, Feta, Walnut and sunflower seed Quick bread and knead lightly to incorporate the ingredients. Into the second piece of dough add the ingredients for the Caramelised Red Onion, Bacon and Cheddar Quick bread and again knead to incorporate these ingredients. Ensure you have kept a little of each ingredient separately to add just before cooking as a 'topping'. 

6. Now you have two doughs. To speed up the actual baking I then split each dough into two so I ended up with two small loaves of each flavour. If you prefer you can make one large loaf of each flavour but it will need to cook longer in the oven. 

7. Roughly shape each of the four pieces of dough into a round and cut a deep cross in each - this will help it cook properly all the way through. Sprinkle on the reserved toppings. Then bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until cooked through. 

These quick breads make a great centrepiece for a light meal as they are very satisfying in themselves. We ate them for dinner with some salad and with an extra spoonful of chutney - delicious! 


This post is an entry into the #JarAmnesty Challenge with The English Provender Co and Foodies100. Find out more here.

Recipe created by Rebecca Beesley.

Eastern Infused Porridge - Recipe by Rebecca Beesley


This is The Brilliant Chef's mum here. After an amazing couple of years, Daniel seems to want a break from cooking as he hasn't really wanted to get in the kitchen at all so far this year. 

Rather than leaving his blog laying dormant, I've been toying with the idea of it becoming our family's main 'foodie' blog as we have so many food adventures and yet our main blog, The Beesley Buzz covers a whole range of topics and not just food. 

So I thought I'd add a recipe on here and see how I feel about it and more importantly how Daniel feels about it. 

In the cold winter months porridge makes the perfect breakfast option. And I wanted to give porridge a twist with some of the persian cookery flavours that I love so much. 

This beautiful light saffron-yellow porridge is infused with Eastern spices to give it an aromatic flavour – It is a sweet porridge (not savoury) and has an indulgent feel to it, yet is healthy and delicious. I like to think of it as healthy enough for breakfast, yet tasty enough for dessert!

Ingredients:

40g Porridge Oats
300ml whole milk
Pinch saffron
A quarter tsp rosewater
1 whole star anise
Pinch ground cardamom
1 heaped tsp flaked almonds
1 heaped tsp pistachio slivers
Drizzle of honey
Rose petals to garnish

Method:

1. Place the milk in the pan on a low heat on the hob and add a pinch of saffron (you really do only need the tiniest pinch), the star anise, the rosewater and ground cardamom. Leave to infuse for around 3-4 minutes.

2. Remove the star anise and then use your Eastern infused milk to make your porridge in your usual way (I pop mine in the microwave in a large bowl for 4 minutes)

3. Serve into a bowl and sprinkle the flaked almonds, rose petals and pistachio slivers on top. Add a drizzle of honey. Be generous with the almonds and pistachios as it adds a beautiful crunch.


Variations to this would be to make the recipe using pudding rice to make a rice pudding using all these flavours. The rice would need longer to cook than porridge though. 

I think ground rice would also work well using the amounts and cooking method as described on a packet of ground rice. i.e. you only need a small amount of ground rice with plenty of milk. 





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