Look what I’ve got:
Its been a while since I’ve taken part in any of the Fresh from the Oven challenges; either I had the time but the recipe didn’t appeal (usually because it was sweet, I don’t really do sweet baking) or the recipe looked great and I was mad busy. When I first looked at this challenge from Jo’s Kitchen my heart sank to my boots, yet another sweet recipe I thought and rolled my eyes. Then I spotted tucked at the bottom that instead of sugary raisiny chocolately sweetness there was an option with cheese. Yes CHEESE one of my ALL TIME favourite foodstuffs.
I still left making it to the last day though, now there’s a surprise! So this morning I was dashing about making sure I had the right ingredients. Naturally my instinct to not follow ANY recipe to the letter immediately sprang into action and instead of getting some cheddar at the shops (which they had) I was drawn in by some hard goats cheese from Lancashire and bought that instead. This may have something to do with the fact that cheddar, even really good cheddar, is not really that high up my list of favourites but Lancashire most definitely is.
So off I set to make the recipe. The original recipe does not give full instructions for the savoury version so this is my adaptation (note I did half of these quantities). You can see the original recipe here.
Savoury Kringel
Ingredients (Makes 1 large loaf)
Method
Mix the yeast and sugar in a bowl. Add the lukewarm milk and egg yolks, then mix in the flour and melted butter and knead well. Shape the dough into a ball, cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. (I did three fast Dan Lepard style kneads over a 1 hour rise)
Preheat oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Dust your work surface with flour (I used oil I never use flour). Take the dough out of the bowl, knock it back and roll out to a thickness of 1cm (mine was prob less than 1cm). Sprinkle about 2/3 of the grated cheese over the rolled out dough.
Roll up the dough like a swiss roll and cut it in half with a sharp knife (lengthways). Starting from the uncut end, plait the dough, lifting each half over the other in turn. Finally, shape the plaited bread into a B shape (mine was circular as I only had half the quantity) and transfer to a greased baking tray. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden.
Once cooked turn off the oven, sprinkle the bread with the rest of the cheese and put it back in the cooling oven for 5-10 mins until the cheese melts. Allow to cool fully and serve.
Was it good, yes. Will I make it again, I might. I think it would be good with soup (we had a chunk with salad). It looks rather attractive and it is easy to make so it would be a good loaf to make if you have guests. I’m not 100% sure I like savoury filling that much with an egg enriched dough as I find the taste and texture a little too cakey with the savouriness, but that’s just me.
Last night I took the last eastbound central line train to Hainault via Newbury Park.
It seemed like a good idea.
After all I live out that direction.
I was practising taking photos today and I combined these different eggs with some pink tissue paper to see if it brought out the blue in the Cotswold Legbar eggs. It kind of did but not as well as I hoped. I like the colours though and the different eggs look pretty together.
Last year one of the things I got up to when I went blogging AWOL was to attend the Tea Cookery workshop run by Pei of Teanamu. I’ve cooked with tea a little bit over the years using it to smoke duck, chicken, salmon and tomatoes (yes, tomatoes) and also to make a fruit cake that was one of my Grandma’s specialties where the dried fruits are soaked in tea overnight. All have always been delicious and the tea imparts a subtle yet rich flavour to both sweet and savoury dishes, so I was looking forward to learning more about using tea in cooking but not being much of a tea expert I didn’t realise the delights I was in for.
The location is lovely, Pei holds the workshops at his home and while Pei cooks, we watch and take notes, we eat delicious food over a leisurely two – three hours. Being invited into someone’s home to learn about food feels very special, more a meeting of friends than a food workshop. As Pei makes the dishes he explains about each one and we gather round the island worktop to watch and learn.
Pei uses a range of different teas to demonstrate the varying flavours and effects that tea can bring to cooking from the very delicate to the earthy. He stresses that the dishes he has created wouldn’t normally all be served at one meal as that would be considered an over emphasis on tea but there might be one course that contained tea in some form. Tasting the dishes I think that most people would be more than happy to eat a menu such as this and the different dishes with tea as a theme would create a talking point at a dinner, that is probably against all the ideas of balance that eastern philosophy has but in terms of taste to a western palate the dishes work in harmony.
Here’s the dishes we sampled:
Steamed Tofu in a Tuo Cha Konbu Broth
Tempura Vegetables with Shiso Sencha Green Tea Salt
Grilled Salmon with Lapsang Souchong Tea Rub with Matcha Noodles
Matcha Jelly and ding Dong Sorbet with Candied Azuki Beans
As you can see all the dishes were beautifully presented and all tasted amazing. Pei runs similar workshops (the recipes will vary with season) throughout the year. The food I ate and the teas we drank started me on an exploration of tea that is still progressing. I don’t think I had ever realised how different and how delicious tea can be.
With thanks to Pei for inviting me to attend the workshop as his guest.
I’ve always liked stationery.
Files. Lever Arch. Box. Ring. Card. Spring. Card Wallets. Notebooks. Small. Large. Hard or softcover. Spiral bound. Stitched. Thick paper. Thin paper. Lines. Squares. Plain. Pens. Fountain. Ball point. Rollerball. Gel. Fineliner. Pencils. Propelling and otherwise. Paper in all its forms. And these:
They are Rapesco Supaclips. You fill the plastic gadget with clips. You find some paper you want to clip together and you slot it in the end of the gadget. There’s a sliding mechanism on the gadget that you push and hey presto a clip pops forward, grabs the pages and holds them together. Nicely and neatly.
And the clips are reusable. And actually its quite fun to use the gadget to fire clips across the office. But thats a bit naughty so make sure the boss isn’t watching or you are the boss so you can do what you like ;0I know fish and chips are popular in Aldeburgh and its rare to see no queue at the chip shop but this one is pretty huge. I reckon they’ve a 40 minute wait the people at the back (they are as far as the pink house and three deep).
There was an equally large queue at the other chip shop (which is run by the same family so just as good).
I decided I’d wait until another day before having a bag of chips to eat on the beach.
