Tomato Bruschetta

It all started a few months ago when we went for weekend to London, sitting in a small Italian restaurant somewhere in Soho.  Not my first bruschetta by far, but the first that made me really realise that you can make a perfect starter with nothing much more than tomatoes and bread.

Various tips from the internet and a lot of trialling have resulted in what I now believe is the perfect tomato bruschetta.  I hope you will agree!

Tomato Bruschetta Recipe – Ingredients

• 1 Ciabatta (cut in half lengthways and then in half across the centre, creating four roughly equal size pieces)
• Vine tomatoes (amount entirely dependant upon the size of the tomatoes.  Coverage per bruschetta should be roughly as in the photograph)
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• Extra Virgin Olive oil
• Approx 6 basil leaves

Tomato Bruschetta Recipe – Method

1. Heat up a grill or griddle pan and toast the bread until the top is lightly crispy
2. Cut the garlic cloves in half (i.e. four pieces of garlic for four slice of bread) and rub the cut end on top of the bread.  The juice will soak into the surface.
3. Drizzle the bread with the olive oil.
4. Peel the tomatoes.  To do this simply score a cross on the top and bottom with a knife, place in a pan and pour over just boiled water.  Leave for one minute, drain, and then fill up with cold water before draining again.  The skins will now just slip off.
5. Dice the tomatoes into rough 2cm cubes.  Some people de-seed at this point, I don’t bother – you’ll see why in a moment.
6. Place the tomatoes in a bowl and drizzle with more olive oil.  Tear up the basil leaves into the bowl and sprinkle with a little sea salt and ground black pepper.
7. Mix well with your hands.
8. Leave everything to stand for approximately 1 hour; this is important!
9. Scoop the tomato mix out by hand giving a gentle squeeze to remove excess juice and seeds.  Spread liberally on top of the bread.
10. Serve to hungry friends and family and enjoy!

You’ll notice that there’s a lot of tasty juice left in the bowl when you’ve finished.  I’m sure you can put it to good use in your cooking somewhere but since I’m a glutton I just drink it straight from the bowl, and advise you to do the same!

I first tried Pierniki after buying some Katarzynki in Inowrocław in Poland. I loved them, and just had to write a recipe for them. You can shape them however you like – if you’ve got shaped cutters, feel free to use them. I’ve also included a quick chocolate icing recipe at the bottom for reference, but please – coat them in whatever takes your fancy!

Polish Pierniki Recipe – Ingredients

• 450g (16 oz)Plain Flour
• 200g (7 oz) Caster Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
• 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• Pinch of Ground Black Pepper
• Pinch of Ground Nutmeg (Mace)
• 250ml Runny Honey
• 4 Free Range Eggs
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

Polish Pierniki Recipe – Method

1. Heat honey in a saucepan until it begins to boil, then turn off.
2. Combine eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk together until thickened.
3. Mix all dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the egg and sugar while mixing to prevent any lumps.
5. Pour in the honey and mix everything until smooth.
6. Turn out the mixture onto a floured surface, and roll out to around 1 cm thick.
7. Cut into shapes as desired – I prefer to cut rounds with a biscuit cutter, then “rough them up a bit” with my hands for a rustic shape.
8. Place Pierniki onto a greased baking tray, then into the oven at 180c for 12 minutes or until lightly coloured.
9. Allow to cool before dipping into your chocolate icing for coating.

And for the Chocolate Icing…

You’ll need just 50g (1.8 oz) Chocolate, 3 tablespoons of Icing Sugar and 10g (0.35 oz) of unsalted Butter for this.

First, put your icing sugar into a bowl. Next, turn on the heat on a pan of water, and place your chopped up chocolate with the butter in a bowl on top. Let it heat up like this until it melts (feel free to “encourage” it with stirring, poking etc), then pour out and into the icing sugar. Mix it all together; add a touch of water if it’s to thick, then top your Pierniki.

Enjoy!

It’s something about the advent of cold weather that makes me crave something not only filling, but hot and spicy to boot. I’ll touch more on that in a later post, but for now let’s start with something nice to mop up those curries with – an Indian styled Coriander Naan Bread.

I don’t cook Indian food much – it’s far too complicated for my liking. Don’t get me wrong; I love the food, but it’s the complex assortment of ingredients that I generally don’t have in my kitchen that throws me. Naan bread, for example, is generally baked in a Tandoor – something I definitely don’t have.

This Naan is a simple introduction to Indian food, with coriander added for extra authenticity. If you are find the prospect of a fully fledged curry as an accompaniment a little daunting, try your home made Naan with a take away. We all cheat a little – don’t we?

This article also doubles as my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, which this week is hosted over at the excellent website Saffron Trail.

Coriander Naan Bread Recipe – Ingredients

• 250g (8.8 oz) Strong Bread Flour
• 1 1/2 tsp Dried Active Yeast
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 185g (6.5 oz) Live Yoghurt
• 25g (0.9 oz) Melted Unsalted Butter (and another 10g or so for later)
• 25g (0.9 oz) Finely Chopped Coriander
• Water

Coriander Naan Bread Recipe – Method

1. Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl
2. Mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl
3. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet while mixing constantly until a smooth dough is formed. If this is too dry, add some water and mix again.
4. Place the dough onto a floured surface and begin to knead for approximately 10 minutes until the dough feels elastic and difficult to work.
5. Place dough in an oiled bowl and wrap with cling film. Leave in a warm place for 45 minutes until doubled in size.
6. Empty dough out onto floured surface, and knead as before for another 5 minutes.
7. Cut into 4 equal pieces, and flatten with a rolling pin to around 1cm thick tear-drop shapes. Brush with the remaining melted butter.
8. Place the Naan dough onto an oiled baking tray and place in oven for around 5 minutes at 220 degrees c (430 degrees f) until golden brown on each side.

And to serve…

Eat as is, or serve still hot with your favourite Indian curry – either home made or from the take-away!

I’m guessing that Americans (and indeed, anybody who is not from the UK) might not know what these are. Put simply, they’re yeasted bread made into round circles, flat on the bottom with deep holes on top. It’s these holes that fill with butter as it melts, giving a delicious taste and texture.

It’s reasonably important to use a strong bread flour here, to enable the dough to rise sufficiently – mine were a little sunken, which thankfully doesn’t show in the photo. Also don’t worry about finding “Crumpet Rings” – a round biscuit cutter will do.

Crumpet Recipe – Ingredients

• 450g Strong Bread Flour
• 430ml Milk (must be room temperature – and full fat!)
• 15g Fresh Yeast
• 1 tsp Caster Sugar
• 1 tsp Salt
• Extra Butter, for frying

Crumpets Recipe – Method

1. Mix sugar, yeast and milk and stir. Leave for about 5 minutes until bubbling.
2. Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Form a “well” in the centre.
3. Slowly pour in the milk while mixing (either with a whisk or mixer).
4. Cover bowl with cling film (plastic wrap) and leave in a warm place for 1 hour.
5. Grease inside of Crumpet Rings / Biscuit Cutters to prevent crumpets sticking. Heat butter in a frying pan until melted.
6. Place rings onto frying pan until hot, then pour in the batter mixture, to a depth of around 1cm.
7. Cook for around 5 minutes, until top is full of deep holes and appears dry, then remove ring, flip the crumpets, and leave for a further 2 minutes.

And to serve…

Eat while hot; top with fresh butter and enjoy as is, or cover with jam and enjoy with a pot of English afternoon tea. Enjoy!

Oh, and if you liked this article, please consider digging it.

On the slightly technical side of things, the Baking Soda here is doing what yeast normally does – fizzing up and giving bubbles to your bread. Sure, it will taste a little different and have a different texture, but it’s still perfectly acceptable bread by any standards.

This bread is delicious served when still slightly warm, smeared with either salted or unsalted butter, then heavily coated with strawberry jam. I love it!

Oh…And while I might have missed “World Bread Day“, here’s what I would have made, if I’d have had time. Which I didn’t. Oh well.

Easy Soda Bread Recipe – Ingredients

• 275g Plain Flour
• 250g “Live” Natural Yoghurt
• 1tsp Baking Soda
• 2 tsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Salt

Easy Soda Bread Recipe – Method

1. Sieve all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, and mix together
2. Add the yoghurt and mix further. Use you hands to combine the mixture.
3. Add more flour if the mix is at all sticky – it should feel “doughy”, and mix more until combined.
4. Rustic is the key – don’t worry if the mix is not sticking together perfectly!
5. Form a ball, and place on a greased baking tray.
6. Bake in the oven at 200 degrees centigrade until golden brown all over.

And to serve…

Simply allow to cool (or don’t – you can eat this when still slightly warm), and follow our photograph example of smearing with butter and jam. Enjoy!

Polish Kopytka Recipe – Ingredients

• 6 medium sized Potatoes
• 1 Egg
• Plain Flour

Polish Kopytka Recipe – Method

1. Peel then boil the potatoes in salted water until soft, then mash.
2. Wait for the potatoes to cool slightly (not cold, but definitely not hot).
3. Add the egg and a little flour to the potatoes, and knead by hand.
4. To form the correct consistency, add more flour while kneading until dough does not stick to fingers.
5. Form a ball a little smaller then the palm of your hand with the dough, and roll on a floured surface to form a long, fat cigar shape.
6. Squash the ‘cigar’ delicately with you hand to flatten slightly, reflour, and cut into sections approx 1cm by 5cm.
7. Drop into boiling water. When the Kopytka float, they are ready.

And to serve…

Try one of our examples from the top of the page, or experiment with your own ideas. Enjoy!

Yorkshire Pudding Recipe – Ingredients

• 3 Eggs
• 1 Egg White
• 250ml Whole Milk
• 250ml Plain Flour

Yorkshire Pudding Recipe – Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees centigrade.
2. Mix together all ingredients until a smooth batter is formed.
3. Pour a little vegetable oil into each section of a purpose made Yorkshire Pudding tray.
4. Place in oven until oil is very hot.
5. Working quickly, pour oil into the tray sections so they are nearly full to the top.
6. Place in oven, and remove when fluffed up and golden brown. DO NOT open the oven to check them, as they will not rise!

And to serve…

Follow our serving suggestion above; serve with Roast Beef, Roast Potatoes, Gravy, and a selection of vegetables. Enjoy!

Chapati Recipe – Ingredients

• 600mm Whole Wheat Flour
• 240ml Water
• Salt, to taste

Chapati Recipe – Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Mix all ingredients together until a dough is formed.
3. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface, and knead for 5 minutes.
4. Wrap dough with cling film, and allow to rest for 1.5 hours.
5. On flat, floured surface, roll out the dough until thin. Divide into seperate peices if too large.
6. Place onto flat, oiled baking tray.
7. Cook until the dough begins to bubble, then turn over. Cook until lightly browned.

And to serve…

Simply serve with your favourite Indian curry dish, using the bread to liberally mop up the gravy. Enjoy!

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Welsh Rarebit Recipe – Ingredients

• 4 Slices White Bread – Preferably hand cut into manly 1 inch slices
• 1 teaspoon Mustard
• 175g Cheddar Cheese (Grated)
• 2 Tablespoons Milk
• 50g Melted Butter (Unsalted if possible)
• Pinch Cayenne Pepper

Welsh Rarebit / Welsh Rabbit Recipe – Method

1. Mix Butter and other ingredients together.

2. Spread over toast.

3. Grill until browned.

And To Serve…

It really is that simple! If you find you have difficulty browning the toast accurately, try browning one side of the toast a little before adding the topping. Also try the variation below!

VARIATION: Exchange the milk for real ale, but follow the same process, for a slighly more manly touch. A few other finishing touches; add a couple of slices of fresh tomatoe to the toast and a few drops of Worcestershire Sauce. Play posh, and add a sprig of parsley to each before serving!

Irish Soda Bread – Ingredients

• 450 grams Plain Flour
• Egg
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 100 grams Raisins
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp Salt
• 240ml Buttermilk
• 60 grams Unsalted Butter

Irish Soda Bread Recipe – Method

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees c, and lightly grease a baking tray

2. Combine all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, including the raisins, leaving a well in the centre.

3. Mix butter, buttermilk, and egg and add to the mixing bowl.

4. Slowly combine the wet ingredients into the dry, until just combined.

5. Turn out onto floured surface, and knead until smooth.

6. Form a ball, then place this on the baking tray (pushing slightly to flatten the bottom).

7. Cut a deep cross into the top of the loaf.

8. Cook for approximately 50 minutes until hardened.

And Finally…

Cut or tear into chunks, and spread with your favorite fruit jam and butter. Enjoy!