Lesley's Onion Loaf

This is a recipe for a soda bread from my wife's Aunt Lesley that we have had for many years. It goes down very well with a braai.

I have just bought a "Bok se Bosvark Oondjie" which is basically an outdoor/camping braai oven and it will be ideal for this. 

Ingredients.

500gm self raising flour
 500ml pack buttermilk.

1/2 cup dried onion flakes
 2 teaspoons celery salt
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons dried thyme (Optional)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (Optional)

Method. 

Mix all ingredients except using only half the cheese together into a fairly stiff batter. If it is too dry I add about 1/4 cup of milk to the buttermilk container. shake it up and add this to the batter.

Put in a buttered loaf tin and top with 1/2 the grated cheese that you have reserved.

Bake for 1 hour at 180 degrees c.

Let it cool on a wire rack to dry out a bit. 

It also toasts very nicely

Easy Sourdough Bread.

I found this recipe online on the Weg magazine's website but decided to save it here as there was no option to save the recipe anywhere. It was also in Afrikaans and I did tweak it a bit.

Ingredients.


540g of white stone ground unbleached bread flour (Eureka Mills or Gideon Milling),
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt.
1/2 teaspoon instant dried yeast. There is probably enough for 4 or 5 loaves in one of those small packets you buy and I just sealed it with a clothes peg.
375ml room temperature water. I add a bit of hot water to the measuring jug to take the chill off if the weather is cold.

Method 

Mix the flour, salt and yeast together in a large mixing bowl. It must be big enough for the dough to rise in it.

Add the water and combine. It will be difficult at first but comes together after some mixing. A flexible spatula helps remove the dough that sticks to the spoon and you can also use the back end of the spoon. It will be quite stiff at first but becomes a lot looser while proving.

Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to stand for 12 hours or more at room temperature.

It has almost tripled in size overnight.

After 12 hours or more turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and roll into a ball. It will be quite a wet/runny consistency.
Flour and then cover with the clingfilm and let stand for 30 minutes.

I am making an oval shaped loaf here that will bake in an oval cast iron pot.

While it is standing, put a flat bottomed cast iron pot with it's lid on into a cold oven and preheat the oven to 230 degrees C, heating the pot up at the same time.

Remove the cling film and cut a cross pattern into the dough with a sharp knife. I have found this difficult as the dough is very elastic.

Take the heated pot out of the oven.

Very carefully lift the dough into the pot, replace the lid and place back into the 230 C heated oven for 35 minutes.

After 35 minutes take the pot out of the oven, remove the lid and place it back in the oven for 10 minutes for a nice brown crust.

Turn out onto a wire rack to let cool slightly before you enjoy with lashings of butter. 

Eddy's Pickled Fish Recipe

Pickled fish at Easter is a typical South African tradition in the Western Cape where I live.

The recipe was posted on Facebook by a friend and very distant relation through marriage, Eddy Odden who now lives in Australia but holds dear his South African roots and visits here from time to time. I think he got it from the Lekker Braai Facebook page.

CAPE PICKLED FISH

INGREDIENTS
 
500 gram firm, white fish fillets (see notes below)
1 large onion (or 2 small onions), sliced
1 teaspoon mild curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
2 bay or lemon leaves
2/3 cup wine vinegar
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons corn flour
Salt and black pepper to season

METHOD

Cut the fish fillets into smaller portions.
Lightly season the fish with salt and dust with flour before gently frying in a bit of oil and butter until cooked through, about 5 minutes tops.
Heat a little oil in a pan or saucepan, add onion and fry until they start to soften.
Add curry powder, turmeric, ginger and coriander and stir through.
Add vinegar and water and bring to a simmer. Add sugar and stir until dissolved
Season with ground pepper and salt to taste.
Combine the cornflour with a little water into a paste and stir into sauce. Allow the sauce to simmer gently, while stirring, until it has thickened.
Let the sauce cool down.
Pack the fish fillets in layers in an airtight container, covering each layer with sauce.
Cover and allow to marinade in the fridge for at least 4 days before eating.
Serve with freshly baked wholemeal bread and green salad.
Notes:
What fish to use: it should be firm and white. In South Africa that would be geelbek (Cape Salmon), kabeljou or yellow tail (geelstert), hake is also commonly used as it is easily obtainable , or in New Zealand, tarakihi or hoki.


Lekker Braai

Wholewheat Seed Loaf Bread

I had this recipe saved on my Pinterest account and have made it many times. I found the original recipe on another blog and when I went to have a look at it a few days ago to refresh my memory about ingredients and quantities etc found that the original blog had been removed. I therefore decided to post the recipe here for the sake of reference.

Ingredients.

3 cups of whole wheat flour - Eureka Mills stone ground is best but Nutty Wheat will do.
1/2 cup bran
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup mixed seeds - I use a mixture of  sunflower, pumpkin, linseed and sesame. Dischem sell ready made up packets of mixed seeds.
1 slightly heaped teaspoon salt.
2 Tablespoons castor sugar - optional if you like a slightly sweetish bread.
1 packet dried yeast.
1 Tablespoon Golden syrup or honey.
1 Tablespoon olive oil.
125ml warm water to activate the yeast. (Less than 50 degrees C or it might kill the yeast).
About 350ml water. This depends on the moisture content of the flour. I add a bit less initially and then more if the mixture is too dry.

Method.

Empty the sachet of yeast into a jug and mix with the 125ml warm water and Golden syrup and let stand until the yeast reacts and the mixture becomes foamy. About 10 minutes.

Put all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

Add the yeast mixture, the olive oil and the water.

Mix with the wooden spoon until all the flour is absorbed and no dry bits left, adding more water if necessary. This is the only difficult part. You tend to think it is too dry but persevere with stirring and combining and you will find that all the dry bits of flour get absorbed. Do not let it get too wet and if you do add a touch more flour.

Spoon the mixture into a well oiled or buttered bread tin, smoothing out with the wooden spoon to get it evenly distributed.

Place the bread tin in a warm place covered with a kitchen cloth to rise. This usually takes 30 minutes to 1 & 1/2 hours, depending on the outside temperature.

Bake the bread in a 190 degree Celsius oven for 70 min.

Turn out on to a wire rack to cool before enjoying with lashings of farm butter. I find that if it is too hot it tends to break up a bit when slicing.