wheat free triumph for bread lovers against the grain

I love bread, two particular favorites are soda bread and a wonderful rye bread with dried fruit and nuts that I used to be able to get at the Bread Boutique in Duke of York square. Alas the latter is no longer available – and I’ve been looking for somewhere else doing it since – with no success.

Being intolerant to wheat and yeast (owing to previous over-consumption), I am forever searching for wheat free alternatives and versions. So, the other night I thought I’d experiment to see if I could achieve my ‘leaven heaven’ - tinkering with a basic soda bread into a wheat free version with added dried fruit and nuts.

And blow me it was a bit of a triumph – delicious warm from the oven with just a bit of butter or creamy goats or ewes cheese – and a wonderful change from the usual breakfast. I tried it with some fresh Sussex Slipcoat with lavendar - food of the gods/goddesses.

Now, I've just received my first shipment of an inspired desert wine from Stellenbosch, SA, which would be perfect with this combo - blog and online purchasing to follow on that shortly.

Here’s the basic recipe – I added about the same weight as flour in dried fruit – but could have probably done with a little less, so I've suggested adding half the weight in flour. It’s such an easy one to make as well – a quick bish bosh on a Saturday morning and voila – impresses guests no end!

Prep: 20 mins

Cook: 40-45 mins

Makes 1 large loaf. Halve the quantities if you want a smaller loaf.

Ingredients

400 g of organic rye four
100g buckwheat flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp fine sea salt
200 g mix of dried prunes, apricots, figs and vine fruits
50 g of walnut pieces (or nut of choice)
400ml buttermilk or live yoghurt - you
A little extra milk, as required

To make it:

1. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl and stir in the salt and dried fruit and nuts. Make a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk, stirring as you go. If necessary, add a tablespoon or two of milk to bring the mixture together; it should form a soft dough, just this side of sticky.

2. Tip it out on to a lightly floured work surface (use a little rye and buckwheat) and knead lightly for about a minute, just long enough to pull it together into a loose ball but no longer – you need to get it into the oven while the bicarb is still doing its stuff. You're not looking for the kind of smooth, elastic dough you’d get with a yeast-based bread.

3. Put the round of dough on a lightly floured baking sheet and dust generously with flour. Mark a deep cross in it with a sharp, serrated knife, cutting about two-thirds of the way through the loaf. Put it in an oven preheated to 200°C/gas mark 6 and bake for 40-45 minutes, until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath.

4. Cool on a wire rack if you like a crunchy crust, or wrap in a clean tea towel if you prefer a soft crust. Soda bread is best eaten while still warm, spread with salty butter and/or a dollop of your favourite jam. If you have some left over the next day, it makes great toast. I quarter and freeze mine to use up over time.

For seeded soda bread (instead of fruity), mix together 2 tablespoons each of sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, poppy and linseeds, plus 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds; set aside. Follow the main recipe adding all but 1 tablespoon of the seeds to the dry ingredients before proceeding as above. After cutting a cross in the top of the loaf, brush it with a little buttermilk or ordinary milk and sprinkle with the remaining seeds. Bake at 200°C/gas mark 6 for 40–45 minutes.

The art of happiness - a perspective from the Dali Lama

"Generally speaking, you can have two types of individuals. On one hand, those who are wealthy, successful, surrounded by relatives etc. If that person's source of dignity and sense of worth is only material, then so long as his fortune remains, maybe that person can sustain a sense of security. But the moment the fortune wanes, the person will suffer because there is no other refuge. On the other hand, you can have another person enjoying similar economic status and financial success, but at the same time that person is warm and affectionate and has a feeling of compassion. Because that person has another source of worth, another source that gives him or her a sense of dignity, another anchor, there is less change of that person becoming depressed if his or fortune happens to disappear. Through this type of reasoning, you can see the very practical value of human warmth and affection in developing an inner sense of worth."

The point is that any material or superficial wealth, whether it is looking the part, wearing the right clothes, etc etc, is fine, but they are fickle and often fleeting. What remains despite circumstance and the passing of time, is the inner sense of worth - if you have invested in its development.

Pure genius

This is pure genius. Simple, yet so clever and compelling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFz5jbUfJbk

For me, the message in this is that it only takes a change in perspective to change our world. The world is what we believe it is.... believe in the positive and make it happen.

Change

Having worked in the field of change for many years - and experienced much personal change through my own volition or otherwise, I've learned that it is not possible for one person to change another or group - one can only influence another persons decision to engage in a process of change or not, by creating the conditions for change. Even then the individual or group may or may not succeed in making the change depending on the nature and extent of the change.

The simplest illustration of this is the tale of the sun, the wind and the lone man walking. As the story goes, the sun and wind placed a bet on which of them could get the man to remove his overcoat, using their respective powers. The wind raged trying to force the mans coat from his shoulders through the power of force, but all he did was encourage the man to wrap his coat around his body as tight and close as possible. Having failed the wind gave way to the sun to try; at which point the sun shone so brightly and with such intense heat, that the man decided to remove his coat himself.

The truth in this is, people decide to change themselves and then do it themselves. The way to help and encourage people to change, is to provide the tools, resources, confidence and anticipated reward for doing so.

Anything is possible, it is just a matter of resource, belief and will.

Whether something is feasible, economically, socially or otherwise is a function of these three things.

Everybody wants to save the world

and a fine sentiment it is. Although, dare I say, I feel a lot of such sentiment can often be ego driven. Or it can be a way of avoiding dealing with ones own personal issues; feeling that one is doing something for the greater somehow makes everything else ok. Take the infamous earth mother Angelina Jolie (and Brad is in on it too), charging forth, ever increasing family in tow, determined to save the world and its heal its woes. However, recent news has demonstrated just how underlying personal issues can be disguised until a personal crisis arrives, like the death of a parent to reveal the real issues. But what this reveals to me, is that we are all part of the broader problem - each contributing our own bundle of issues to the pot bubbling away with issues like extreme poverty aside extreme wealth, environmental deterioration, conflict, disease and so on.

Where am I taking this? Well, in considering the rush to do good for the rest of the world, brought to mind the well used notion - "have the courage to change the things you can, and the grace to accept those you can't". Changing, or healing the world is a big elephant to slap on ones plate - a task that will surely lead to frustration, dis-empowerment and perhaps our own personal distress at times.

One thing that we certainly do have the power to change is ourselves. If everyone focused their energy on sorting their own world and sense of being out first - there would be no need to save the rest of the world, because they would each have done their bit to do so already.

Good food only takes 10 minutes

I have real concerns about the health of our and other western nations, largely owing to poor diet, which have been getting worse ever since post World War II and the end of rationing. Since then we seem to have been increasingly embracing eating ‘junk’ and processed food as the norm. It seems now that eating junk/processed food, and as much of it as possible has become the norm, and eating healthy, natural foods makes one a freak. I have long been an advocate of eating natural, healthy food and taking care of oneself through good nutrition. Unfortunately, throughout the last 10-15 years in doing so, I have come up against much criticism, been branded boring, obsessive or a health freak (and worse) for it. When did the general perception of ‘eating well’ become so twisted?

Whichever version of creation you subscribe to, I’m pretty sure that our creator never intended our bodies to ingest orange coloured alphabetti spaghetti or reconstituted meat products formed into animal shapes. Even at the ‘high-end’ of the processed food scale there’s no escaping a little bit of MSG, odd E number or added sugar and salt. And you know there really isn’t any excuse for reaching for processed or pre-packed meals these days. I hear cries of ‘oh I’m just too busy to cook’ … ‘I don’t know how to do it, if only someone would show me’… ‘it takes too long and is too much hassle’… it’s too expensive. Some say ‘it tastes better’!!! In which case, time to re-educate your pallet mate. What a load of old cobblers and who is this kind of bunk supposed to kid? Mostly the people whose mouths it spouts from I suspect… and all excuses for not bothering to put a little thought into what goes into ones cake hole.

For example, it takes no more 10 minutes to do any of the following:

• Grill or pan fry a piece of fish, a piece of steak, lamb or pork or some veg – no more than 2 minutes each side if you want to keep all the good stuff.
• Steam or boil some veg – most take only 3 unless you want vegetable mush of course
• Boil some rice, pasta, polenta, quinoa – 3 mins for fresh pasta in fact – and add some simple flavouring like olive oil, fresh herbs, butter and seasoning
• Chop up the ingredients for a salad
• Stir-fry veg. and sliced meat or fish

And all you need to do is add some simple flavours – oil, lemon juice, sea salt, dried chilli, pepper etc etc to make it taste nice.

With so much available on the internet today you can find out in an instant how to do stuff like this – and then log onto Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury, or whoever on-line to buy and have your ingredients delivered if you need to…. at work or at home. So come on guys, for your own sake, economy’s sake and that of our future generations… you’re not stupid, and don’t be lazy. Stop with the excuses, get of yer ar*** and get back to some real good food. You might even enjoy it.

The freak, and proud to be so.

New jewel in the Cape

I've just recently returned from a trip to the southern hemisphere, the first in a while and my first to Cape Town, South Africa. I had been told by many how beautiful it is as a place and the outstanding quality of food and wine.... and I wasn't disappointed. As usual I sought out the little gems the cape had to offer - from cafes to bars and restaurants.... and struck gold (or semi-precious stone as it were) with the Opal Lounge on Kloof in Gardens, Cape Town. The restaurant and bar was re-opened in its new incarnation in November 2008, after an overhaul and from its origins as 'Manolos'.  It was luck and intuition that led us to the Opal Lounge, a chance glance at the striking logo on the canopy on the terrace and following one's nose.  A quick web search later and we found a promising review, of beautiful surroundings and original fusion cuisine. 

My fellow diner (the Guy) and I went on spec rather than make a booking; it was a Monday evening, my last in Cape Town as it was, so we thought we would go and take a look at the menu over a cocktail before committing. First impressions as we walked in were impressive. Set in a victorian double bay fronted building, the decor was sumptuous, dark (in an exotic way) and intimate. The individual rooms of the property's ground floor had been retained, each with its own 'theme' and function. The main bar and lounge area to the back offers informal seating and tables where you can sip cocktails and aperitifs as you peruse the menus. Opposite the bar is a separate smoking room - a refreshing change - even as a non-smoker I can appreciate the comfort of such a facility opposed to having to stand out on the street. And this was a particularly comfortable one, with oversized leather corner sofa to sink into - reminiscent of one of those cuban cigar lounges. My fellow diner being the smoker certainly enjoyed his panama moment in any case. So, to the dining experience. It only took a few minutes to get a feel for the service, menu and style of place and decide to stay for dinner. The mojito was spot on - not too sweet and plenty of fresh mint. The menu was exciting - a good selection, not too extensive, using locally sourced produce in innovative fusion dishes. We went all out for the seafood. The Guy went for the asian trio of toro of tuna sashimi with chilli and black caviar, prawn ceviche on salmon cake and tempura shitaki mushrooms. For main, rare seared tuna in a sesame crust, with wasabi, avocado salsa, black bean rice and a sweet chilli sauce. I opted for the pan seared scallops,  served on a chorizo puree, with soya 'bubbles', chives, pea mouse, crispy scallop roe and guava role. For main I chose a persian seafood trio of black pepper prawns with lentils stewed with preserved lemon, a mussel ravioli on sweet mustard cucumber and line fish (king clip) pan fried and served with basil cream and sweet onion marmalade.  The presentation was immaculate and flavors, although quite strong, combined beautifully. We finished with a shared Catalan custard served with white chocolate ice cream in wafer thin filo pastry, strawberry compote, pistachio paste and ripped basil - divine, as was the desert wine to accompany. All in all a fabulous experience. If you're lucky  enough to find yourself in Cape Town, put the Opal Lounge on your list of must do's. There is no website as yet, but watch this space. The Opal Lounge, 30 Kloof in Gardens, Cape Town, Tel: +27(0)21 422 4747.