Tortilla española and pan con tomate – a move to savory

Believe it or not, I do actually eat savoury food! And as part of my New Year’s Resolutions I have vowed to write more about my savoury endeavours on here.  The main reason for not writing about these before is that my savoury recipes are predominantly intuition-led. If they work, they work. If not, there’s always pasta and sauce in the cupboard.

One dish that has become almost second nature, and therefore one of my favourite comfort dishes, is tortilla española and pan con tomate, or spanish potato omelette with bread and tomato. First discovered in a crowded, cluttered yet immensely inviting tapas bar on Calle Laurel in Logroño, tortilla has become both a talking point at a table surrounded by friends and a staple on my weekly menu.  It’s not complicated and it’s not spectacular but after the inevitable overindulgence at Christmas and New Year, this is exactly what I was craving: my comfort food blanket.

Tortilla española and pan con tomate
Serves 2

Ingredients
For the tortilla
2 large potatoes, unpeeled
1 onion, chopped
Vegetable oil for frying
6 eggs
salt and pepper

For the pan con tomate 
Stick of bread, sliced (allow 2 or 3 slices per person)
1 tomato, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
Handful fresh basil leaves, chopped
Salt
Extra virgin olive oil (I use flavoured oils such as lemon oil)

Method

1. Pour approximately 2cm of vegetable oil into a medium frying pan and place over a medium heat.  Without peeling, slice the potatoes into 2-3mm thick slices.  Make sure the oil is hot enough by placing one of the smaller slices of potato into the pan. If the oil starts to sizzle and the slice of potato floats, the oil is ready.  The oil should not be smoking!
2. Place the rest of the potato slices into the pan and allow to cook until the slices are tender.  This time will vary slightly depending on how thick your potato slices are.  Keep turning the potatoes throughout. After approximately 5 minutes, add the onions and continue to stir. The potatoes and onions should not brown.  If you see them starting to change colour, turn the heat down slightly.
3. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
4. When the potatoes are tender and cooked, remove the potatoes and onions from the pan using a slotted spoon, draining off as much excess oil as possible, and place in a separate bowl.
5. Pour any excess oil from the pan into a small bowl, leaving enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Pour the whisked eggs into the pan followed by the potatoes and onions.
6. With a fork, stir the eggs as they begin to set until half cooked but still runny in places.  Leave to cook for a further couple of minutes until the eggs are almost completely set.
7. While the tortilla is cooking, mix together the tomato, garlic and basil in a bowl. Season to taste. Top each of the slices of bread with the tomato mixture and drizzle with olive oil. For an extra twist, drizzle a flavoured oil, such as lemon or chilli oil over the tomatoes.
8. To finish the tortilla, you have two options.  You can either turn the grill onto a high heat and place the pan under the grill until the eggs are completely cooked on top.  This is not the way I was taught to finish a tortilla but I can’t deny that it is the easiest option!
9. Or you can use the method that I learned from my flatmates in Spain: place a large plate over the top of the frying pan (the plate must be larger than the frying pan) and quickly tip the the frying pan over until the tortilla is sitting on the plate. Gently slide the tortilla back into the frying pan with the uncooked side on the bottom of the pan. Don’t worry if the eggs have left a slight residue on the plate, the eggs don’t need to be completely set before you turn the tortilla. Leave to cook for two minutes more.
10. Turn the cooked tortilla out onto a place, slice and serve with the pan con tomate and a nice glass of rioja.

The tortilla can also be cut into squares and each square served on top of a piece of bread for a comforting snack, starter or hors d’oeuvre.

New York Bagels in Scotland

I’ve been suffering from bagel withdrawal symptoms since I came back from the States and given that the bagels sold in the UK are wholly incomparable to their US equivalent, I decided to try my hand at recreating this American staple.

Having investigated several different recipes and consulted my bagel oracle (a colleague at work who I consider to be a bagel connoisseur), it turns out that baking bagels is not difficult.  It does however take a fair bit of time and uses some of the chemistry I discovered in my post about pretzels.

I did however attempt to venture out of my comfort zone by using a sponge for the first time.  In bread making, a sponge is the first stage of a two-stage process that involves creating a mixture of flour, yeast and water.  This ferments for a period of time before being added to the dough mixture.  Sponges are typically used in artisan bread and generally improve the taste and texture of the finished bread.

Homemade bagels - batch 2

New York Bagels

Ingredients

For the sponge
1 tsp instant yeast
500g strong bread flour
600ml lukewarm water

For the dough
1/2 tsp instant yeast
480g strong bread flour
15g salt
1 tbsp malt extract (or 1 tbsp brown sugar or 2 tsp malt powder)

Additional ingredients
1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
maize meal/coarse ground polenta (a.k.a cornmeal.  For more information on cornmeal in the UK see my post on Cornbread)

To make the sponge:

1. In a large bowl, add the yeast to the flour and stir in the water until the ingredients are blended together.  Cover with cling film and keep at room temperature for at least two hours.  The sponge will start to bubble and rise to approximately twice to three times its original size.
2. Two hours is the minimum time the sponge should be left to rise.   The longer you leave the sponge, the better the finished bagels will taste.

To make the dough (day 1):

1. Remove the cling film from the sponge and stir in the 1/2 tsp yeast.  Add approximately 3/4 of the flour, the malt extract (or alternative) and the salt and mix until combined.
2. Tip the remaining flour onto the work surface.  Turn the dough out onto the surface and work the flour into the dough while kneading.  Knead for 10 minutes.  The finished dough should be stiffer than normal bread dough but moist enough to bind all the ingredients together.
3. Divide the dough into 12 equally sized balls.  There are two ways to shape the bagels.  The first is to push your thumb through the centre of each ball and roll or stretch the bagel until they are of equal thickness all the way round.  Alternatively, you can roll the balls into a log, connect the ends and roll them together until you have a smooth, round bagel.  I found the first option the easiest.  Don’t worry if you’re bagels are slightly misshapen.  Once they’ve risen slightly, they’ll appear smoother.
4. Place the bagels on a greased tray, cover with cling film and leave to rise in the fridge overnight.

To bake the bagels (day 2):

Bagels after 12 hours rising in the fridge

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C fan/ 220 degrees C.
2. Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda.  This will increase the depth of colour of the bagels and supposedly add to the authentic “bagel shop” flavour.
3. Drop the bagels into the water and boil for around 30 seconds on each side.
4. Using a spatula or slotted spoon, remove the bagels from the water, allow the water to drain off and place on a baking tray covered in greaseproof paper and sprinkled with maize meal/polenta.  If the bagels start to look slightly flat once removed from the water, reduce the boiling time slightly but do not boil for less than 15 seconds on each side.
5. Bake in the oven for five minutes before rotating the pan and baking for another five minutes.  The bagels should be slightly brown.
6. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack.  Allow to cool for around 15 minutes (you WILL burn yourself if you try to cut them before this!) before digging in.

Homemade bagels - batch 1

I made my bagels in two batches.  The first came out slightly flat when removed from the water so I had to reduce the boiling time to around 20-25 seconds each side.  I also topped the bagels with a sprinkling of maize meal as I love the texture it gives the outside of the bagels.  Alternative toppings include poppy seeds, sesame seeds or a simple egg wash.

Now for breakfast… smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel anyone?!  Or maybe banana and nutella?  Or bacon and scrambled egg…?

Clam chowder and cornbread: recreating Boston

I would happily describe myself as a slightly over-enthusiastic cook and baker.  This week, unfortunately, I have no-one to keep my feet on the ground when it comes to my own capabilities as my other half is away for the week.  On Sunday, I therefore attempted to make clam chowder, cornbread and corn (admittedly not the most difficult element of the dish) in under an hour.  As you can probably guess, I didn’t quite manage it.  I did however learn a lot about the naming conventions for cornmeal in the US and the UK.

When in the kitchen, I work to the principle that cooking is art and baking is a science.  This basically means that I have precise recipes for all my baked goods but nothing for my more savoury endeavours.  Using the Union Oyster House Cookbook as inspiration, I can tell you that my clam chowder included tinned clams (I should have used fresh but I wasn’t confident that I’d be able to prepare them without destroying them or my hands), chopped bacon, onions, potatoes, single cream and fish stock but I’m unable to tell you how much of each!

Clam chowder and fresh corn

The corn was decidedly simpler but still imprecise.  Placed in a pot of boiling water and left to cook for the last ten minutes of the clam chowder’s cooking time, I then added a good knob of salted butter.  It was no wear near as vibrant, sweet or flavoursome as the corn we tried in Minnesota but it was at least British-grown.

Fresh British corn

For my cornbread however, I have an exact recipe, the notes for which started well before the baking.  Cornbread is one of the original American recipes and, despite its obvious sweetness, it provides the perfect accompaniment to many savoury dishes.  I still can’t smell cornbread without thinking of clam chowder and as I write this, I’m devouring tomato soup with a hunk of cornbread.

Cornbread

Cornbread

Makes approx 24 portions

Ingredients
170g butter
450g caster sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
3 eggs
240ml vegetable oil
480ml milk
170g maize meal/coarse ground polenta* (see “Buying cornmeal in the UK” below)
410g plain flour

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan oven 170°C).
2. Cream together the butter, sugar, salt and baking powder until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add the vegetable oil and maize meal/polenta and beat until combined.
5. Stir in the flour.  Add the milk and mix until smooth.
6. Pour the mixture into two greased 9” (23cm) cake tins or one 9” x 13” (23cm x 33cm) tin.  If using the two 9” tins, bake the cakes for around 35-40 minutes.  If using the single 9” x 13” tin, bake for 45-50 minutes or until a knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
7. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool before cutting into portions.

Cornbread can be served with a variety of dishes but also tastes amazing while still warm topped with butter.  Enjoy!

*Buying cornmeal in the UK

The cornbread recipe from the Union Oyster House Cookbook calls for cornmeal but finding cornmeal in Edinburgh proved to be an exercise in translation.

American cornflour (or finely ground cornmeal) is finely ground maize meal or maize flour in the UK. American medium or coarse ground cornmeal is also referred to as maize meal and maize flour or medium or coarse ground polenta.  And just to make things really confusing, American cornstarch is actually cornflour in the UK.

My US food highlight – the Dump

I have not yet shared my favourite food experience from my recent US trip: the dump.  I know it may not sound particularly appetising but it describes the Iowa phenomenon that was served as part of the rehearsal dinner prior to a friend’s wedding in Minnesota.

The dump starts in the garden on a warm mid-west summer’s evening with the assembly and ignition of two large turkey fryers.

Turkey fryers ready to go

Both fryers are filled with water and the freshest ingredients around: sweet peppers in a variety of colours, button mushrooms, red-skinned potatoes, raw king prawns (shrimp), chopped sausage and Creole seasoning. The pots are then carefully brought to the boil and closely monitored for the next 30 minutes.

The cooking begins!

With the food preparation complete and the cooking underway, the table has to be set for dinner.  First, the outdoor tables are covered in several layers of newspaper before being sealed with a covering layer of tin foil.  Voila! The table is set.

After around half an hour, the waiting is over.  The turkey fryer’s inner basket is lifted from the fryer to reveal a selection of brightly coloured perfectly cooked Iowa and Minnesota produce.

Trying to spoon the food into a basket

As the crowd gathers, freshly cooked Iowa corn is spread across the tin foil-clad tables and the topped with the food from the fryers.

Serving begins

The feast is finished with a mixture of melted butter and Creole seasoning.

Finishing touches

Dinner is served!  No crockery or cutlery is needed.  Just dive in and enjoy (although you may need a napkin or two!).

Dinner is served!

On arrival at the bride’s home, I was expecting a barbecue so I was astounded when the turkey fryers appeared.  I have never witnessed anything so simple yet so tasty and so much fun!  The one ingredient that stood out for me was the sweet corn.  Far sweeter than any corn that’s widely available in the UK, it’s quite obvious that Iowa, the largest producer of corn in the US, has the sense to keep the good stuff for themselves and export the rest to us naive Europeans.

Everyone I have encountered since my return from the States has been freely regaled with my stories of the dump.   I cannot thank the groom’s family enough for introducing me to this impressive phenomenon.  I’m sure at some point – on one of our very few warm, summer evenings in Scotland – I will give in to the urge to recreate the party.  I am however convinced that it will never live up to my initial dump experience.

A few of my favourite things from the US of A

I have had the pleasure of travelling around the United States for the last two weeks visiting friends.  In the process, I had the opportunity to sample some amazing foods.  I’ll br writing a lot more about my experiences over the next couple of weeks but here are my highlights:

From Boston:

Fresh Lemonade

Clam chowder at the Union Oyster House, Boston

Maine lobster and sweetcorn

Red velvet cupcakes

From North Carolina:

Burgers with sweet potato fries

Cupcakes (and cocktails!) from Sugarland, Chapel Hill

From Minnesota:

A very impressive piece of pork at a friend's wedding

Kettle corn

And general delights:

Jolly Ranchers

And…

The illustrious chocolate-covered pretzels!

Two weeks, two countries, two brunches

Last Sunday I was in Berlin enjoy this feast for Brunch:
It included salamis, cured hams, cheeses, pates, olives, roast peppers, salad, various dips and sauces, pears, apples, red currants, two types of melon and grapes.  It was a veritable feast and an amazing way to spend a lazy Sunday morning.

Inspired by this, we decided to create our own Scottish inspired brunch this weekend.

This was my offering: Scottish smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and a bagel.

And my husband’s was slightly less healthy but nevertheless still distinctly Scottish: back bacon, Stornoway black pudding, toast and lashings of maple syrup (admittedly not Scottish!).

A perfect way to start a Sunday, I think you’ll agree!

The Results: Homemade Pretzels

Without further ado, here they are:

As you’ll see they haven’t quite turned out the glossy, deep brown colour of traditional German pretzels but there is a good reason which I’ll explain later.  First, the recipe:

Ingredients – makes 8
500g plain flour
250ml lukewarm water
21g fresh yeast or 7g dried yeast
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp sugar
Coarse salt
Lye/sodium carbonate solution

Method

1. Place the flour, yeast, salt and sugar into a bowl and mix together.
2. Add the water and knead for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes.
3. Cut the dough into eight pieces and roll each into a 15-20cm length.  Leave to rest for another five minutes (this will allow the gluten to relax and will make it easier to roll the dough out further).
4. Roll each piece out again to a length of around 40-50cm and shape into pretzels.
5. Put the pretzels in the freezer for around 10-15 minutes to strengthen the dough.
6. Make up the sodium carbonate solution by diluting 30g of sodium carbonate in 1 litre of water.  Remove the pretzels from the freezer and dip in the solution.
7. Place on a greased baking tray and sprinkle with salt.  Leave to rise for 20 minutes.
8. Bake at 200 degrees for around 20 minutes or until the pretzels are golden brown.

So the reason my pretzels didn’t quite come out like traditional German pretzels is because I chickened out of using a lye solution!  It turns out that lye solution (caustic soda and water) can cause serious chemical burns if it comes into contact with the skin and can even cause blindness if it comes into contact with the eyes.  In addition, only certain types of caustic soda are suitable for use in food so I decided not to take the risk of burning or blinding myself or poisoning those around me!

Instead, I did my research to find out alternatives to lye solution.  In the process I had to brush up on my chemistry!  So here comes the science bit…  Caustic soda (or sodium hydroxide) is highly alkaline with a pH value of 14.  To replicate the deep, golden brown colour and intense flavour that a lye solution produces I had to find a solution with a similar pH value.

I tried two options:

1. A bicarbonate of soda solution.  Bicarbonate of soda is mildly alkaline with a pH value of around 6 when dissolved in water.  It’s not quite as high as sodium hydroxide but it was certainly worth a shot as I’d heard that it gave a good crispy crust to the pretzels.
2. A sodium carbonate, or washing soda, solution.  To create sodium carbonate, simply bake bicarbonate of soda for an hour at 150 degrees.  This process releases water and carbon dioxide and increases the pH value to around 11.  It definitely sounded like a contender for a lye replacement.

As mentioned above, neither solution produced the desired glossy, deep brown crust of the typical German pretzel but the sodium carbonate solution certainly produced a much darker and much crispier result than the bicarbonate of soda.  The pretzels themselves were also soft and doughy on the inside, the way they should be.  If you’re going to attempt making pretzels, I’d recommend the sodium carbonate solution.  I would however warn that it is still slightly caustic and will damage work surfaces if it comes into contact with them (which I found out the hard way!).

I’ll definitely be eating the pretzels I’ve made today but I’m afraid I’ll just have to go back to Germany to get the real thing.  Oh what a shame!!

Pretzels are amazing: fact

Pretzel’s are amazing: fact! German bakeries are amazing: also fact! I was reminded of these two facts on my recent jaunt to Berlin at the weekend. In a country where an appreticeship to become a Konditor (or confectioner) can last up to three years, with a further 12 months to become a Mesiterkonditor (master confectioner), how can the produce from German bakeries not be amazing?

My task this week is to investigate a few of the most well know German baked goods and share my successful recipes (if there are any!) here with you.

My weekend in Germany enabled me to reignite my passion for one of my favourite German products: the simple retzel (or Brezel in German). Although in the UK pretzels are typically hard, crisp like snacks, in Germany they take many forms. The most common is the Laugenbrezel (pictured below). It is usually a bread product made from flour, water and yeast and glazed with egg wash before being sprinkled with coarse salt.

So far so good. I’m sure I can find those ingredients in my cupboard. The problems arise when it comes to finishing the pretzel.

A Laugenbrezel is typically dipped in a lye (Laugen) solution before baking. This gives it the rich, dark colour and distinctive taste. Supposedly this practice was discovered entirely accidentally when a baker dropped a tray of pretzels into lye solution which was used for cleaning his kitchen. After baking the pretzels, he discovered that it gave them an improved colour and flavour.

Lye or caustic soda is not something I typically use in cleaning so finding the correct type of lye and the correct type for use in food (and not the type for use in soap!) will be this week’s challenge. I’m sure it’s also not particularly safe to work with but I’ll keep you updated on my progress and will be sure to post photos of my triumphs (and fails!).

The one thing I would absolutely love to make would be chocolate covered pretzels which are admittedly nothing like their German counterparts. I think I’ll stick to the lye pretzels just now but if anyone knows where to find chocolate covered pretzels, do let me know! I have a husband who would love to know!