Category Archives: Uncategorized

Seared Lemon & Garlic Salmon

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The best damn way to cook salmon.  Hands. Down.

Go preheat your oven to 400.

Once I learned how to make salmon this way, I have never gone back.  It’s my go to method and absolutely flawless.  It doesn’t mater what you put on the fish, really, this method will get you perfect salmon every. damn. time.

Grab an oven proof skillet



Preserved lemon rind, garlic, & a chili pepper


This is very important:  You want your oven to be preheated before you start this because we only sear the fish for about a minute then we will put the oven proof skillet WITH the fish in the oven to cook the fish through. 

Second, we are going to make a butter compote.  I make more butter compote than I need for the recipe so that I can have it for future use.  To make the butter compote you are going to soften 5 tablespoons of butter (unsalted, preferably) and mix in 3 rinds of chopped preserved lemon rind, 2 large garlic cloves, a chili pepper, and sea salt.



Preserved lemon rind, garlic, chili pepper, & sea salt butter compote

 Rinse off your salmon steaks and pat them dry. Rinsing them and patting them dry will help the butter compote stick to the fish better.  Take about a tablespoon of the butter compote and slather it on the non skin side of the salmon steaks.



Butter.  Butter makes everything better!

 Now add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil to your oven proof skillet.  If I’m searing 2 salmon steaks, I use about 1 tablespoon; if I’m searing 4 I generally use 2 tablespoons.  Set the skillet to high.  We want the oil and pan to be hot – very hot.  We want it almost smoking.

Once it’s hot – hot – hot! place the salmon steaks (VERY CAREFULLY) SKIN SIDE DOWN on the hot skillet, keeping the butter side facing up!  Cook the salmon steaks for about a minute; you can go as long as a minute and a half, but no longer than that.  Then put the skillet in the oven to bake for 5-7 minutes to cook the fish through.  You want the fish to just start to flake.  Using an oven mitt, remove the skillet from the oven and let it cool before you plate the fish.  When you remove the fish from the oven, as it cools it will still cook so keep that in mind when you are checking the fish.

What this method does is create a nice golden layer on the bottom of the fish and sets the fish.  Then when you bake it, the butter melts into the fish and encrusts the fish with whatever is in the butter compote.  This time I create a preserved lemon rind, garlic, chili pepper, and sea salt butter compote. However, I have created a butter compote with garlic & wasabi, garlic & salt & pepper, chili & garlic.  Anything that suits your fancy.  Any flavor that you want to infuse the fish with, you can make into a butter compote.  Heck, I’ve even mixed horseradish in there.

Plate with sauteed kale and barley wheat!

Salt & Pepper Preserved Kumquats

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Since salt preserved lemons and oranges do so well in my kitchen, I decided to make salt preserved kumquats with the 5 pounds I had recieved.  I like kumquats as a snack but I can only eat 4 or 5 at a time before I can’t eat anymore and I still had a whole bowl to go.

Since kumquats are so sour, I wanted to mellow them out a bit and make them more savory.  I made about a 1:3 ratio of pepper:kosher salt and used this to salt preserve the kumquats.

First you want to slice off the blossom end of the kumquat and then slice down from the blossom end to the bottom but not all the way through…you want to keep the kumquat intact.  If it’s a big kumquat you want to then make another slice perpendicular to the first slice, all the way but again keeping the kumquat in tact.  Stuff the salt and pepper mixture into the kumquat and place the kumquat in a sterile quart jar.

Make sure you have no cuts on your fingers.  OUCH!
Repeat with each kumquat until you haev filled the quart jar, squishing the kumquats gently down as you go.  Once the kumquats are packed in the jar, place the lid on and let the jar sit for 24 hours.  After 24 hours, fill the quart jar with fresh lemon juice and tuck a bay leaf in the jar.  Let the jar sit for 2 weeks on your counter, flipping the jar every other day or so.  Add more lemon juice to cover the kumquats if it is needed.  After the 2 weeks, place the jar in the fridge.  This will last the same amount of time as preserved lemons and oranges. 

 
I’m really excited about these little guys.  I think the salt and pepper are going to play really well with the sweetness of the rind and the sourness of the pulp.  I can’t wait to start using them in recipes.
 
I’m always intrigued by something different!


Don’t Waste That: Whey (French Bread)

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Remember when we made yogurt and after draining the yogurt we ended up with about a pint of whey.  I told you to save it and you’ll be glad that you did.  We are going to use the whey to make french bread.  You can substitute whey for water in any bread recipe.  Whey adds a wonderful understated, deeper flavor to bread.  Once you make bread with whey you will never go back to making bread with just water again.  French bread is the most simple yeast breads to make – it’s just flour, salt, water (in this case whey), and yeast – and it’s a great bread to teach yourself how to bake.  It’s not too terribly finicky and it doesn’t take a lot of time nor a lot of ingredients so if it doesn’t turn out, then you can’t really be disappointed.

If you have never made bread before I suggest you start by using All Purpose flour.  All Purpose Flour is so forgiving.  I have made french bread with whole wheat and a blend of whole wheat and all purpose flour, but you need an extra ingredient called Vital Wheat Gluten.  Wheat flour does not have the same amount of gluten as white flour so if you are not skilled, the bread will not rise.

Start with All Purpose Flour to get your confidence up and once you can churn out consistent french bread loaves, you can start playing around with the wheat flour ratio!
Once you start making your own bread, you will never go back to pre-packaged bread again…unless you really have to.

In a 2 cup measuring cup, measure out 1 1/2 cups of whey and microwave for 1 minute so that it’s luke warm add a pinch of sugar, and then sprinkle in the yeast.  You want this to sit for about 5 minutes to give the yeast time to activate.  You know the yeast is activating when it starts to bubble up.

In a separate bowl, add 1 cup of flour and salt (I prefer sea salt) and mix.  Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and add the whey/yeast mixture.  Using a wooden spoon, mix well until it is smooth.  Add 2 to 3 cups more flour.  You want the flour to be stiff and not wet.  Once the flour is stiff, flour your counter, and dump the mixture out on your counter.  Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, throwing the dough down on the counter every so often.  The action of kneading and throwing the dough will activate the gluten.  Form your dough into a ball.

Lightly oil a bowl (I prefer olive oil), and place your ball of dough in the bowl.  Cover with a towel and let the dough rise for a minimum of 40 minutes; you want the dough to double in size.

When the dough has doubled in size, dump it out on your well floured counter, punch it down and let the dough rest for 5 minutes.  Once it’s rested, start kneading.  Knead for 10 minutes, cut the dough in half and form into logs. Cover with a towel and let rise again for a minimum of 40 minutes, again waiting for the dough to double in size.
I have a french bread pan but you don’t need a french bread pan to bake french bread!
Preheat your oven to 400F.  Using a sharp, serrated knife, make three quick slices into the dough. Brush with olive oil (or use your misto, like me!).  Throw some ice cubes into the bottom of your oven and bake the bread for 20-30 minutes until the bread is golden brown.  If you tap on the bottom of the bread, it will sound hollow.  Let the bread cool for at least 20 minutes…but I can never wait that long.  I have to cut into the loaf while the bread is still steaming hot!
French Bread
Yield:  2 loaves
Ingredients:
1.5 cups whey
1 scant tablespoon yeast
pinch sugar
3 to 4 cups of all purpose flour
1 tablespoon of salt (I prefer sea)
  1. Warm up whey until it is luke warm, add a pinch of salt, then sprinkle in the yeast.
  2. While your waiting for the yeast to activate, add 1 cup of flour and the salt into a large bowl, mix it well with a wood spoon and create a well in the middle.
  3. Once the yeast is bubbly, pour it into the well and start mixing with a wood spoon until the dough is very smooth.  Add 2 – 3 more cups of flour until the dough is stiff.
  4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and start kneading.  Knead for about 10 minutes, slamming the dough down onto the counter as you knead.  Form the dough into a bowl.
  5. Oil a bowl and add the dough to the bowl.  Cover with a towel and let rise for at least 45 minutes.  You want the dough to double in size.
  6. Once the dough doubles in size, turn it out onto a floured surface, punch the dough down, and let it rest for 5 minutes.  After the 5 minutes, start kneading the dough, about 5 minutes.  Cut the dough in half and form two logs. 
  7. Place the logs on a baking sheet and cover with a towel.  Let rise for a minimum of 40 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in size. 
  8. Preheat your oven to 400 and throw some ice cubes in the bottom of your oven.  Using a sharp, serrated knife, quickly make three slashes into the tops of the bread, brush (or spray) with olive oil, and bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.
  9. Let cool for 20 minutes before you slice and devour!



A Few of My Favorite Things: 32nd St Farmer’s Market

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There’s a farmer’s market I go to in Baltimore that I love that is popular enough to have many different varities of stands but not hipster enough where it’s overcrowded and you can’t navigate:  The 32nd Street Farmer’s Market. 

32nd St Farmer’s Market is found on the corner of 32nd St and Barclay in the Waverly neighborhood.  It is a year round farmer’s market and the very first market I visited when I first moved to Maryland in January 2012.  It runs on Saturdays from 7am until noon.

Because it’s year round, during the winter, many farmers will get produce from Florida.  However, when it starts to warm up and Spring is in full swing, most (if not all) stands sell their own produce.  The prices are fantastic and the selection is mind blowing.

The stands operate in cash but they do have a system where you can use your ATM to get “coins” that you can only use at this particular farmer’s market.  I always only go with cash.  Anywhere from $20 – $40.  $20 will buy you enough produce to last you a week or more.  With $40 you will walk away with bags of fresh produce that would last you a month! I mean, look at the size of this head of cabbage that I got for $1!

I sense sauerkraut in my near future!

32nd Street Farmer’s Market is where I was introduced to my Olive Oil Guy. Dimitri’s Olives is the best olive oil hands down and they sell more than just olive oil!
 
 

Even the dogs get spoiled when I go to the farmer’s market! 

Yogurt

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It sounds silly but yogurt holds a special place in my heart.  Yogurt was the very first food I started making homemade in my kitchen. 

 
I eat a lot of yogurt.  About 1/4 to a 1/2 cup everyday so it was taking a big chunk out of my food budget.  I had done some research on yogurt and thought that it wouldn’t be that hard to make on my own.  Then I hit the jackpot!  That very weekend I was thrift store shopping and I found a yogurt maker for $2!  I have never looked back!  Homemade yogurt is soooooooooo much better than the yogurt you find in the grocery store and it is soooooooo much cheaper to make it at home.

 

For the sake of comparison, I decided to show the ingredients list and price of Yoplait since it is one of the highest selling yogurts on the market.  This is the general Yoplait Peach Yogurt.




As you can see, at my grocery store, it generally sells for $0.99 per container!  That may not be a big deal but then we look at the ingredients.  Sugar, Modified Corn Starch, Gelatin, and Pectin with Sugar being the second ingredient.  For $0.99 a container, you really aren’t getting that great of quality.  Sugar, modified corn starch, gelatin, and pectin are all used to make the yogurt thicker.  I know why they add these extras.  They add these extras because they don’t want to lose money on draining the whey from the yogurt.

When you start making your yogurt, you will see that there’s a big difference in consistency from homemade to store bought.  I like my yogurt really thick, like a greek style yogurt, so after the yogurt is done incubating, I have to drain it.



I make my yogurt batches 1 quart at a time as my cravings for yogurt change from week to week.  Some weeks I blow through a batch in a few days, some batches will take a couple weeks for me to eat.

Pour 1 quart of milk in a stainless steel pot and add your thermometer and heat the milk over medium to medium low heat.  You want to heat the milk up to 180 degrees.  No more and no less.  You want to whisk the milk while it’s heating up to keep it from searing.

One you have the milk at 180, take the milk off the heat and pour it into a heat proof bowl (preferably one with a little spout.)  At this point you want to let the milk sit and cool.  While it’s cooling, whisk it every so often so that a film doesn’t develop over the top of the cooling milk.  When the milk has cooled between 110-115, you want to add 2 tablespoons of starter.

A starter is just 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt.  When I need a new starter, I buy the plainest most organic small carton of yogurt I can find at the grocery store.  From there you can use your current batch of yogurt to make a new batch of yogurt.

Whisk the starter to incorporate it throughout the cooled milk well.  Then you can put the milk in your yogurt maker (if you have one) – however – You do not need a yogurt maker to make yogurt.  You can pour the milk in a glass jar, put a lid on, place it in a cooler, and wrap a warm towel around the glass jar (one that has been tossing in the dryer for a bit), shut the lid of the cooler, and voila!  Yogurt maker.  I like my yogurt to be tangy so I let the yogurt sit for 12 hours but you can do anywhere from 8 – 16.  I like 12 hours because I can make my yogurt at night, pour it in my yogurt maker, and let it incubate while I sleep; then in the morning I just put it in the fridge.

I find that the yogurt drains better if I drain it when it’s cool.  So, when I get home from work, I dump the yogurt out on a filter and let it drain for 20-30 minutes.

When I filter the yogurt, I place a fine strainer over a bowl and use a damp paper towel as a filter (you can use a coffee filter as well).  I then cover it with cheesecloth so no bugs can bother my fresh yogurt.  Like I said above, I generally let the yogurt drain for 20-30 minutes. 

 
As you can see, we started out with a quart of milk and after draining we are left with about 3/4 a quart of yogurt and a pint of whey.  Don’t throw the whey out because we will make bread with it in the future.
 
It may take a little while for your palate to get used to homemade yogurt as it doesn’t taste anything like the yogurt from the store – it has no additives!  It’s important not to add flavorings to your main quart of yogurt or else you can’t use it as a starter.  Flavorings tend to mess with incubation.  I always add jam or honey and fresh fruit to my yogurt as I go. 
 
And there you have it!  Homemade, fresh yogurt!  

Let’s Talk About: Dairy

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There’s a lot to say about the state of corporate dairy in America.

A lot of it bad.

I’ve been thinking about this post since I started this blog.  I wasn’t sure how I was going to state my feelings about dairy – or if I even was going to state my feelings at all.  I’m still not sure.  I want to write this post to inform you of the state of corporate dairy and from there you can make the best decision for your family.  Some people don’t have a choice but to feed their family corporate dairy.  A gallon of grocery store brand milk is a quarter of the price (even less) than a gallon of milk from a dairy that strives for grass fed cows – especially a family with teenagers.  I know when my brother and I were teenagers, we were going through a gallon of milk a day.  My poor mother, we just about drank her out of house and home!  I just hope to inform you of the different qualities of milk so that you can consciously make a decision.  That being said, I’d rather you feed your family milk, even corporate milk, than sugar laden soda and juice.

Mooo.  I like grass!


The very first thing that is important to understand is that cows like grass.  They were designed to munch on grass. All day long.  Graze and graze and graze.  Cows produce the best milk when they are grazing on a pasture of grass.  Many dairy farms will supplement grain into their cow’s diet during the winter.  They will do this because the cows won’t get enough grass to eat in the pastures during the winter, hence not have the energy to produce enough milk.  Many dairy farms will not and will strictly have their cows graze.  An ethical dairy farm will give their cows antibiotics when their cows are sick but will throw the milk out until there are no traces of the antibiotics in said cow’s milk.  Also, an ethical dairy farm that strives for quality milk will not inject their cows with hormones.  The milk that you get from smaller dairy farms is pasteurized but it is not ultra-pasteurized nor is it homogenized.  Generally, they will bottle it in sterilized glass bottles for quart and half gallon sizes or in plastic for smaller sizes.

Corporate dairy, on the other hand, is all about volume; maximizing the output of milk from a cow.  These farms are known as Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).  The cows are in close quarters and fed grain, hay, or silage, or a mixture of all three.  Because the animals are in close quarters, they are pumped with antibiotics to minimize infection.  Some will also pump their animals with growth hormone in order to artifically increase a cows milk production.

Many corporate dairy farms ultra-pasteurize and homogenize their milk.  This is not necessarily a bad thing but it does effect the taste of the milk.  Most people are used to homogenized milk.  Homogenization just means that the milk was shot through  an atomizer and it breaks up the fat particles of the milk so that it sits evenly through out the milk and does not settle to the top.  Milk will be ultra-pasteurized to increase shelf life.

Corporate diary farms also like to add additives to their dairy.  The big one recently was the diary lobby petitioning the FDA to allow them to add aspartame to their milk without labeling it.  Their argument was that kids just don’t like the flavor of milk and so if they add aspartame to it, it will make milk sweeter, hence kids will drink more of it.  It’s so much better for the children, they say.  HA!  They just want to sell more milk.

Another big argument in the dairy world is the difference between using skim, low-fat, 2%, or whole milk.  I do not drink milk but I do eat yogurt every day, about 1/4 – 1/2 cup.  I have, within the last year, switched strictly to whole milk.  I have found that, not only is it tastier, I don’t have to eat as much, I am more satiated, and am fuller longer.  Overall, switching to whole milk was a very good decision for me.  There have been studies done that children who grow up drinking whole milk are less likely to be obese than children who drink lower fat content milk.  If, however, you find that your family drinks a lot of milk, uses a lot of milk in cereral, and eats a lot of yogurt you may want to eat skim, 1% or 2%.

Don’t just take my word for it!  I hope that you do some of your own research to come to your own conclusion!  It’s about what is best for you and your family and I can’t be the voice in that…

Additional Reading:
http://milk.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000658
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/our-failing-food-system/industrial-agriculture/they-eat-what-the-reality-of.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/039244_milk_aspartame_FDA_petition.html
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/03/06/173618723/can-milk-sweetened-with-aspartame-still-be-called-milk
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_135032.html

Preserved Lemon Paste

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Have you ever come across an idea so simple, so easy, and so ingenious that you automatically went, “DOH!  WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT?!”  That happened to me.  It was there, right in front of my face the whole time and I didn’t even think to do it!

I use Preserved Lemons in a *lot* of recipes but sometimes I’m just too lazy to chop *another* ingredient…but I still want that lemon flavor.  What’s a girl to do?  Sadly I would forgo the lemon….
.
…that is until I came across the most brilliant post by Marissa over at Food in Jars.  She got her idea from from Melissa Clark’s Cook This Now.  Melissa Clark suggest plucking the seeds out of your preserved lemons and blending the whole lemon (rind & pulp) up in the blender!  How ingenious is that?! 

So, I did just that.  I pureed about half a lemon’s worth, 4 slices, poured that into a quarter pint jar, topped it with a nice cover of olive oil, and it is sitting nicely on a shelf in my fridge.  Now whenever I feel a dish needs a lemon kick, I just add teaspoon or so of preserved lemon paste.  One can be so creative with this paste! 

Bar Top: Marmalade Whiskey Sour

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Here’s a whiskey sour with a more feminine flare.  It uses marmalade as the sugar base instead of simple syrup and an egg white to make it frothy.  I love to serve it in my retro coop glasses to up the sophistication level.  Your significant other might look at you crazy when you hand them this whiskey sour but they will forgive you once they taste it because, although it looks feminine, the taste is pure whiskey.

I like to use bourbon for this recipe because bourbon has a deeper flavor and can hold up to the punch of the marmalade.  My favorite bourbon is Corner Creek Reserve Bourbon Whiskey.  This bourbon is aged in New American Oak and has the distinct woody flavor of bourbon without the harsh after taste.  This bourbon is moderately priced for a bourbon and I find I like the flavor a lot more than bourbons that are much more expensive. 

A few tips for your home bar:  when a drink calls for an egg white it’s to make that drink frothy.  The frothiness is not necessary for the drink but it is highly recommended.  I have made this drink with and without the egg white.  The egg white, when shaken, adds a lightness to the drink that is irreplaceable.  However, as much as I eat eggs and bake, I never wanted to waste an egg white on a drink…so, I got smart.  I keep a can of Deb El Just Whites as an ingredient in my home bar.  The instructions on the can will tell you how much egg white powder to add to how much water, you mix it up, and go!

Marmalade Whiskey Sour

Adapted from Saveur

2.5 oz Bourbon
0.5 oz lemon juice (I prefer fresh squeezed)
1 egg white
2 tsp Three Citrus Marmalade
3 drops Agnostura Bitters

1.  In bar shaker add marmalade, lemon juice, bourbon, and egg white; mix it up with a spoon.  Add ice and shake until the shaker is frosty cold.  Strain into a coop glass.  Shake 3 drops of Agnostura Bitters over the top and swirl the bitters around with a tooth pick into whites.  Enjoy!

Calgon…Take me away!

Orange Pepper Pork and Kale

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There are many food blogs out there that center on the romance of cooking and that’s great but the typical, average family (even single person) doesn’t have time for meals that take a lot of energy and time to cook.  Let’s face it, between all the things we are “supposed” to do, exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, read to your kids, help them with homework, walk the dog twice a day, wash your face before you go to bed, get 8 hours of sleep, drink 2 liters of water, etc, etc, etc, now here I am telling you that we can’t trust our corporate food sources and we should make most everything from scratch?!  IS YOU CRAZY, WOMAN?!  WHO HAS TIME FOR THAT?! 

It can be done.  During the week I rarely spend more than 25 minutes putting dinner together and most of them are one pot meals.

Who doesn’t love one pot meals?  There’s nothing like being able to throw together a quick, nutritious meal with minimal dishes.  I think if more people knew how to cook one pot meals, more people would be eating from scratch.

dried orange zest strips, a shake of pepper corn, and a pinch of sea salt

Remember the dried orange zest strips we made?  We are going to use them to make an Orange Pepper rub for thin cut pork chops.  That orange vinegar we made, we are going to use that to steam the kale.  Now go grab you your biggest pan with a lid. 

In your coffee/spice grinder (make sure it’s clean!) add 2-3 strips of dried orange zest, a shake of pepper corn, and a pinch of sea salt.  Grind that up until you have a nice spice blend.  Rub the blend on both sides of thin cut pork chops. Put these aside while you complete the rest of the preparation.

Chop 1-2 garlic cloves, half and slice an onion, and pick about a half head of kale off it’s stem. 

GREENS!  MY LOVE!  I’ve been waiting for you all winter!
Set your biggest pan with a lid over medium high heat.  We want to sear the pork chops and to get a beautiful sear we need a hot pan and warm oil.  Once the pan is hot enough to where water sizzles, add a tablespoon of olive oil and let that warm up.  Place the pork chops in the pot and sear for about a minute each side.  Remove them from the pan and place them on a plate to set aside.
Lower the heat and add the onion and garlic, let those caramelize and then add 1/4 cup of vegetable or pork broth (or wine or beer or water) and scrape up any brown bits in the bottom of the pan. Add a few generous splashes of orange vinegar.  Pack in the kale, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and more generous splashes of orange vinegar (I like vinegar on my greens, so I add a lot of vinegar here), top with seared pork chop, and cover.
You will steam the pork until it is cooked through and the greens are bright and wilted.  Serve with bread or any other carb that you fancy.
Orange Pepper Pork and Kale
Yield:  2 Pork Chops and 2 Servings Kale
Orange Pepper:
2-3 strips orange zest
pinch of sea salt
shake of black pepper
1 onion, halved and sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
half head of kale
1/4 cup vegetable broth (or any liquid)
shakes orange vinegar
  1. In spice grinder grind up orange zest, sea salt, and black pepper.  Rub over both sides of pork chops.
  2. Chop garlic, half and slice onion, and pick kale.
  3. In a pot over medium high heat, sear pork chops over 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Remove pork.
  4. Add onion and garlic and sautee until caramelized.  Deglaze with vegetable broth and a few generous shakes of orange vinegar and cook down by half.  Add in greens, top with salt, pepper, and a few generous shakes of orange vinegar.
  5. Add pork chop on top of kale, cover, and steam until the pork is cooked through – about 10-15 minutes.



Soda Scones

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What is Soda Bread?  When I first heard of it, I thought it was bread made with actual Soda Pop!  It is not!  Soda bread is a quick, heavy bread made with baking soda as the levening agent. The earliest references of using “baking soda” as a levener are through the American Indians who began using potash in their breads centuries ago.
 
So, how did soda bread became so completely Irish?
 
Soft wheat is the only wheat that is really able to grow in Ireland’s harsh climates and soft wheat does not do well with yeast.  Yeast needs gluten to rise and soft wheat just does  not provide the gluten.  Bicarbonate of soda was introduced to Ireland around the 1840s.  The Irish had discovered that using baking soda instead of yeast and adding an acid, like sour milk, would give them a quick bread. By 1845, the Great Potato Famish was in full swing and it is believed that it spurred soda breads popularity, giving rise to many different types of soda bread.  Soda bread is an easy, quick, and cheap bread to make; all you need is flour, salt, baking soda, and sour milk (modern recipes call for buttermilk), so one can see how it would become popular during the Potato Famine.

I had exactly 1.5 cups of buttermilk in the fridge that was going to go bad and I thought that soda scones would be the perfect way to use it up and since I wanted to spread my marmalade over it, I made the soda scones as plain as plain could be.  This is a very basic recipe so you can add what you want to it.  Sweet.  Salty.  Savory.  Go for it!  Have fun!

 
The first tip I want to give you is that this dough is very wet so you want to use plenty of flour to make it easier to work with so it doesn’t stick to everything.
 

 As you can see, I’ve liberally sprinkled flour over the counter and over the dough

 
Place your scones on a parchment (or silpat) lined baking sheet.  You can brush the tops with buttermilk, cream, or – if your lazy (like me!) – you can spray it with oil from your Misto!  Bake in 425 oven for about 20 minutes.  You can test the bread by dipping a toothpick in the middle and it come out clean or by tapping on the bottom of the bread, it should sound hollow.

mmmmm, can’t wait to dig in!
 

Soda Scones

Yield:  8  scones

3 cups All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon salt (I used Kosher)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1.5 cups buttermilk (or sour milk if you have some milk that is past the expiration date!)

  1. Preheat oven to 425 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
  2. Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl.  Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk.  Mix with a wooden spoon until you have moist dough.
  3. Flour your work surface well, dump out the dough onto your floured work surface, sprinkle the dough with flour and shape into an 8″ disk.  Cut into 8 pieces.  Scoop the scones onto your baking sheet.
  4. Brush with oil, cream, or buttermilk.
  5. Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden brown and/or a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean

mmmm, soda scone with marmalade
 
References:
1.  History of Irish Soda Bread by Abigails Bakery, LLC, http://www.abigailsbakery.com/bread-recipes/history-of-irish-soda-bread.htm
2.  Irish Soda Bread History by Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread, http://www.sodabread.info/Sodabreadhistory/sodabreadhistory.htm
3.  The History of Irish Soda Bread by Food History, http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/IrishSodaBreads/index.htm