Brown Butter Soda Bread

Every Saint Patrick's Day, my family has to have Irish Soda Bread. It's tradition, and you can't mess with tradition. I typically bake a large batch in the morning for breakfast, where my family and I eat the bread hot from the oven with salted butter....Mmmm....it's truly to-die-for.  And then that night, we dip the bread in our corned beef and cabbage or stew or whatever Irish dinner we're having. Then, we have the leftovers for breakfast the following morning reheated with butter -- that is...if it makes it that long.

And I am pleased to announce that this is officially my favorite soda bread recipe. Why? Because of the browned butter. 

If you've never browned butter in a recipe before, here is your chance (and if you seriously haven't tried my Brown Butter Cookies, you really haven't lived yet). By browning the butter, you end up with a toasty, rich aroma that tastes so flavorful and savory. The rich flavor compliments the rosemary perfectly, and the whole wheat flour gives the bread an amazing texture. By brushing the top of the bread with olive oil before baking, you end up with wonderfully crisp edges, while the interior stays soft and fluffy.  You also get a delicious burst of sea salt and black pepper with every bite.

This is definitely going to be a staple in my house every Saint Patrick's Day!

*adapted from Epicurious

Yield: 2 loaves

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon dried rosemary (or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper plus additional for topping
• 1 3/4 cups buttermilk
• Olive oil, for brushing
• Sea salt

Instructions:

1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. 

2. Stir butter in heavy small saucepan over medium heat until melted and golden brown, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Stir flour, oats, sugar, rosemary, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper in large bowl to blend. Pour buttermilk and melted browned butter over flour mixture; stir with fork until flour mixture is moistened.

4. Turn dough out onto floured work surface. Knead gently until dough comes together, about 7 turns (the goal is to work it as little as possible -- for a fluffy texture. If you work it too much it will become dense). Divide in half. Shape each half into ball; flatten each into 6-inch round. Place rounds on ungreased baking sheet, spacing 5 inches apart. Brush tops with olive oil. Sprinkle lightly with ground black pepper and sea salt. Using small sharp knife, cut 1/2-inch-deep X in top of each dough round.

5. Bake breads until deep golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes. Cool breads on rack at least 20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Rosemary Ranch Chicken Kabobs

I'm not a huge fan of dressings.  Whenever I have a salad, I don't usually use that much dressing; its just never been my thing.  However, after making this recipe, my whole viewpoint of dressing completely changed.  Who knew that ranch dressing could make chicken so........wonderful??  The ranch dressing added sooo much incredibly delicious flavor to the chicken, and made it perfectly salty and wonderfully moist.  You truly can't get any moister than this chicken is.  This is definitely one of my new favorite chicken recipes.  Ohmygoodness, just typing about it makes me want to eat a bunch of it.  The chicken literally melts in your mouth, and it's super duper addicting.  The sauce is awesome too, especially over rice!

Yield: about 6 servings

Ingredients

• ½ cup olive oil
• ½ cup ranch dressing
• 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon white sugar, or to taste (optional)
• 5 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into 1 inch cubes

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the olive oil, ranch dressing, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, salt, lemon juice, white vinegar, pepper, and sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes. Place chicken in the bowl, and stir to coat with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, or overnight.
2. Preheat the grill for medium-high heat. Thread chicken onto skewers and discard marinade.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Grill skewers for 8 to 12 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, and the juices run clear.

New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp

I'm usually not a fan of spicy things, but boy was this tasty!   I really recommend making it spicy.  Add lots of salt and cayenne in the end.  I don't know why, but this dish is so, so, so yummy and especially flavorful when spicy.  It's adapted from America's Test Kitchen, who have never failed to impress me with their recipes. Here's the description on the recipe:

We started by determining the best cooking method for our version of New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp; in this case, searing the shrimp first, then sautéing the aromatics before returning the shrimp to the skillet to gently finish cooking in the rich sauce proved best. Sautéing the aromatics with some tomato paste enriched the sauce—the paste also reinforced the “barbecue" color.

To thicken the sauce, we turned to a classic New Orleans technique for thickening: starting the sauce with a roux. A bit of flour added to the sautéing aromatics created a sauce that was thick enough to coat the shrimp. Instead of a time-consuming seafood stock, we used bottled clam juice as the base for our sauce. To round out the liquid, tasters preferred mellow beer to acidic wine.

Seems like they know what they're talking about...am I right?  They also said: although authentic barbecue shrimp is always made with shell-on shrimp, peeled and deveined shrimp may be used. Light- or medium-bodied beers work best here. Serve with Tabasco sauce and French bread, if desired.

Definitely serve this wish French bread!!  It does a wonderful job of soaking up all of the yummy sauce.  I wish I had made more of this to have as leftovers...but there were none left!

Ingredients:

• 2pounds extra-large shrimp, peeled (21-25 per pound)
• 1/2teaspoon salt
• 1/2teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2tablespoons vegetable oil
• 6tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
• 2teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1teaspoon tomato paste
• 1teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
• 1teaspoon minced fresh thyme
• 1/2teaspoon dried oregano
• 3garlic cloves, minced
• 3/4cup bottled clam juice
• 1/2cup beer
• 1tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
•                       Additional salt, cayenne pepper
•                       Hot sauce (optional)

Instructions: 

• 1. Sear shrimp: Pat shrimp dry with paper towels and sprinkle with salt and cayenne. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Cook half of shrimp, without moving, until spotty brown on one side, about 1 minute; transfer to large plate. Repeat with remaining oil and shrimp.
• 2. Make Sauce: Melt 1 tablespoon butter in empty skillet over medium heat. Add flour, tomato paste, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in clam juice, beer, and Worcestershire, scraping up any browned bits, and bring to boil. Return shrimp and any accumulated juices to skillet. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until shrimp are cooked through, about 2 minutes. Off heat, stir in remaining butter until incorporated. Add more salt and cayenne to taste.  Serve and garnish with hot sauce if desired.

Irish Soda Bread

Yield: 1 small loaf


Irish soda bread hasn't always been a favorite food of mine.   It would always be at an Irish pub restaurant down the street from our house, but I always thought it was too dry, crumbled apart easily, and flavorless.  So...because I'm Irish...and because my parents love Irish soda bread...and because I wanted to learn to like the type of bread...I decided to try making it myself.  I found a basic recipe off Allrecipes.com, and I altered it based on the reviews, and I ended up baking a wonderful loaf of bread!  It's much, much, much better than the soda bread from the Irish pub I had.  This loaf is moist, soft, doesn't crumble apart, and has just the right amount of flavor.  Because of the light flavor, it pairs well with any meal.  It has a hearty texture and is absolutely amazing when eaten hot out of the oven with softened, salted butter.  My favorite way to eat it was toasted with salted butter, cinnamon and brown sugar for breakfast.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• Cornmeal, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a cup or small bowl, stir together the milk and vinegar. Let stand 10 minutes, or until curdled.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flours, sugar, rosemary, oregano, salt and baking soda. Stir in the curdled milk mixture just until smooth.
3. Pour into a greased loaf pan and sprinkle with desired amount of cornmeal.
4. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the crust feels firm to the touch. Let sit for at least 10 minutes before serving. 

Apple, Sausage, and Cranberry Stuffing

I made this stuffing for Christmas dinner tonight, and it was phenomenal.  I know it's not exactly the best idea to test a recipe for the first time on the big day, but I couldn't imagine any stuffing possibly tasting that bad. The apples, spices, chicken soup, and cranberries give this stuffing the most delicious flavor.  I adapted this from the "Awesome Sausage, Apple, and Cranberry Stuffing" on allrecipes.com found here.  Based on the reviews, I changed it by using fresh herbs, adding an egg to make it hold and be less crumbly, using sage pork sausage instead of regular sausage for more flavor, and I used drained broth from chicken noodle soup instead of turkey stock.  The reason for my last substitution is because it was the only thing I had on hand.  I was actually planning on using chicken stock, but I didn't realize I didn't have it until the last minute.  So I used the chicken noodle soup stock, and I figured it would give the stuffing even more flavor since it had been sitting for so long.  And man was I right!  This stuffing was absolutely superb! Both my parents said it was their favorite dish of all the food we had today and yesterday..and we had some of the best food I've ever had.  I can't wait to try this stuffed in a turkey...my family all agreed that I'm making this for Thanksgiving next year.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups cubed whole wheat bread
• 3 3/4 cups cubed white bread
• 1 pound ground sage pork sausage
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 4.5 teaspoons fresh sage
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
• 1 apple, cored and chopped (i used pink ladies)
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup finely chopped, fresh parsley
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup broth from can of chicken noodle soup (i used condensed)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F (175 degree C). Spread the white and whole wheat bread cubes in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes in the preheated oven, or until evenly toasted. Transfer toasted bread cubes to a large bowl.
2. In a large skillet, cook the sausage and onions over medium heat, stirring and breaking up the lumps until evenly browned. Add the celery, sage, rosemary, and thyme; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes to blend flavors.
3. Pour sausage mixture over bread in bowl. Mix in chopped apples, dried cranberries, parsley, and egg.  Mix well. Drizzle with drained chicken soup and melted butter, and mix lightly. Spoon into lightly greased casserole dish and bake for 35-40 minutes, stirring halfway through.