695. Soda Bread

I made this really weird salad. I had a bunch of salad veggies, and some leftover roast pork, and some cauliflower which I figured I could roast with some spices on, and I mixed it all together and threw some hot sauce on it and had a chunky slice of soda bread on the side. I’m pretty sure none of those things are classic flavour combinations but hey, it worked out tasty in the end. Soda bread is a nice change to regular bread as it’s dense and soft and a little sweet.

695 down, 1101 to go

675. Challah

As part of my latest quest to bake more bread, I tried out challah using the Mark Bittman recipe from How to Cook Everything. It was an easy bread to make as it didn’t involve a lot of kneading, and it had the added fun of braiding the dough. I found that by itself I didn’t love it, it was heavy and eggy and just not all that great. It totally came into it’s own when I made French toast with it though. It soaked up so much liquid and just turned into this delicious sweet, crunchy, cakey goodness. I had mine with maple syrup, hot sauce and bacon - Pie thought this was an insane combination; I thought it was genius.

675 down, 1121 to go

662. Knackebrod

There are quite a few foods on the list which have these intriguing foreign names, which then turn out to be something really regular when I actually look them up. That was the case with knackebrod, which in fact is Ryvita. Or, more correctly, Ryvita is a brand of knackebrod. Ryvita often tend to be seen as a bit of a bland, health food here, but I actually quite like it, as long as it has something on it which stops it from being too dry (like cream cheese which I had here).

662 down, 1134 to go

632. Toasted Teacake

I already had hot cross buns for the list before, which are basically a decorated toasted teacake, so this was perhaps a pointless addition to the list. Then again, I’m never going to complain about eating a warm, toasty, crispy, sweet, spicy, butter-drenched bun. I love to have toasted teacakes for breakfast, or as an afternoon snack with a cup of tea. I have some in my freezer now…

632 down, 1164 to go

627. Bammy

Before I left my old job (which yes, was quite a while ago now), our CEO cooked everyone a Jamaican lunch. We had a tradition where once a month we would cook up a company meal using some of our products. This was absolutely my favourite thing about working there and I used to love volunteering to cook. Anyway, on this occasion we used our new Jamaican range of spice pastes and had jerk chicken, spinach curry, fried plantains, rice, and bammies, which are little fried flatbreads made out of mashed cassava. They have a slightly sweet, really starchy flavour and a lovely chewy texture.

627 down, 1169 to go

626. Beer Bread

I’ve been trying to bake more bread lately as it’s something that I really haven’t tried enough. I’d heard that beer bread was really easy so I thought it would be a good place to start. Easy is an understatement; this was really beyond simple. You literally mix flour, a little sugar, and beer, put it in a tin and bake it. That’s it. No kneading, no resting, no nothing. It turns out as a dense, cakey sort of bread, and I topped mine with some cheddar and dried wild garlic which countered the hint of sweetness in the bread perfectly. I served mine with sweet potato and sausage soup, and it would be a lovely accompaniment for all kinds of soups and stews.

626 down, 1170 to go

550. Bruschetta

Good bruschetta is one of my favourite starters. Bad bruschetta on the other hand is just an awful mess of unripe tomatoes and soggy bread. Luckily this was good bruschetta. It had nice ripe, juicy tomatoes, chopped up nice and small, with crisp garlicky toast. This also had a little bit of pesto drizzled over the top which was great because pesto is always a welcome addition.

550 down, 1246 to go

515. Simit

In the book this is called Simit, but in Greece it’s known as Koulouri, and they’re sold on carts by street vendors everywhere. It might be obvious from the look, but they’re a little bit like a bagel, they have that delightfully chewy centre, but with a crispier outside, and that delicious nutty sesame crust. And unlike a bagel you just eat them as they are. At only 50c each, it made for a perfect mid-morning snack.

515 down, 1281 to go

351. Pain au Levain Naturel

This is a French sourdough bread. I picked it up at my local farmer’s market. It was really goddamn expensive but it tasted good so it was probably worth it as a treat.

351 down, 1445 to go