Bread buns | Turnip tomato soup with parsley

Hearty soups and home-made bread buns keep me going these days when in my mind I just want to escape to another planet. Honestly, I don't think I'm handling the new Trump-ideology-era as well as I thought I could. Four years of 'alternative facts' is a daunting prospect. Without books I would be lost; in my attempt to block the news I have even started listening to books podcasts from 2012! It's therapy. And so is spending quality moments in the kitchen. A photo of the bread buns that I posted on Instagram on Sunday sparked this blog entry. Two people asked for the recipe and I decided to bake them again and share with another recipe for turnip tomato soup with parsley.

The bread buns are adapted from a bread recipe (without seeds) printed on the packet of the Doves Farm quick yeast. It needs no activation, you simply add it to the flour before the liquid. In the bread buns I use coconut oil but any quality vegetable oil will do. The sesame seeds are my addition and usually I top the buns with both sesame and poppy seeds. The original recipe contains plain flour but every time I make the buns I substitute about 60 grams (¼ cup) for wholemeal spelt flour, to add dietary fibre.

BREAD BUNS WITH SESAME SEEDS

500 g organic white spelt flour or plain flour
½ teaspoon fine sea/Himalayan salt
1 teaspoon organic unrefined cane sugar
1 teaspoon Doves Farm quick yeast
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
275-300 ml warm water
1 tablespoon coconut oil
optional topping: milk/soya milk; sesame seeds; poppy seeds

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, sugar, yeast, and sesame seeds, with a wooden spoon.

Mix in the water, starting with 275 ml, adding the oil as the dough comes together (if using coconut oil melt it before use; there is 1 teaspoon of oil in the original recipe). Add 1-2 tablespoons of water if needed.

Knead the dough on a floured surface for 4-5 minutes. Return it to the bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place for at least 35 minutes.

Divide the dough into 8 parts and roll into balls. Place them on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and flatten each slightly with the palm of your hand. Brush each one with milk/soya milk and sprinkle sesame seeds on top (and poppy seeds if using). Bake at 200°C/400°F (180°C fan oven) for 12-14 minutes.

[Note for American readers: 1 cup of white spelt flour is about 130 grams, which means that 500 grams = scant 3½ cups, depending on the type you use. For the warm water: prepare 1¼ cup. Start adding 1 cup and two tablespoons to the dough and add 1 tablespoon or more if needed.]

Uppskrift á íslensku.

The taste of this soup is partly the work of two of my children. It was a cold winter day and we wanted to make a soup with turnip, celery and lentils. We are big fans of swedes and turnips in this house. Turnips (white or yellow with purple near the leaf bases) give you dietary fibre, Vitamin B6 and C, to name some of their benefits. We looked up ideas online and found a recipe of red lentil soup with turnip and parsley on the website of Martha Stewart, which became our inspiration. The main difference is that we don't use as much of the lentils in ours and we use canned plum tomatoes instead of raw tomatoes. We have been preparing this soup on the colder days in January.

TURNIP TOMATO SOUP WITH PARSLEY

1 tablespoon light olive oil
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2 celery sticks
1 turnip
1 can (400 g) plum tomatoes (14 oz)
1250 ml water (5 cups)
60 g / 75 ml red lentils (¼ cup)
a pinch of ground cumin
a pinch of smoked paprika
1 small bay leaf
½-1 teaspoon coarse sea/Himalayan salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon Modena balsamic vinegar
75 ml finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (scant ⅓ cup)

Start with preparing the vegetables. Peel and chop the onion. Trim and finely slice the celery sticks. Peel the cloves of garlic, finely slice one and press the other two when added to the saucepan. Peel and dice the turnip and set it aside.

In a saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, celery and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes until tender, gently stirring.

Increase the heat to high and add the plum tomatoes with juice, red lentils (rinse them first), diced turnip and water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, add ½ teaspoon of salt, a handful of chopped parsley and black pepper. Allow to simmer for 25 minutes.

Towards the end, stir in Modena balsamic vinegar, the rest of the parsley, and add more salt if needed. For extra comfort, serve with home-made bread or bread buns.

Uppskrift á íslensku.

The recent Instagram photo that sparked this blog entry

Maps | Marinated chicken drumsticks

By now I thought I would be able to share photos of gorgeous spring blossoms but this year spring is arriving with slight hiccups. There are daffodils and crocuses in bloom, but I have my eyes on this one particular magnolia tree in the village that is preparing to show off. When the day comes that I turn the corner and see it in bloom, that's when spring has sprung for me. And what has that got to do with maps and drumsticks? Absolutely nothing.

Maps from the books The Food of France, illustrated by Russell Bryant,
and The Food of India, by Rosanna Vecchio

Recently my 9-year old was working on a project for school about food and food miles, which made us talk a lot about food, or let's say more than usual. Since pizza is his favourite it was sort of given that Italy would find its way into his project. That's where my map of Italy came in handy. Since then it has been spread out on my table and has led to some serious map-mania (I love illustrated maps) and travel discussions: One wants to go to Japan, another to Fiji or Hawaii. I even got the question, Mom, what's it like in North Korea?, which made me wonder if they served latte over there. I cannot say that drinking latte in North Korea is on my bucket list but who knows what the future holds?

I'm not sure what I would do without Google maps but I have to say that nothing replaces the feeling of spreading out a map on a table and making travel plans, or just daydreaming.

With Easter coming up I was thinking about what to prepare in the kitchen. When I think about my childhood and Easter I remember chocolate eggs and fancy meals. I don't know about you but at Easter I like to keep things simple. I see no need to spend hours in the kitchen preparing something, which made me think of chicken drumsticks.

The simplicity of preparing and cooking marinated drumsticks appeals to me. I like marinated chicken but I don't want the taste of the marinade to overpower the taste of the meat. Perhaps that philosophy applies to all my cooking; I'm not particularly fond of one dominant taste. I recommend letting the drumsticks marinate in the fridge overnight. When serving them with rice I usually roast sesame seeds on a pan and sprinkle them over the rice before serving.

MARINATED CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS

9-10 chicken drumsticks, preferably free-range
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon tamari sauce
1 tablespoon orange juice, freshly squeezed
1 red chilli
small piece of fresh ginger
optional: a few drops Tabasco sauce

Remove the seeds and finely chop the chilli. Peel and finely chop the ginger.

Put the chicken drumsticks with all the ingredients in a large freezer bag. Seal the bag and rotate it to make sure that all the drumsticks are coated with the marinade. Place the bag in a bowl in the fridge and let the chicken marinate for at least 2-4 hours, preferably overnight, turning occasionally.

Once the chicken has marinated, place the drumsticks on a baking tray with a rack. Cook in the oven at 200°C/400°F (180° fan oven) for 35 minutes (until the juices are no longer pink).

Serve with, for example, white or brown basmati rice and tamari sauce, and perhaps with sliced avocado and red peppers on the side.

Uppskrift á íslensku

Cloudy Day in South Yorkshire | Bread buns

Today is Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, in the UK and some other countries. The sun is out, the birds are singing, and the day is filled with promises, at least one: I have promised to make pancakes. Yesterday, however, we had clouds. My son and I went for a walk in the grey weather before heading back home to bake bread buns with sesame seeds. There is no song called Cloudy Day in South Yorkshire but the song Rainy Night in Georgia was constantly playing in my head and I started thinking about the lyrics:

I feel like it's rainin' all over the world,
How many times I wondered, It still comes out the same
No matter how you look at it or think of it,
It's life and you just got to play the game…

~ • ~

It's life and you just got to play the game ... that's a good line.

Yesterday in Iceland was bolludagur, 'Bun Day' or 'Cream Puff Day'. It's an old tradition and in most homes the day starts with the children spanking their parents with a stick that has crepe paper glued to it. The population of Iceland is about three hundred and thirty thousand (pause for laughter or astonishment) and according to the news over million buns are baked and devoured. They usually have a chocolate glaze and are filled with jam and whipped cream. I still remember the Sundays when my mother was busy in the kitchen preparing for the day, which is on a Monday, and I remember my lunchbox filled with buns.

Yesterday, very untrue to Icelandic tradition, I made bread buns. I wasn't in the mood for the cream puffs and the kids didn't complain. Come to think of it, I haven't baked the traditional ones in a long time. The last time may have been in Denmark in 2010! I guess it's a tradition I haven't held on to.

I seldom use yeast so I find it interesting that lately I have been baking these bread buns frequently. All that kneading must be grounding. Well, I do have a long-standing love affair with sesame seeds.

Speaking of sesame seeds, I just read that there is a new cookbook coming out: Sesame & Spice: Baking from the East End to the Middle East by Anne Shooter. The words sesame and baking caught my attention. I have no idea about the recipes in it, whether they are all sugary or leaning towards healthy, but the cover looks good. It's time to start the pancake making but first I wanted to share the bread buns recipe.

Those of you who have been following my blog are used to recipes with spelt flour. I like mixing white with wholegrain spelt flour when making bread or buns. These days, however, it seems to be hard to come across the white one, at least in this area of the UK. To make these buns I simply use organic plain flour or bread flour. Instead of warming the milk, which is common when baking with yeast, I boil the water and mix it with the milk and honey. Sesame seeds are a good source of calcium, magnesium, and iron; in my opinion, you should eat some every day. We love these buns with hard-boiled eggs and cucumber, or home-made pesto.

BREAD BUNS WITH SESAME SEEDS

450 g organic plain flour or bread flour
2 teaspoons fast-active dry yeast
1 teaspoon fine sea/Himalayan salt
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
125 ml milk (½ cup)
100 ml boiled water
½ tablespoon organic honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
topping: 1 egg white or milk and sesame seeds

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast, salt and sesame seeds with a wooden spoon.

In a smaller bowl gently stir the milk, boiled water and honey. Let it sit for 1-2 minutes. Add the oil to the mix before slowly pouring it into the larger bowl while stirring gently.

First mix the dough with the spoon, then knead well with your hands on a floured surface for 5-10 minutes. Return the dough to the bowl and cover it with clean, damp tea towel. Set aside for 1½-2 hours in a warm place, or until doubled in size.

Divide the dough into 8 parts and roll into balls. Place them on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and flatten each slightly with the palm of your hand. Brush each one with egg white or milk and sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Bake at 200°C/400°F (180°C fan oven) for 12-14 minutes.

Uppskrift á íslensku

Bread buns with sesame seeds ready for the oven