Cast iron skillet | johnageddes

The weather has been warm and I have covered most of the territory in Kingston core that is surrounding where I live so to complete my personal challenge of walking all the streets in the core, I will have to go a bit farther afield. When the cooler fall weather hits, I will try to do that.

Today, rather than walk this morning, I elected to make some Irish Soda Bread in my cast iron skillet. I took it out to my balcony in the September sunshine and enjoyed it with coffee and some fresh peaches and blueberries. A couple of friends have asked for the recipe so here it is:

Irish Soda Bread in the Cast Iron Skillet

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 1/2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp Baking Soda

3 Tbsp cold Butter, cut in little chunks

1/2 cup raisins

Some candied orange peel cut in small pieces

1 egg

1 1/2 cups Buttermilk ( I substitute 1 1/2 Tbsp white vinegar made up to 1 1/2 cups with milk)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F with the cast iron skillet (about 9-10 inch diameter) in the oven to get hot as well.

Sift the dry ingredients together. Add butter and cut it in with a pastry cutter or crumble it in with your fingers until the mixture is coarse and even.

Mix in the raisins and orange peel.

Make a dip in the middle of the dry mix and beat the egg and add the milk to it. Mix it all together. (I use a wooden spoon and I only mix it enough to be sure that the dry ingredients have been incorporated.)

Remove the skillet from the oven (IT IS HOT. BE CAREFUL.) and put a bit (1/2 Tbsp?) of olive oil into it and coat the bottom and sides of the skillet. I have a little silicone brush that I use to brush it around.

Pour the batter into the skillet and even it out. Bake for about 40 minutes or until done.

I sometimes drizzle a bit of icing on it – made by combining some icing sugar with a few drops of milk to make it runny enough to drizzle onto the bread. If you add too much milk it is way too runny.

Serve warm with butter, jam or honey. Freezes well, too. Enjoy

And just for a bit more summery cheer before autumn closes in, here are a couple of photos of flowers I have taken in the past couple of weeks while walking around the hood.

This is a little change of pace for my blog. By now you will realize that my posts tend to be an eclectic mix.

This recipe for rosemary focaccia is just too good not to share. If you have a cast iron pan it is the perfect cooking pan. If not, you can always use a heavy cake pan.

In the youtube video below I will walk you step by step through the recipe. Easy, inexpensive and delicious.

Prego. Bellissimo.

I will walk you through this recipe which is simple and delicious. It would even be a good recipe for kids to make.

Here are the written instructions.

Rosemary Focaccia in the Cast Iron Skillet

Preheat oven to 200 degrees and put the skillet into the oven to warm.

In 3/4 cup warm water dissolve 1/2 tsp sugar. Add 1 1/2 tsp yeast and let it work for about 5 minutes.

Add 1 cup flour and 3/4 tsp salt and mix it up. I use a wooden spoon to do this.

Add 2 TBSP olive oil and fresh rosemary or dried rosemary (or any combination of that) and mix until combined. I crumble up a couple of large pinches of dried rosemary and then snip in fresh rosemary to taste.

Add another 3/4 cup flour (approximate) and stir it until the dough starts to come away from the bowl. Flour your fingers and draw it away from the bowl sides.

Take the skillet out of the oven (use oven mitts as the handle will be hot) and turn the oven OFF. Grease the skillet with a couple of teaspoons of olive oil and spread the dough evenly into the pan. Cover the pan and dough with a tea towel and put the pan back into the oven for 20-30 minutes.

While the dough is rising, make the topping using 2 TBSP olive oil, 1/4 tsp salt, one or two cloves of chopped garlic and some more fresh or dried rosemary. The flavours will blend while the dough is rising in the warm oven.

When the dough has had a chance to rise, remove the pan from the oven and turn the oven up to 400 degrees F. Brush the dough with the olive oil/garlic/salt/ Rosemary mix and sprinkle with coarse sea salt .

Bake for 20 minutes in the 400 degree oven..

Cool on a rack.

Top with a bit of freshly grated Parmesan Cheese.

Total prep time is about 10 minutes, rising time 20 minutes and cooking time 20 minutes.