HOMEMADE CORN BREAD

There is no such a good thing as starting to the day with the smell and the taste of homemade bread. Happy stomacs, happy people!

Corn is one of the major products in northeast part of  Turkey and people living there consume a lot corn and corn flour in their kitchen. Today’s bread is from this region: Black Sea style corn bread. Yummy! 

HOMEMADE POTTED SHRIMPS

After being away two weeks and not eaten home cooked food, today was a kitchen day at home. First we cooked purslane stew with bulgur which we eat a lot during summer with yogurt. Then made two small jars of peach marmelade to eat with cottage cheese for summer breakfasts.

After the potted shrimp tasting we had in Morecambe two weeks ago, we decided to try it at home and we bought brown shrimps from our local fish shop and prepared our first homemade potted shrimps.

Following a short research in internet, we made TheGuardian’s recipe. With this recipe, we had one ramekin potted shrimps to consume today and one little jar to eat later. Recipe is easy because the brown shrimps are sold cleaned and precooked. And the taste of homemade one is much much better then the shop bought one.

The Guardian’s recipe, was suggesting to serve potted shrimps with hot brown bread, so we baked also a brown bread with fennel which we learned from our friend Ayşegül.  When the bread came out from the owen, our evening treat at the terrace was ready. Homemade brown bread with fennel, homemade potted shrimps, English goat cheese and Stilton cheese, Turkish black olives, Iranian mini dry figs and ice cold Polish oak vodka. Heaven!

Here is The Guardian’s recipe if you want to try:

200g unsalted butter

Juice of ¼ lemon

¼ tsp ground mace

¼ tsp white pepper

½ tsp anchovy paste or Gentleman's Relish

200g cooked and peeled brown shrimps

Cayenne pepper, to serve

1. Melt the butter in a pan over a gentle heat, and then allow to simmer until you spot the first dark flecks – watch it carefully, or it will burn. Strain through some butter muslin, or two sheets of kitchen roll, into a jug.

2. Wipe out the pan, and pour in two-thirds of the butter. Add the lemon juice, mace, pepper, anchovy essence and a pinch of salt and simmer very gently for five minutes, then take off the heat and allow to cool but not set. Divide the shrimps between 4 ramekins, pressing them in tightly.

3. When just warm, but still liquid, divide the spiced butter between the ramekins and put in the fridge to set. Once solid, pour over the remainder of the clarified butter and return to the fridge to set.

4. Serve with a sprinkle of cayenne pepper and a lot of hot toast.

STRAWBERRY JAM

When we were in our summer house, we picked more strawberries than we can eat each day from our garden and we made jam with some of them. 

In Turkey, the best strawberry type for making the jam is this ones which we call Osmanlı (Ottoman), small, sweet and with a powerful strawberry smell.

The recipe is easy. Wash and clean 1 kg of strawberries...

Cover them with 1 kg of sugar and leave overnight (or at least 8 hours) in a flat pot to become juicy...

Next day, cook it in a pan in slow heat. During the cooking process, clean out the foams forming in the surface of the jam with the help of a spoon.

After the first 20 minutes, take the strawberries out with the help of a skimmer for not overcooking them and keep cooking the juice until it gets thick.

Add the strawberries again, add the juice of 1,5 lemon, cook 5 minutes more and that’s it. Enjoy your strawberry jam!

HOT CROSS BUNS

We tasted first time the hot cross buns after moving to UK. We like their fluffy, sticky texture, cinnamonny smell and chewing the sultanas inside. Normally we buy them from Tesco but lately we found less guilt feeling version with less calories in Waitrose and they were as good as the others. We are not addict of hot cross buns but we like chewing them sometimes while  drinking our tea.

We were talking about learning to bake our homemade hot cross buns and today was the most appropriate time to learn this Easter classic normally eaten on Good Friday. After a quick search, we decided to try BBC Good Food’s recipe between four recipes we choosed before and spot on! Best hot cross buns recipe ever:

For the buns:

300ml full-fat milk , plus 2 tbsp more

50g butter

500g strong bread flour

1 tsp salt

75g caster sugar

1 tbsp sunflower oil

7g sachet fast-action or easy-blend yeast

1 egg, beaten

75g sultanas

50g mixed peel

zest 1 orange

1 apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped

1 tsp ground cinnamon

For the cross:

75g plain flour , plus extra for dusting

For the glaze:

3 tbsp apricot jam

Bring the milk to the boil, then remove from the heat and add the butter. Leave to cool until it reaches hand temperature. Put the flour, salt, sugar and yeast into a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Pour in the warm milk and butter mixture, then add the egg. Using a wooden spoon, mix well, then bring everything together with your hands until you have a sticky dough.

Tip on to a lightly floured surface and knead by holding the dough with one hand and stretching it with the heal of the other hand, then folding it back on itself. Repeat for 5 mins until smooth and elastic. Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hr or until doubled in size and a finger pressed into it leaves a dent.

With the dough still in the bowl, tip in the sultanas, mixed peel, orange zest, apple and cinnamon. Knead into the dough, making sure everything is well distributed. Leave to rise for 1 hr more, or until doubled in size, again covered by some well-oiled cling film to stop the dough getting a crust.

Divide the dough into 15 even pieces (about 75g per piece). Roll each piece into a smooth ball on a lightly floured work surface. Arrange the buns on one or two baking trays lined with parchment, leaving enough space for the dough to expand. Cover (but don't wrap) with more oiled cling film, or a clean tea towel, then set aside to prove for 1 hr more.

Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Mix the flour with about 5 tbsp water to make the paste for the cross - add the water 1 tbsp at a time, so you add just enough for a thick paste. Spoon into a piping bag with a small nozzle. Pipe a line along each row of buns, then repeat in the other direction to create crosses. Bake for 20 mins on the middle shelf of the oven, until golden brown.

Gently heat the apricot jam to melt, then sieve to get rid of any chunks. While the jam is still warm, brush over the top of the warm buns and leave to cool.

HOMEMADE QUINCE JAM

Today's yummy: homemade quince jam!