Back to Cork

Beer Dreams
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We are back in the city of the Lee river, Murphy’s, Beamish and the branch of Guinness brewery. If one wants to drink in a good local pub, he has a choice, but if he turns hungry, he have to go to place where there they do cook or they have a snack at least. Only then one can keep going with the smoothest liquid bread on this world. If is one sipping a liquid bread and having a bite of baked bread to chewy on the side, the alcohol is probably going faster into his head. I have to notice that I had a lot of bread tonight as the side of Minestrone soup, and I like the local bread as much as I did ask the waiters if she has not a recipe for that delicious dark bread. She had not, but she gave me a whole loaf of that bread as an unexpected gift. We joined a local bar with many of options of draft beers. Which way to go? I liked the Beamish a lot, but my eyelids drove quite heavy tonight, faster than ever (fourth hunted beer glass).

Beer Dreams Come True
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It was a quite quiet night and is all over again. All three of us, we were agreed that we slept well although long enough. We did switch each other in the hotel’s shower, had a bunch of the loaf of dark Irish bread with white cheddar, Jerry’s regular cup of black tea, wraped all our packages, and went down stairs to check out… Jerry was for writing, and we wanted find a post office to send our post cards before they will get forgotten in one of our backpacks…

If is one sipping a liquid bread and having a bite of baked bread to chewy on the side, the alcohol is probably going faster into his head.

Tasty kinds
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So, we went down town and back, as fast as we could, and Jerry stayed in the Hotel restaurant while we were gone (it still took a couple of hours to us to get the round trip to the post office by bus… Everything seems to be all right now, when all three of us, we are setting in the checked out airport hall, and waiting our greenish airplane to get back to Prague. The weather was on our side today, sunshine came to wave to us, and our trip is almost over… Our wish was fulfilled on half, but we are sure we will be back one day…

Happy Triple
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Recipe of the Day

It is the Bread and Butter, day by day we though of bread as far as the main nutricious energy for every morning, every night, as a proverb, saying or phrase, as a glass of beer or a slice of bread...

So here you go, and before we gonna fly with the temporary, iron bird, I have to repeat myself: The Bread is so good... so here under one more recipe then...

This is a variation of brown soda bread which makes a loaf type bread that is darker and more moist than the one I wrote before (in the Chapter Donegal!) and has a slightly nutty flavour.

Beer Erruption
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Irish Bread

12 oz Wholemeal flour

8 oz Irish white flour or unbleached flour

3 oz Wheat germ

Freshly baked Breads
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4 level teaspoons Honey

1 level teaspoon Soda bicarbonate

1 level teaspoon Salt

1,5 tablespoons Butter

1 large Egg

3/4 pint Buttermilk or sour milk

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C or Mark 6). Do not start until the oven is hot. Spread the wheat germ on baking tray and place in the hot oven for 3-5 minutes until is lightly toasted. In the meantime mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Whisk together the egg, oil, honey and about 3/4 of the milk.

When the wheat germ is done, leave it for about 2-3 minutes to cool a little then mix it in with the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into small pieces and with the tips of your fingers rub it into the flour.

Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the milk mix. Quickly and bring the flour in from the edges and mix with the milk, until all the ingredients come together into a soft slightly wet dough. It should not be overly sloppy, you should feel you could pick it up without it running through your fingers, but it should be soft enough that it sinks slowly down and takes on the shape of the bowl. If it is too dry add a little more buttermilk. There is no need to knead this dough.

Put into a loaf, the inside of which has been smeared with a little butter or oil. Place in the oven. Bake for 50 minutes. The bread should be nicely browned, have a good crust and sound hollow when you tap it. If it seems a little underdone, put it back in for about 10 minutes.

Allow the bread to cool in the loaf tin before turning it out.

This bread keeps for a few days, and is much easier to slice thinly if you wrap it in aluminium foil and keep it until the next day.

Irish Butter

has a higher fat content and a lower moisture content than typical butter. This means it can tolerate being cooked better, giving a lighter and less watery results. Higher fat also means more flavour, so you need less butter.

It does partly explain why recipes that work perfectly in Ireland can taste different, and not always as nice, when they are made somewhere else.

In the Czech Republic we should find the Traditional Irish Butter and Salted Irish Butter as well, so good luck with all these recipes, you shall get it!