Where food comes from?
Touch.
A good skin on a soda farl is important, my uncle John declared in admiration of my aunt Grettas baking skill on one of our many mid-day lunch breaks when I was a teenager helping on his farm up on the Largy Rd . The texture and taste of a well made soda is hard to beat, much on a par with the quest for a perfect pizza base. My father would make us an evening snack of toasted soda well buttered with with local 'Ailsa Craig' tomatoes and thinly cut slices Coleraine cheddar on top, the warmth of an summers evening and the juices of the tomato soaked up in well toasted soda rival that Spanish classic 'pan con tomate' with the right melt on the cheese who needed olive oil then with a taste of Ulster on your plate. I was lucky getting to help out on a good few relatives and neighbours farms getting fed at the table or in the field where food takes on another taste altogether.
soda bread needs a lightness of touch and the liquid cut into the flour with a broad bladed knife, soda bread mixes don't need the heavy kneading that yeast breads require and no proving time either,within 20 mins you can have a soda farl made cooked and ready to eat.
The Basic Recipe
450gms Self-raising flour
1/2tsp salt
approx 200ml butter milk or (soured milk -a tablespoon of natural yoghurt added to fresh milk)
griddle-pan, heavy bottomed pan/skillet
extra flour for dusting
Method.
put your griddle pan on to heat once hot dust with a pinch of flour this should just brown if it burns reduce the heat a medium or 'fairly hot' heat works best.
Sift the flour into a bowl make a well in the centre add the buttermilk and salt and cut in the flour gradually-using broad strokes until all is combined to a soft dough, a good soda mix will always feel light and alive practise the art and you will develop the sensitivity or 'good hands for baking', job done 2mins tops. Dust your table with a little flour turn your soda bread out on to this and shape into a soda farl, round 2 1/2cm deep. place onto the griddle pan and cook approx 5mins each side, the soda will feel light in the centre when cooked and have an even sound when tapped.
Leave to cool on a wire rack before cutting,eat fresh with savoury or sweet toppings, older sodas are better fried or toasted.
R.I.P Respects to my Father and Aunt Gretta, uncle John's 97 and still Rocking up the Largy Rd
Touch.
A good skin on a soda farl is important, my uncle John declared in admiration of my aunt Grettas baking skill on one of our many mid-day lunch breaks when I was a teenager helping on his farm up on the Largy Rd . The texture and taste of a well made soda is hard to beat, much on a par with the quest for a perfect pizza base. My father would make us an evening snack of toasted soda well buttered with with local 'Ailsa Craig' tomatoes and thinly cut slices Coleraine cheddar on top, the warmth of an summers evening and the juices of the tomato soaked up in well toasted soda rival that Spanish classic 'pan con tomate' with the right melt on the cheese who needed olive oil then with a taste of Ulster on your plate. I was lucky getting to help out on a good few relatives and neighbours farms getting fed at the table or in the field where food takes on another taste altogether.
soda bread needs a lightness of touch and the liquid cut into the flour with a broad bladed knife, soda bread mixes don't need the heavy kneading that yeast breads require and no proving time either,within 20 mins you can have a soda farl made cooked and ready to eat.
The Basic Recipe
450gms Self-raising flour
1/2tsp salt
approx 200ml butter milk or (soured milk -a tablespoon of natural yoghurt added to fresh milk)
griddle-pan, heavy bottomed pan/skillet
extra flour for dusting
Method.
put your griddle pan on to heat once hot dust with a pinch of flour this should just brown if it burns reduce the heat a medium or 'fairly hot' heat works best.
Sift the flour into a bowl make a well in the centre add the buttermilk and salt and cut in the flour gradually-using broad strokes until all is combined to a soft dough, a good soda mix will always feel light and alive practise the art and you will develop the sensitivity or 'good hands for baking', job done 2mins tops. Dust your table with a little flour turn your soda bread out on to this and shape into a soda farl, round 2 1/2cm deep. place onto the griddle pan and cook approx 5mins each side, the soda will feel light in the centre when cooked and have an even sound when tapped.
Leave to cool on a wire rack before cutting,eat fresh with savoury or sweet toppings, older sodas are better fried or toasted.
R.I.P Respects to my Father and Aunt Gretta, uncle John's 97 and still Rocking up the Largy Rd
Thank you for this!
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