Smithy's Soda Bread with Scrambled Eggs, Smoked Salmon and Chives
It is impossible for me to make Irish soda bread and to not have a mind filled with memories of the downstairs kitchen in the pink house in Sudeley Street, Brighton. Flashes of busy hands, kneading, mixing, making. Warm thoughts of a busy downstairs kitchen filled with laughter and the chinking of tea cups. Memories of Aunty Colette or Smithy as she was known, the Mother of my friend Grania. If it was not her scones, it was her soda bread, and what soda bread it was. Everything she made was always just so. This recipe brings her right back into my kitchen, directing me and encouraging me to be better in all I undertake 'Do things properly, and do it with a flourish.' she would say.
This is such a simple breakfast to prepare and one that is delicious, luxurious if you make sure to use the finest of ingredients. It has Sunday morning, newspapers and endless pots of tea written all over it. Try to use a top quality wholemeal flour, the taste will be sweeter than just plain. Bread flour is far too strong for the raising agent used in the making of this bread so avoid at all cost. Do use fresh buttermilk, the difference is worth it, you just need to look in the right place for it in the shops, it is there. When choosing your smoked salmon, make it the finest you can afford and responsibly sourced. Wafer thin moist slices of the smoky best are incomparable to slimy, over-orange and grey-streaked from an unknown source.
This soda bread recipe is ready in about 40 minutes, bread in a hurry, hassle-free and quick as a flash to prepare. Once you start making it regularly, you will be like Smithy and will have no need to measure the ingredients, you will bake it by eye. This sweet-smelling bread lightly toasted, once cooled from the oven, spread lightly with butter, Irish if possible, and topped with some creamy scrambled eggs, thin strips of smoked salmon, a squeeze of lemon, some freshly cracked black pepper and a final sprinkle of chopped chives is delicious.
Here is to you Smithy, a strong, creative, flame-haired beauty and to a life well lived.
Smithy's Soda Bread
Makes 1 loaf
175 gms plain flour
275 gms plain wholemeal flour
1 tsp runny honey
1 tsp salt
1.5 tspns baking soda
215 ml fresh buttermilk
50 gms cold salted butter
Sieve all your dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and give them a thorough stir together. Chop your butter into small cubes and rub into the flour mix with your fingertips so that it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a well into the centre and pour in the buttermilk and add the honey. Using a knife stir it all together so it binds into a ball. You do not want to knead this for very long, a light touch is needed otherwise it will make your finished loaf hard. Turn out onto a floured board and form into a round about 60 cms high and 200 cms in diameter. Place on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with flour. With a clean sharp knife cut a cross into the top of the loaf, in Ireland they say you are blessing the loaf and then prick each corner a few times and this they say is to let the fairies out. Place in the centre of your oven and bake till risen, golden brown and when tapped on its base it sounds hollow. Cool on a wire rack.
Scrambled Eggs
1 serving
2 eggs per person
120 ml single cream
generous knob of salted butter
salt for seasoning
Crack your eggs into a bowl and add the cream and a little salt. I was taught to lightly whisk with a fork so that is what I do. I do not beat them too much just enough to mix it together. My preference is for a runnier scrambled egg over a tight, foamy dry, crumbly scrambled one, but this is your choice. In a pan melt a generous knob of salted butter over a low to medium heat and let it get frothy. Pour in your egg mixture and stir with a wooden spoon, keeping it from sticking on the bottom of the pan by stirring, folding and moving, gently. Remember that the scramble will continue to cook even after you have removed it from the heat so take it off just before it is cooked and loses its gloss.
When it comes to serving prepare the smoked salmon with the lemon before adding to the scrambled eggs, it is the fish you want to be seasoned with the lemon not the eggs. Thinly slice your salmon onto a plate and squeeze a little lemon over it and let it sit whilst you prepare your scrambled eggs. To finish, slice off some soda bread and lightly toast under the grill. Thinly spread with butter and spoon over it your scrambled eggs, dress with the smoked salmon, sprinkle over the fresh cracked pepper and thin snipped chives. Drink plenty of tea for sure with this and relax into your day.
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Smithy's Soda Bread
Makes 1 loaf
175 gms plain flour
275 gms plain wholemeal flour
1 tsp runny honey
1 tsp salt
1.5 tspns baking soda
215 ml fresh buttermilk
50 gms cold salted butter
Sieve all your dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and give them a thorough stir together. Chop your butter into small cubes and rub into the flour mix with your fingertips so that it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a well into the centre and pour in the buttermilk and add the honey. Using a knife stir it all together so it binds into a ball. You do not want to knead this for very long, a light touch is needed otherwise it will make your finished loaf hard. Turn out onto a floured board and form into a round about 60 cms high and 200 cms in diameter. Place on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with flour. With a clean sharp knife cut a cross into the top of the loaf, in Ireland they say you are blessing the loaf and then prick each corner a few times and this they say is to let the fairies out. Place in the centre of your oven and bake till risen, golden brown and when tapped on its base it sounds hollow. Cool on a wire rack.
Scrambled Eggs
1 serving
2 eggs per person
120 ml single cream
generous knob of salted butter
salt for seasoning
Crack your eggs into a bowl and add the cream and a little salt. I was taught to lightly whisk with a fork so that is what I do. I do not beat them too much just enough to mix it together. My preference is for a runnier scrambled egg over a tight, foamy dry, crumbly scrambled one, but this is your choice. In a pan melt a generous knob of salted butter over a low to medium heat and let it get frothy. Pour in your egg mixture and stir with a wooden spoon, keeping it from sticking on the bottom of the pan by stirring, folding and moving, gently. Remember that the scramble will continue to cook even after you have removed it from the heat so take it off just before it is cooked and loses its gloss.
When it comes to serving prepare the smoked salmon with the lemon before adding to the scrambled eggs, it is the fish you want to be seasoned with the lemon not the eggs. Thinly slice your salmon onto a plate and squeeze a little lemon over it and let it sit whilst you prepare your scrambled eggs. To finish, slice off some soda bread and lightly toast under the grill. Thinly spread with butter and spoon over it your scrambled eggs, dress with the smoked salmon, sprinkle over the fresh cracked pepper and thin snipped chives. Drink plenty of tea for sure with this and relax into your day.
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