Grilled Sourdough Bread With Roasted Blood Oranges, Anchovies And Olives

Blood oranges hit our fruit and veg. shops in Winter here in Australia.  The season is from August to October, so they are ripe and ready at the moment.  Perfect timing for this dish from Charlie Carrington's book The Atlas Cookbook.  (And perfect timing as you could use my overnight garlic bread from my previous post.)  

As my busted-up foot is still on the mend, I asked Mr P. to give me a hand with making this one.  "It won't take long," I said, at which he snorted, smiled and said, "Yeah, sure!"  He knows me well.  I tend to be the tortoise rather than the hare, with these things.  But he happily gave me his hand, and his grilling skills.

yep, go ahead and stack your toast

Reminds me of the time my Melbourne friend flew up here, and we trotted over the border to attend a cooking class in the hinterland of the Northern Rivers region.  We worked in pairs, and somehow my friend (who is a trained chef), managed to do about three quarters of the cooking!  And then she sliced up my hand, accidentally of course.  I was waving my hand around, while she was lifting her knife to add ingredients to a bowl.  Eek!  The knife and the hand met mid-air, leading to lots of blood and me having to lie down, like a swooning lady in a Regency novel :-)  'Oh Mr. Darcy, where are you?'

quirky and tangy and delicious 

Serves 2-4 (depending on your greed, as Nigella L. says):

ingredients:

4 blood oranges (or normal oranges at a pinch)

90 mL/3 oz EV olive oil

20 mL/¾ oz red-wine vinegar

4 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

4 slices sourdough bread (or use my overnight garlic bread)

12 fabulously brilliant best quality (marinated) anchovies

100g./3.5 oz olives, halved or quartered - see notes below

A sprinkle of sea salt flakes, and a big dash of ground black pepper

Method:

On goes your oven at 125C/255F

Peel your oranges, and cut them in half - see Notes below

Pour the oil and vinegar into a roasting/baking tray/dish; place the oranges cut side down into the tray, and throw the garlic slices over the oranges

Roast for an hour, or until the oranges have collapsed (mine took an hour and a half, but you know the story - doddery oven and weak gas supply)

Let them cool off, while you grill or toast the bread 

So take the oranges out of the roasting tray, swish the bread slices around in the oil and vinegar, then grill them on both sides till nicely charred

Hand out a slice or two to your diners (just me and Mr P.!)

Place the oranges, anchovies and olives on a platter, and everyone goes for it!  Add the salt and pepper if using, and stack your toast as you please!   No little fishies for Mr P. though :-)

Notes:

I used sherry vinegar as I had no red wine vinegar, but use whatever you fancy; (maybe not balsamic :-) )

I used marinated white anchovies; you don't want those hairy, horrible beasties they sling on pizza

Charlie says to use pitted black olives; I think green olives go well here so I used green olives stuffed with Danish fetta.  And why not? :=)  So use your fave kind; feel free to halve or quarter them

I experimented by leaving one orange with the skin on, to see if it's easier/tastier/better than peeling them first.  Peeling the oranges was a right pain, as the skin was too thin to use a peeler or your fingers.  Mr P. says 'take the skin off!'  I suggest cutting them into thick slices (maybe 1-2 cm or 1/2 inch), and roasting for 30-40 minutes.  I did find halving them, then taking the peel off with a knife worked very well (before baking)

Charlie makes no suggestions about using the oil mixture to grill the bread, and in fact did not mention what to do with it at all!  Mr P. (griller extraordinaire) used it all up for the grilling.  He suggests dipping the bread on both sides, then grill away till charred and golden - well, kinda black really :)

Charlie did not mention seasoning either, but I felt a bit of salt and pepper added to the flavour; surprisingly the marinated white anchovies were not as salty as I expected

ingredients gathered

halve your oranges

measuring out the EV olive oil

blood oranges and garlic ready for roasting at 125C/255F

green olives stuffed with Danish fetta

slice up the sourdough

Mr P. grills his bread

after an hour and a half in the oven

crunchy toast (not burnt, honest)

ready for stacking

and ready for eating - so delish!

© Sherry M.

(Linking up with Marg from The Intrepid Reader for Weekend Cooking.)

Overnight Bread Made With 33 Cloves of Garlic!

Yep, you read that right, my friends.  But the garlic is roasted so it goes all squishy and caramelised, tender and tasty.  I always have a huge stockpile of garlic cloves in my freezer, so I was ready to make this aromatic bread.  

I've made a sort of hybrid of Matt Preston's No-Knead Bread recipe, and Molly Yeh's No-Knead Garlic Bread.  There are lots of great recipes in her book Molly on the Range, and Matt's book simply called Matt Preston Cookbook.  He's a food critic and former judge on our Aussie MasterChef tv series.  And she is a food blogger turned writer and tv host, who created the blog my name is yeh.

crusty, golden and garlicky

I'm not much of a bread baker, so this overnight, chuck the dough in the fridge-type-bread is just perfect for me.  This dough makes two loaves, so I gave one to friends who live nearby.  They've been having a rough trot of it lately with their health, so cheering up was in order.  Speaking of which, what is going on with the planets lately? :-)  So many people have had bad falls (like me), and accidents and Covid and the flu (even Mr P., and he never gets sick) and and ...  

Something is awry up there!  The Gods (or Aliens) must be having a right old chuckle at the chaos they're causing down here.  Currently, I have a wheelie walker and crutches and a walking stick in the house!!  My foot is only partly black now.  And I do mean black.  Black as the Ace of Spades as the saying goes.  Oh, and yellow and swollen like an elephant.  Enough said!  You get the picture.  Or if not, check down below.

ingredients:

3 heads of garlic, broken up into cloves (don't bother to peel 'em)

1 Tbs olive oil

1 kg./2.2 lb bread flour 

1 (Aussie) Tbs sea salt flakes (about 15g./a big 1/2 oz)

2 x 7g. packets of dried yeast = 14g. or 1/2 oz

30g./a big ounce semi-dried tomato strips

950 mL/32 oz lukewarm water (boiled and left to cool for 45 mins. to 1 hour)

Method:

First roast your garlic cloves - anointed with olive oil, wrapped in tinfoil/alfoil, and baked at 205C/400F for about 45 minutes till very tender and golden

Let them cool, then squeeeeze out the lovely garlic mash - you could do this step on the day you make the bread, but I suggest doing it the day before - put in the fridge overnight if so

Place the flour, the salt, and the yeast into a large mixing bowl, and give it a big stir with a dough whisk or a regular whisk, then add the tomato strips and stir them in well

Now add your lukewarm water to the dry ingredients, and stir/whisk/mix by hand till you have a well-combined dough

Swaddle it like a baby in lots of clingfilm and whack the bowl into the fridge overnight

Next day, take the dough and garlic out of the fridge for an hour or so to warm up before baking

You then put dabs of the garlic mash all over the dough, and stir it in with a palette knife/spatula, or however takes your fancy 

Now cover the bowl with a tea towel, and leave it for another hour to meld and marry the flavours

Grab two loaf tins, line them with baking paper, and toss a bit of flour around the tins

Give the dough a final stir, throw half into each loaf tin, and bake at 220C/428F for 30 minutes - make sure you place a bowl of water on the bottom shelf while it bakes

Splash a few drops of regular tap water over the tops of the loaves, and bake for another 20-30 minutes till golden - it should sound hollow when you tap it on the bottom (obvs. when you take it out of the tin!)

Let it cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slice up and slather with butter, or wrap them in a tea towel till you decide whether to eat the lot, or put away safely and well-wrapped till another time

Notes:

Apparently the average bulb of garlic has 9 or 10 cloves; I ended up with 33, that kinda morphed into 34 as I had some twins

Just FYI, I ended up with about 83g./3 oz of mashed garlic

Pssst - Matt says you can use normal plain baking flour in a pinch

I left my boiling water to cool for nearly an hour.  I read various articles, and it seems to come down to around 60 minutes, but stick your finger in it, and if it feels tepid/warm but not hot, go for it!  Or mix 1 part regular tap water with 2 parts boiling water and check it

Matt says this makes a wet dough, but mine was rather dry!

time to roast these garlicky little babies!

ready for roasting

after 45 mins. at 205C/400F

all squished out 

dry ingredients

all stirred in

after overnight proving in the fridge

dabbing on the squishy garlic

ready for the oven

after 30 mins.

golden and crunchy after 60 mins.

Mr P. slathering on the butter

yep and more butter from me :-)

We don't usually eat any butter, so this was a special treat.  The last tub sat in our fridge for about nine months!

© Sherry M.

Look away now if you are squeamish!  Here she is, my yucky foot.

so black and yellow and awful!

This photo doesn't really do the foot justice, as it was black and yellow all over and even underneath my foot.  Getting better slowly!  Thank heavens for time and physios.

Aunty Kath's Savoury Scones - International Scone Week 2022 (#ISW2022)

I love lighthouses!  There, I've said it.  I don't know why, but they really speak to me.  We've holidayed in the lighthouse keepers' cottages at Byron Bay a few times, and visited many more.  It's wonderful when the sun goes down, the gate is locked, and you have the whole ocean to yourselves.  There used to be goats on the cliffs, but they got rid of them due to soil erosion, and damage to the native plants.  But I liked them!  So nimble, so clever, so smelly.

Lighthouses?  But this is about scones, is't it?  Yes - yes, it is.  This recipe is from The Lighthouse Cookbook, and the recipe is by Jan Rhodes.  Profits from this book went to restoration work on Deal and Tasman Islands in Tasmania.  The compiler Shirley Baker and her husband Dallas settle(d) on Deal Island for three months every year to caretake voluntarily.  Such a wonderful project!

even Sully and Mikey want some of these!

A big thanks to Tandy from Lavender and Lime blog, for her annual hosting of #InternationalSconeWeek2022, first started by Celia from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.  Every year it has been a fun search to find an interesting scone recipe.  I think my fave was the one where you actually beat the bejabbers out of the dough with a rolling pin!

Makes about 17:

ingredients:

3 cups (465g./16.4 oz) self-raising flour

1/2 tsp sea salt flakes

1 Tbs (20g./0.7 oz) butter

1 large brown onion, finely chopped - (my onion was about 185g./6.5 oz)

2 rashers bacon (around 50g./1.8 oz), finely chopped

3 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped

2 cups (250g./8.8 oz) cheese, grated

1/2-1 tsp cracked black pepper

around 250 mL/8 oz 'ish milk

Method:

Whack your oven on to 220C/430F to heat

Grab a large mixing bowl, tip in the flour and salt, and give it a stir

Rub the butter into the flour between your fingertips (or cut it in with a knife) so it ends up looking like breadcrumbs

Now stir in the onion, bacon, parsley, cheese and black pepper

Add the milk bit by bit, till you form a soft dough - you may need a bit more, or a bit less depending on your flour

Tip the dough out onto a floured surface, knead gently, then pat into a 2.5cm./1 inch round or rectangle

Use a flour-coated scone cutter or rim of a glass tumbler to cut into rounds; keep going till you run out of dough :-)

Place on a lined baking tray, and bake on a high shelf for about 12 minutes or till golden on top (mine took longer as our gas oven is sooooo moody)

Let cool on the trays for a few minutes, then put onto wire racks to cool - or eat 'em warm, as they're delish with melting butter

Notes:

I blitzed the onion in my wee food processor, which of course breaks down the water cells, so I then sat the onion in a sieve for a bit and pushed out the excess liquid with a spoon

Use other herbs (rosemary/thyme?) if you fancy - I added chives too

I used one cup of Parmesan, and one of Vintage Tasty cheese; my notes say I used only 180 grams of cheese (??) but more cheese can only be a good thing :-)

I chopped the bacon, and blitzed the herbs and onion the day before making the scones

ingredients into the bowl the next day

mixing up the dough

ready for the oven at 220C for c. 12 mins.

and out of the oven after 20 mins. (my oven is slooooow)

ready to eat

'gimme, gimme, gimme' ... 'a scone after midnight' (thanks Abba)

Deal Island Lighthouse (Wikimedia Public Domain)

Byron Bay Lighthouse (Wikimedia Commons)

                                              (Author Alistair Cunningham)

I do have photos of us at Byron Bay, but goodness knows where they are!  Thank heavens for Wikimedia Commons.

© Sherry M.

In My Kitchen - August 2022

August already?  Let's not even go there!  July has been cold and wet here in not so sunny Brisbane.  You may say: 'So what?  It's winter isn't it?'  Sure, but our winters are normally all blue sky and sunshine, and no rain.  Our backyards end up looking like a hay field - dry and brown.  So this weather is most odd! 

I'm just making a big pot of vegetable soup, with some poached chicken, and chickpeas thrown in at the end.  It's such a lovely feeling to have soup on the stovetop on a cool day.  Mr P. and I will soon rug up and head out for a brisk walk in the cooling afternoon air.  I do enjoy wrapping up in a couple of scarves and a coat; so unusual for us normally.  

And that brings up memories of freezing our buns off in wintry Philadelphia one Christmas, staying with our Quaker friend; Mr P. doing the Hogmanay thing of 'first-footing', where a dark-haired male should be the first one over your threshold for the New Year, carrying whisky, salt and coal.  But no, he didn't have any of those things to hand.  Just the dark hair and being male thing going on ...

moi freezing every bit of me in minus -10C windchill factor!

An oldie but a goodie!  I know I've put this one up before, but it's so funny with that red nose.  I was sooooo cold I cried.  This was taken at a Christmas pageant (little girls in tiny tutus!!) in sunny (hahaha!) Lansdale PA.

In My Kitchen:

there was delicious chocolate! I love their Marzipan

and yep, another cookbook!

a hot chocolate hamper for Mr P.

a few goodies from The Greek Providore

birthday gin from The Cuz!

birthday vintage honeypot from The Oldest Friend's Mum!

vintage milk jug also from The Cuz!

5 cute little salts and a black pepper jar

new painting on the bottom by Lizzy Newcombe

The curveball!  I bought this on our weekend away in Toowoomba recently.  I love naïve/folk art, and this reminds me of the Canadian artist Maud Lewis.  The top one is by Vanessa Perske, another Queensland artist.  I've always wanted one of hers, completely forgetting that I already have this one.  She is well-known for her emu portraits :-) 

I'd love to see you all here my global, virtual friends.  Here's how to join in:

IMK posts are about your kitchen (and kitchen garden) happenings over the past month.  Dishes you've cooked, preserves you've made, herbs and veg in your garden, kitchen gadgets, and goings-on.  And a curveball is welcome - whatever you fancy; no need to be kitchen-related.  

The link is open from the first of the month to midnight on the thirteenth of the month, every month.

Options for adding your post to IMK:

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In My Kitchen:

A2K - Shaheen

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