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Greetings from sunny South Africa!
Hope you are all doing well!
This Newsletter will have a Bread theme. In my
childhood days when we lived out in the sticks, my mom used to 'home
bake'. I can remember that she baked on Fridays, enough to last a week.
Home baked bread used to taste the best when it was still hot out of the
oven. Spread thickly with homemade butter and my favourite jam, it was a
meal fit for a king. Yummy!! These days, where everything is rushed its
far easier to just stop at the corner café on the way home from work and
pick up the daily fresh bakery baked loaf and a pint (litre) of milk.
Sadly the tradition of home baked bread has all but disappeared in the
cities.
However, this is where the man of the house
comes to the rescue. In order to show off his prowess as the main 'outdoor
chef' of the house, the pot bread has now become a fashionable side dish
to the ever popular barbeque! Not only can the man of the house impress
with his special 'potjie', he can now also brag with his special pot
bread. For those who are wondering, a pot bread is baked over the
coals in a flat bottomed cast iron pot. There is also the ash bread, with
the bread simply placed in the cooling coals of the bbq fire and simply
dusted off when done. You can't beat that for genuine 'outdoors' flavour!
Another firm favourite of mine is the 'Mieliebrood'
or Corn Bread, eaten while still hot with butter melting into it! I also
class Vetkoek or deep fried dough as bread, ready to be enjoyed with
basically any filling!
The Northern Hemisphere is now heading into
summer and with summer comes the backyard bbq, Here in the Southern
hemisphere we bbq all year long, no snow shovelling for us over here! Like
the old Chevrolet ad used to go - 'Braaivleis, rugby, sunny skies and
Chevrolet!' So get out your grillers, start bbq'ing and impress your
guests with some homemade bread as a bbq side dish! Scroll down to the
Recipes for some examples.....
The
Elephant Stew recipe is
still receiving regular suggestions. Go take a look and add your wacky
suggestion. Does anyone know how long the longest recipe in the Guinness
Book of Records is?
I have started taking
Panorama photos, go look at
the new section on my site, please be a bit patient as some of the
panoramas are larger than normal pics.
If anyone is interested in Afrikaans, I am
continually adding stuff to the
Afrikaans section of the site.
My site features prominently on a whole
bunch of search engines, local and overseas. If you have something
interesting to advertise, and would like to benefit from my exposure to
search engines, I could design and add add a page onto my site for you for a nominal fee.
I will also feature you in this Newsletter.
Email me, and lets discuss.
And that's it for now, folks!
Hamba kahle
Peter
Please help
me by doing a search on the search engine below, I get 10 cents (US) for
every search done....thanx a lot!
When you have had a look at the recipes
below, click
here to visit the main recipe page on my site. I also have an
Afrikaans section!
Any
comments, positive or otherwise on this Newsletter will be
appreciated!
That's it for now
Keep well
Peter
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Asbrood (Ash Bread)
360 g brown bread flour
120 g white bread flour
10 g instant yeast
2 ml salt
50 ml butter
500 ml buttermilk
Blend the dry ingredients together and using your finger tips, rub in the
butter until well blended. Add the buttermilk and mix well. Place the dough
on a large sheet of aluminium foil. Shape into an oval, about 3 cm thick.
Wrap loosely in the foil and place on moderately hot coals. Cover with more
coals. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the bread is done. Take care not
to burn the bread. Makes one medium loaf.
Banana bread
125 g butter
200 g sugar
2 eggs
2 ml vanilla essence
250 ml mashed bananas
240 g cake flour
2 salt
10 ml baking powder
2 ml bicarbonate of soda
125 ml milk
Preheat oven to 180 ºC. Grease a 250 mm loaf tin and line base with
greaseproof paper. 1. Cream butter, then add sugar, beating until pale and
fluffy. 2. Add eggs, beating well after each addition. 3. Stir in vanilla
essence. Mix bananas into creamed mixture. 4. Sift in flour, salt and baking
powder. Blend bicarbonate of soda with a little milk and add. Gradually add
remaining milk and beat well. 5. Pour into tin, and bake for about 1 hour.
Cool in tin for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Makes 1 loaf.
Basic Braai (BBQ) bread
500 g cake flour
5 ml salt
5 ml sugar
10 g instant yeast
25 g margarine
1. Mix together flour, salt and sugar. Add yeast and mix. Rub margarine into
the flour mixture with your fingertips.
2. Add just enough lukewarm water (about 315 ml) to form a soft dough.
3. Knead dough for about five minutes, until smooth and elastic. Choose one
of the variations, using this basic dough.
ROOSTERKOEK WITH FILLING
1. Mix together two chopped onions and 200 g grated cheese.
2. Roll out dough into a rectangle. Sprinkle onion and cheese over half of
the dough.
3. Fold over the other half and cut into 10 x 10 cm squares. Press sides
firmly to seal edges and brush surface with beaten egg.
4. Allow to rise for about 15 minutes, until doubled in size. Place on a
braai grid and braai over medium coals until baked, turning frequently, or
bake at 200 ºC for 15 minutes.
POT BREAD
1. Increase margarine quantity to 30 g and add 10 ml extra lukewarm water.
2. Place dough on a lightly floured surface, cover with greased plastic wrap
and leave to rest for five minutes. Shape into a round bread.
3. Place in greased pot and allow to rise until doubled in size (30 to 45
minutes).
4. Brush with lightly beaten egg and bake at 200 ºC for 40 to 50 minutes.
Biltong pot bread
50 ml melted margarine
500 ml lukewarm water
1 kg cake flour
300 g finely carved beef biltong
10 g instant yeast
10 ml salt
Mix the melted margarine and lukewarm water. Combine all the dry ingredients
and biltong. Add the margarine mixture and knead until the dough is smooth
and elastic. Leave for about 10 minutes. Punch down and place the dough in a
greased, flat-bottomed cast-iron pot. Leave in a warm place to rise until
double in bulk. Place the pot on a grill over medium coals and place a few
coals on top of the lid of the pot. Bake for about 1 hour or until the bread
is done. Serve with the rump steak and konfyt.
Corn bread
250 ml polenta (yellow corn meal)
10 ml baking powder
2 ml salt
410 g cream-style sweetcorn
1 chilli, chopped (optional)
125 ml buttermilk
65 ml oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
250 ml grated mature Cheddar cheese
40 ml sesame seeds
Preheat oven to 180 ºC. Mix together polenta, baking powder and salt in a
mixing bowl. Add sweetcorn, chilli, buttermilk, oil, eggs and half the
cheese. Mix well. Pour into a greased 20 cm square baking tin. Sprinkle with
remaining cheese and sesame seeds. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until
set and golden. (If bread begins to brown too soon, cover with aluminium
foil.) Cut the corn bread into squares and serve warm or at room
temperature. Serves 6.
Flat pot bread
DOUGH
800 ml white bread flour
7 ml instant yeast
2 ml salt
15 ml olive oil
50 ml fresh mixed herbs such as thyme, oreganum, rosemary and parsley
1 small onion, chopped and sautéed in oil until soft (optional)
350 ml lukewarm water
olive oil
15 ml coarse salt
Mix flour, yeast and salt in a mixing bowl. Make a hollow in the middle and
add the olive oil, half the herbs and onion. Mix to form a soft, slightly
sticky dough. Knead for about 10 minutes until dough is smooth and not
sticky. (Small air bubbles will appear on the surface when the dough is
pressed between your hands.) Place dough in a lightly greased mixing bowl,
cover with a cloth or plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place until
double the volume (about 1 hour). Punch down lightly, but don't knead all
the air out. Shape into an oval or ball and leave to rise again for about 7
minutes. Spray a shallow cooking pot with non-stick cooking spray or lightly
grease with butter. Place dough in pot, cover and leave to rise until
doubled in volume. Press remaining herbs onto dough surface, brush with a
little olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt. Preheat oven to 200 ºC, or
bread can be baked over the coals (place the pot over a coal-filled hole in
the sand, and cover the lid with coals). Bake for 25-30 minutes until cooked
through, and bread sounds hollow when tapped. Serve with extra olive oil and
mussel stew, or with braaied meat and roasted vegetables.
Instant vetkoek
3 kg white bread flour
30 ml salt
30 ml instant yeast
2 l lukewarm water (you may need more or less)
30 ml oil
30 ml white grape vinegar
30 ml sugar
oil for deep-frying
Combine the bread flour, salt and instant yeast in a large mixing bowl. Mix
the water, 30 ml oil, vinegar and sugar together and add to the dry
ingredients. Mix and knead well for at least 10 minutes until the dough is
smooth and elastic, but still fairly slack. Remove the required amount of
dough from the bowl and freeze the rest in a container with a tight-fitting
lid. Cover the remaining dough with a sheet of greased plastic and leave in
a warm place to rise until double in bulk. Shape the dough into fairly small
vetkoeke (they increase in size when fried) and fry in deep oil until brown
on the outside and cooked inside. (Ensure that the oil is the right
temperature - if it's too hot the vetkoek will be brown on the outside but
still raw inside.) Serve with a sweet or savoury as a main meal or snack.
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