Fiction, Food, Faith and everything in-between

According to https://www.cuisinefiend.com/643/kubaneh 'Kubaneh is Yemeni Jewish bread which tastes almost like croissants.......Jewish breads are usually excellent but kubaneh, traditionally baked slowly overnight by Yemenite Jews, is outstanding. And the article is right! This is such a beautiful bread. It simply melts on the tongue. The Nigella seeds give the bread a savory flavour but the best part is that this bread is just so deliciously buttery.  This bread is traditionally baked overnight and eaten on the Sabbath. I can see why. It is simply a bread from heaven for sharing with others.

There is something so comforting about teacakes. I like eating them for breakfast but they are really great at anytime. Today I decided to tackle the teacake recipe in my Paul Hollywood How to Bake book.  I think this recipe is very timely. Today is rainy, damp and a bit chilly. The sun was here quite briefly today but the sky has been overcast and dull all day. The heavens opened just as my teacakes finished baking. Very timely for a nice cup of tea.  It is also cozy and comforting because my home smells of baking, of cinnamon and warmth. I now know what to do on rainy days. Bake teacakes!

This was great fun to make. The Brioche tastes lovely and buttery although it has a slight crust.  I wanted it to be soft and bouncy on the outside instead of crusty but this hasn't affected the tasts. It tastes wonderful. I gave my son a little to taste and a few minutes later he put the kettle on because it is the kind of bread that needs a nice cup of tea. I am going to try and make Brioche with different flavours. Paul Hollywood (the baking maestro has a recipie for Brioche with Brie and Brie is my favourite cheese so this is a match made in heave for me. It is such good fun to try out different recipes. Last week I made a Honey and Saffron loaf. Apparently Saffron is more expensive than gold. I have used Saffron in tagines, stews, fish and Moroccan cookery and now also in bread. It certainly gave the bread an amazing flavour. Honey and Saffron Loaf Paul Hollywood's book - How to Bake. It has been an excellent investmen for me. This is the picture sh...

I made Jamie Oliver's Barbecue Beer Butt Chicken. There are so many versions of this recipe all over the Internet. Most are actually called Beer Can chicken.  I also saw John Torode (chef) cook his on a barbecue on TV.  The chicken is propped up on a partially filled can of beer. The beer is supposed to add flavour to the chicken but one chef has gone to the trouble of analysing the popularity of this recipe and he concludes that the beer makes no difference to the taste. (party pooper). I made mine in the oven. I had to remove all the oven shelves to fit it upright. At one stage it tipped over in the oven but I rescued it. The chicken must have been drunk on the beer. 😅 I also made a broccoli salad but it doesn't sound as much fun as Beer Butt Chicken. 😋 The chicken was eventually placed in a more dignified position, otherwise I would not have been able to fit it in the fridge.  Links to Jamie's...

I wasn't sure about this Pecan loaf.  This is supposed to go with cheese. It isn't a sweet loaf and I do like sweet things. It felt fiddly when I started mixing. It uses 3 types of flour - strong white, rye and wholemeal. And it also uses treacle which glooped all over the place. I have never cooked with treacle before. Golden Syrup - yes. Black treacle - no.  The dough didn't rise much and I left it in the oven for too long. But it tastes amazing! Especially with Brie. I was so surprised. I had it for supper and thoroughly enjoyed it. I bake most of my own bread now and buy very little from the supermarket. I amnjust enjoying my own bread. I enjoy making it and eating it. There is something so satisfying about making something that tastes so good.  I will definitely make this one again and I won't leave it in the oven for so long.

  Finding My Voice by Nadiya Hussain 'When I cook, it feels like I am performing the most effortless dance' I really loved this book. I don't generally read memoirs but I decided to read this one because I am doing Book Riot's 2021 read harder challenge  https://bookriot.com/read-harder-2021/   I needed to read a food memoir by an author of colour and this fit the bill perfectly. I had heard about Nadiya and how she won The Great British Bake Off in 2015 but I didn't know much else.  I am not a great watcher of TV and I live in my own world of work and reading as much fiction as I can, but I love cooking. When the pandemic hit I started to use the Food Network Channel as background noise when working from home. As the months passed, a couple of programmes and recipes caught my eye. One of these programmes was the Great British Bake Off which I found very intriguing.  I watched a few old episodes from 2015 and I was hooked.   Nadiya has a very ordinary yet c...

I made Pain au Chocolat from one of my Paul Hollywood books. It was certainly a pain to make the pastry. I had to keep it in the fridge, and roll and fold it once every hour for four hours yesterday. Then the pastry had to rest in the fridge overnight, before more rolling and baking today. The recipe says you should use two pieces of chocolate per roll but I used 3! Why skimp on chocolate?  There are quite a few of them so I told my son I would give a few to a clergy colleague. My son suggested that we stash them in the freezer instead. 🤣