I haven’t been showing a lot of my sourdough bread baking lately, but here is a (green!) bread that I made this week: Green Olive and Rosemary Focaccia. I think that Alice (Alice in Wondoughland) was a little tired, because it didn’t rise nearly as much as I had hoped, but it still tasted delicious. I am a huge fan of olives though generally prefer black over green. These were bright and briney and with a little extra olive oil, the bread was great.
Sticking to the “mildly-Irish” Or “Irish-inspired” theme, here are some more hand pies, I do seem to be making a lot of these currently. They freeze really well and so I always have a lunch on hand. Definitely seek out the right kind of bacon, if you can. Avoid using streaky bacon, aka American breakfast bacon as the recipe will be either too greasy or too crunchy. If you can’t find Irish or British-style bacon, I’d go for Canadian bacon (like the kind in eggs benedict.
If you follow this site, you know that I seem to make a variation of Colcannon (Irish mashed potatoes) most St. Patrick’s Day — varying the potatoes (sometimes sweet potatoes) and the greens (cabbage, kale, even spinach), but this year, I stuck with transitional russett potatoes and cabbage, but make “cakes”, sort of like potato pancakes. Fried up, they are a great side dish to Irish-style sausages, or even for breakfast with bacon and eggs. Very filling!
I was a little apprehensive about making these. I love goat cheese and fried cheese in general is a good thing, but somehow I was both intrigued and nervous about these. Turns out, that nervousness was unfounded because OMG are these delicious. They are tart and salty, crunchy and silky and the honey really puts them over the top. Do not skip the freezing step otherwise the goat cheese will be too soft and will melt while you are frying. Also, really only make as many as you think that you will need because they aren’t as good when they cool to room temperature and you definitely don’t want to microwave to reheat, unless you like cleaning goat cheese from the inside of your microwave. Just saying.
These are Maple Bacon Cheddar Biscuits… a little sweet, a little savory, cheesy, bacon-y… which is to say that they are perfect for a breakfast sandwich or as an accompaniment to savory things like soups and chowders too. I like that neither the bacon nor the maple syrup are too overwhelming. The sharp cheddar is just right too.