Irish Soda Bread: Outside of Ireland

 I never liked Irish Soda Bread until I tried Darina Allen's recipe from Forgotten Skills of Cooking and then I made 6 loafs for our going away party.  Now that we are back in Ireland I'm still making it.

  My kitchen scales are in KS (with Darina's very heavy book) so I've changed the recipe to use cups and added oats.  Also for those making soda bread outside of Ireland it is hard to find the right kind of whole wheat flour.  The flour need to be very coarse. Add wheat germ, ground flax and oats to make the whole wheat flour more like the Irish kind.  Also is American baking soda salter than Irish???  Having made this bread in both places I would say yes.  I cut down the salt.

 Irish Soda Bread: Outside of Ireland
 Makes 1 loaf

2 cups whole wheat flour (with extra coarse fiber)
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 tsp salt (add 1/2 tsp more if you like salt)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbs  sunflower oil
1 tsp honey
1 egg
2 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup seeds +1 tbs for the top

Oven on 350f 180c. Mix the dry.  Mix the wet.  Add the wet to dry. Add seeds.  Mix.  Will be a big sticky mess.  Into a greased loaf pan (or pot in my case).  Top with more seeds. Bake for about 50 min.  Do not even think about cutting until cooled!!!!

Enjoy with butter, smoked salmon, Irish stew or with cheese, tomato, avocado and cucumber.

Irish Lamb Meatloaf

What makes this meatloaf Irish? Its not just the lamb, but also the brown bread. Irish brown bread is a course, heavy soda bread. I hate soda bread so I make my brown bread with yeast. But any healthy stale bread would work in this recipe.

Irish Lamb Meatloaf
Serves 4
500 gram (about a pound) of Irish minced lamb (or any lamb/beef or turkey)
2 cups of brown bread
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 handful fresh parsley
1 egg
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp really spicy English mustard
1 tsp cumin
pepper
1 Tbs ketchup
1 tsp hot pepper.

Heat an oven to 180c or 350f.
Put the brown bread, onion, garlic and parsley in the food processor and blend into a crumb. Mix with the mince, egg, soy sauce, mustard, cumin and pepper. Fill a loaf pan with the meatloaf. Mix the ketchup with hot pepper and top the meatloaf with it.
Bake for an hour.

We enjoyed ours with bake sweet potatoes and peas.