St Patrick’s Day: 24 hours celebrating Irish the morning after

Oh yesterday was a great St Patrick's Day, wasn't it? Sorry...   I'll whisper.

So, after all the celebrations, imbibitions and mastications of the past 24 hours, reality strikes hard. The bread bin is empty, your head hurts (who suggested the whiskey? oh… was me) and the thought of a trip to the local shop makes you feel wobbly-weak. We've all been there sometime or other. But, hey…

"Don't worry, got it covered…"

You've got plain flour, right? You've got bicarbonate of soda. You do, listen, remember… you made the Traditional Brown Soda Bread yesterday? Yes. You've got salt (we've all got salt), water and time. Then you can rustle up these soda farls with no effort at all and while they're cooking you shower (very quickly, mind) and plan what to put on them.

Me, I'm partial to a crispy-edged-but-runny-yolk fried egg or some black pudding or just warm, split, buttered and drizzled with honey (or indeed, with some of the Connemara whiskey sauce from last night's dinner!). And tea. You'll need copious amounts of tea (Barry's Gold Blend - loose leaf only - is my favourite Irish tea if you're interested) and maybe, just maybe you'll be right by lunchtime.

Well, that's all the St Patrick's Day action for 2012, you can put away the greenery but keep the recipes I've posted. I think you'll find they're good enough to add to your general recipe repertoire.

The countdown to St Patrick's Day 2013 begins.

St Patrick's Day Celebrations. The Morning After

Traditional Irish Soda Farls

Serves 2

Ingredients
200 grams plain flour, (I have used both standard and bread flour at different times and both work)
170 mls buttermilk
(if no buttermilk available use sour full fat milk or a mix of yoghurt and milk or squeeze some lemon in fresh milk)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
(tip: mix salt with liquid to dissolve if your salt is very coarse.

Method

Sieve flour, salt and bicarb soda.

Add the buttermilk and mix till all combined.

Dust the work surface and briefly knead the dough to bring it together. It will be still a bit ‘lumpy’. You're not looking for the 'elastic' smooth dough of standard bread making.
Shape and flatten into a circle around 8 mms thick. Cut into 6 wedges.

Dust a heavy frying pan with some flour and cook the wedges over a low heat for around 15 mins each side. Note: no added butter or oil.

Serve warm. Split and spread with good butter and a topping of your choice.

Tip

I gave this recipe some time ago to twitter friend Lynne and she gave me the tip to cover the soda farls with a lid while cooking saying they would be fluffier.
I did and they were. Thanks Lynne.

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Click here to download your illustrated recipe guide of
Traditional Irish Soda Farls