Newspaper illustration: “The Girl in the Pie” at the three thousand five hundred dollar dinner in Artist Breese’s New York Studio” (event occurred May 20, 1895)

Gilded Age New York was a veritable playground for men both bachelor and married alike. From the Lobster Palace restaurants to the Bohemian enclaves of Greenwich Village to the theaters dotting Broadway, there were a variety of…

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12.21.2019

One to remember..

Soda Bread for Lughnasadh/Lammas

Happy Lughnasadh everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful day. This was my first year celebrating Lughnasadh as I didn’t have the chance to previously. I wanted to delve into the tradition of baking bread for the first harvest and that’s what I did.

Many of you may not know this but Lughnasadh is actually an Irish word meaning August (spelling can vary slightly) . I was raised in Ireland from childhood and still live here today and part of that means I learned Irish since I was 7 years old. As difficult a language as it may be its really special in many ways and helps to better understand the country’s celtic nature. Many Irish words can be seen on the wheel of the year, not only Lughnasadh but also Samhain (meaning November) and Bealtaine (meaning May).

Due to this I wanted to bake a bread traditional to Ireland, soda bread.

What you will need:

~ 450g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

~ 1 tsp salt

~ 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

~ 320ml buttermilk

- Preheat the oven to 220°C/ 425°F . Slightly grease your baking tray with butter.

- Stir in all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Make a dip in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk. Mix well with hands, the dough should be soft but not wet, if you find that the dough is sticking too much to your fingers add more flour, if you feel the dough is too dry and floury add a little more buttermilk. Adjust the dough accordingly.

-Turn out the dough into a floured surface and kneed into shape approx 20cm/8-inches round.

- Place the bread onto the baking tray and cut a cross into the top of the dough (not too deep) , this does not have to be a cross in my case it was a sun symbol, you may customise as you wish

-Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes

- Finally serve in slices with butter and a sweet or savoury topping

I hope you enjoy the bread if you give it a try let me know and I’d love to hear about any recipes you’ve tried for Lughnasadh so I can give them a go next year!

I wish you all a wonder Lughnasadh and an even better day. Thank you for reading and blessed be!

Homemade ribeye steak dinner. I use the reverse sear method by Alton Brown. That’s one of my homemade sourdough rolls, too.