book club bread

This evening (now last night, actually) I had the pleasure of entertaining 5 lovely ladies for the first book-club-without-the-books of the year. An excuse to just eat and drink really, it was good to catch up and drip-feed further stories of my recent travels (of which I am now having withdrawls, obviously). I also heard summer stories and the odd grumble about work, boys, and the weather.

The food is usually a sideline to the wine (or duty free gin) and sometimes it's just crackers, cheese and chippies for dinner. I decided to make bread, since my bare pantry still contained flour, yeast and olive oil. I'd also stocked up on red onions at the market last week, so I caramelised them to create a variation on that bread from Dish magazine a while back. Caramelised onion and blue cheese bread was born, and it was good.

Blue cheese and caramelised onion bread (adapted from Dish magazine #32) 

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp instant yeast 

3/4 cup - 1 cup lukewarm water

2 tblsp oil

Combine flour and salt and yeast in a bowl. Make a well in the centre, and add 3/4 cup water and oil. Mix to form a soft dough, adding more water if required. Place on a floured bench and knead lightly for 2 minutes.

Place in an oiled bowl and leave to (roughly) double in size (up to an hour - ideally while you caramelise the onions). 

For the caramelised onions, see the recipe here. Although this time I substituted balsamic vinegar for white wine vinegar - the only type I had in the cupboard  - and it didn't make a difference.

Knead out the dough for a minute or two. Roll it out into a big square. Spread over the onions, leaving about a 2cm border around the edge. Crumble over about 150g of blue cheese. Fold carefully into three, lightly pressing down the sides. 

Place in an oven tray (preferably with shallow sides) and rub over a little oil, and sprinkle with some rock salt. Bake for 25-30mins at 200*C until hollow. Take out of oven and brush over a little more oil while it's still hot.

Serve warm.   

It was very well received, and alongside a summer salad (courtesy of my friend Anne) of chunks of 2 ripe nectarines, a ripe avocado, some thinly slice red onion, lemon juice and olive oil, it was a flavoursome snacky dinner. We also had a green salad that I whipped up a dressing for, and because one delightful friend announced "amazing - everything else was shit - but the dressing - amazing" I share it for you now. 

Simple salad dressing

About 100mls olive oil

Juice of half a juicy lemon 

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tsp wholegrain mustard

Cracked pepper

Salt

Put it all together in a jug or bowl. Whisk with a fork.

And now, the weekend! My one goal being that it remains kebab-free. Who knows what excitement it will bring? All I know is there will be food. Food, friends and tanqueray.