Stolen Saturday...

Well I didn't get to post my sandwich for this months No Croutons Required yesterday which was the last day for entries.  :-( 
Having made the bread on Friday - a variation on my beer bread with added linseed and black pepper, I had then planned to griddle the halloumi for the filling yesterday morning then submit my post. 
First however the dressing on my leg was due for a change.
I'd noticed a little redness on my skin showing out from under the edge of the tape on the friday evening so I was extra cautious peeling the tape off.  Hmmm - not looking too good.  The area of redness had grown to a couple of inches in diameter overnight, it had been oozing a little and worst of all, a small amount of the top edge of the wound where my leg is still knitting together (4 weeks after the inital trauma) looked like it was breaking down again.  Eeeek!!!!  Having been through this before I shouted the Chap out of bed in a panic and we went *straight to the walk in centre.
(*After he had showered and breakfasted and generally faffed about for ages - or that's what it felt like to the slightly panicking me!)

Luckily enough the wonderful Kathleen the tissue viability specialist who had seen me before was in residence and after a surprisingly short wait, compared to the hour and 15 minutes we were quoted, she was ushering me into her room. After an inspection of the wound she agreed with my intial assessment that the infection was returning but due to the extensive nature of the problems I'd had with it decided to phone the plastics team at the hospital that had done my operations and consult with them.  They requested that I be sent to see them so we duly drove across town and booked in at the reception.  After an hour there I got taken through to a cubicle and issued with wristbands.  'It doesn't mean you're staying in' they attempted to reassure me as they fitted them.  They like to get them on me as I am allergic to a certain drug so the red band warns everyone to ask what it is that I can't be given. 

Another 30 minutes ticked by then a specialist appeared and explained they would do blood tests on me to see if my white cell count was up, which it should be if it was fighting infection, and if some other marker was also affected - I forget what it was called now.  He took the blood, uncharacteristically* gave me an idea of what was happening next by telling me it takes about 45 minutes for the results and vanished off again.  (*I am in no way belittling our wonderful hard working health professionals at all but what I found far and away the most frustrating thing during my recent stay in hospital was the lack of information when you were waiting for things, especially when I was getting admitted.  If you have some sort of end time / goal in sight it makes sitting there doing nowt for 2 hours rather more bearable.)

After nearly an hour I enquired gently as to my results and the lovely staff said they'd chase them for me.  Duly the same guy reappeared and told me that according to their blood test my leg isn't infected and he thinks the redness and accompanying 'icky' bits were just due to general healing processes and I was free to leave.  Which should have reassured me but I'm afraid to say, it hasn't.

I'm one of those people that as a general rule has the utmost faith in our health professionals and what they tell me.  Only this time...I think they're wrong.  Now I have no idea how long it takes your white blood cell count to go up in case of infection but as this only started coming on the previous evening I'm wondering if it would show up on a blood test the very next day.  Both Kathleen and the triage nurse who admitted me had taken one look and been convinced it was infected and after I got home from the hospital there was a definite few degrees temperature difference to that area of my leg compared to the rest of it.  Which is still the case today.  Anyway, I shall keep a very close eye on it today.  I am also taking the antibiotics I had left from the first time I

went into the hospital and they put me on IV ones instead.  It can't do me any harm and perhaps will keep this at bay until I can tell whether I need to go and see anyone further about it, or if it really is just the healing process.  Fingers crossed!

All this kerfuffle meant that I didn't get to make my proposed 'Griddled Halloumi on Black Pepper Seeded Bread – with lime and fresh coriander leaves' sandwich for the aforementioned NCR comp.  Tsk!  I did get the bread made though and used my dinky little mini loaf tins for the first time - aren't they great?!  I'm a sucker for miniaturised versions of stuff for some reason and purchased these in TKMax some time ago so was glad to have finally justified them.  So we had bread but not the final sandwich; and I had a Saturday but not the one planned.  Unfinished weekend - oh were did you go?

Beer Bread #3 - the remake

To conclude my comparison of the SR Flour v' Plain Flour beer bread debate this is the plain with Baking Powder version.

Beer Bread #3

3 cups plain flour

1tbsp Baking Powder (+ 1tsp)

1tbsp golden sugar

1tsp salt

300ml lager

5 heaped tbsps seeds (pine nuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds)

Little melted butter for greasing

Make same as last time - preheat oven to Gas 5.

Sift flour and BP into bowl. Realise BP went out of date in Nov '09 hence adding the extra tsp. [I know Bicarb of Soda is unforgiving when out of date, and indeed if not fresh, but wasn't sure about BP as some of it's constituents are the same.]

Add sugar, salt and seeds. Mix in.

Add lager and mis well, trying to ensure seeds spread fairly equally throughout mix.

Grease foils / muffin tray etc and dollop mix in.

Bake 55 mins or until skewer comes out clean.

Let cool few mins in tins then turn out onto cooling rack.

The verdict - even at the mixing stage the mix seemed 'bigger'. The resultant rolls seemed a little lighter once cooked. It's not a big difference though so I'd just use whatever flour you have in the cupboard.

On a personal level I loved it with the seeds in; especially the pumpkin seeds, so I get the feeling this is going to be my default recipe from now on.

Beer Bread #2 - the sequel

Now you may remember that last time I made Beer Bread (also the 1st time ever) I wasn't that impressed with the taste and thought this was down to the beer I'd used. This time then - lager was the way to go. This kinda came about because you know when you sit down and open a can and take one sip then that's enough - rather than wasting the stuff I figured it could become bread. Baking bread and frugality - how's that for the feel-good kudos points? :-D

The other thing I hadn't liked overly much was the stodge factor. Partly this may be down to the flour as I used mostly wholemeal flour but I figured this time I'd try individual 'rolls' instead of one loaf and see if this caused any improvement. I used these little pie foils [reuse by washing and drying gently and reshaping as necessary; another frugal tip there] as the dough is too runny to shape into rolls without support. (You can also use a deep muffin tray says t'internet.)

The other thing I wanted to test out was whether there's any discernible difference or indeed advantage to using self-raising flour versus the use of plain in conjunction with baking powder. These seem to be the 2 major 'camps' in the online recipes I've found. This then is the SR Flour version.

Beer Bread #2

3 cups self-raising flour

1tbsp golden sugar

1tsp salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1tsp dried oregano
300ml lager [Carlsberg]

Little melted butter for greasing & top

Sesame seeds for top

Preheat oven to Gas 5.

Sift flour into bowl. Add sugar, salt, oregano and pepper and mix together well.

Melt little butter in microwave and brush into dishes to grease them well.

Mix lager into flour and dollop into dishes - it makes a very sticky dough.

I had a little excess butter left so brushed this on top and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Place in oven.

Now - online recipes making 6 individual 'rolls' stated anything from 35-45 mins but mine still took the same time as a full loaf at a good 50 mins. Test with a skewer and once it comes out clean and they're a golden brown on top they should be done.

Let them cool in the dishes for a few mins before turning out onto a cooling rack. At this point a tap on the base that gives back a hollow sound will also confirm 'doneness'.

These are good warm with a little butter and cheese. I added the oregano on a whim but not sure it added that much.

The bread was a vast improvement on the last time I tried this, I really think the key is to use a flavourless lager for it. They rolls were well aerated and not stodgy at all so what remains to be seen is the difference between this batch and the plain flour & baking powder combo.

As a cheaty super quick way of making bread though this recipe is really starting to win me over. Next time you're left with some cans of 'cooking lager' after a party that no-one will touch, including the person who brought them, you know what to do! :-)

Beer Bread

Saturday I woke up and with a mournful cry realised the house was bereft of bread for my breakfast egg with soldiers - disaster! Given that the weekend is about the only time I bother with breakfast it's a bit of a 'treat' chillin thing for me so a lack of toasty soldiers deffo put the damper on the whole thing. I decided to whip up this easy bread I've been meaning to try, figuring it could bake whilst I performed my morning ablutions.

Now - Beer Bread seems to be one of those things that one whole nation of people know all about but is unheard of (by me anyway) outside of there. Beer Bread is American. Very. It sounded a fantastic idea - in it's purest form is self-raising flour and beer. That's it. Stir it in and chuck it in the oven, no proving, no kneading - brilliant! Having done a little research I found recipes ranging from the basic 2 ingredients listed above to those with the addition of sugar, salt, melted butter etc etc. I decided to go fairly basic with mine; just adding a little cheese and some seeds.

Beer Bread

2.5 cup s.r.flour
0.5 cup wholemeal flour
12fl oz / 330ml beer - I used a Co-op honey beer
Pinch salt
2-2.5 tsp onion seeds
0.5 cup cheese - Cornish Yarg was my choice
Butter - I guess I used approx 10g

Preheat oven to Gas 5/190 c/375 F. Grease loaf tin very well.
Sift flour into mixing bowl and add beer. Mix together really well. Add 2tsp seeds and stir in. [I would have added other seeds had I had any in the house - chuck in what you like basically.] Grate cheese and mix in well.
Pour mix into tin and sprinkle reserved seeds over top.
Bake 50 mins. Melt butter in microwave and pour over top of loaf. Return to oven for a further 5 mins.

Gave a pleasingly golden looking loaf, although mine could perhaps have done with an ince more cooking time. Being new to bread baking I'm still sussing out my oven's idiosyncracies for this type of cooking.


Now - although the loaf looked good I wasn't vastly over enamoured with the taste. I think that the taste of the beer came through a little too much. Given that this is an American recipe which means beer can mean lager; as well as actual ale, I think that I'll try this with a tasteless lager next time. I know that it doesn't need the yeast in a bottle conditioned ale to work as one of the first recipes I found mentioned they used Budweiser to make it with.



I'll be finishing the rest off with soup so it buries the taste somewhat. ;-)