Bacon sausage bread

If you like a bacon sandwich and/or a sausage sandwich what better idea than combining the two in a bread as Niamh Shields has done in her Bacon: The Cookbook. Stroke of genius!

"Bacon is as intrinsic to Irish food culture as potatoes, black pudding and Irish stew" writes Niamh, who blogs as Eat Like a Girl. "Traditionally, an Irish family would have a pig that they would raise for the year. That pig would then provide meat for the following year. In Ireland, a whole pig could be and was cured as bacon so that it could be preserved for longer. This is less typical now, but joints of bacon for boiling and roasting, bacon chops and bacon ribs are still common and Bacon and Cabbage is a core national dish that everyone loves. Bacon is so much more than a rasher, or streaky bacon. Although we love those too.

"This is one of my favourite recipes in the book and you absolutely need to make it. A soft bread dough, butter or lard and egg enriched with a little milk, so like a porky brioche but not as sweet and rich. You can use butter or lard, and if you have some bacon fat to hand, absolutely mix that in.

The bread is made in a more or less typical way, and proved twice. The second time you prove it is after you shape it as a sausage-and-bacon braid. Brushed with egg wash before baking, it gets a lovely bronze sheen.

For special occasions, double up the amounts and shape it into a circle. During the festive season you can fashion a bow of crisp-fried sage leaves and redcurrant berries and you have a Bacon Sausage Bread Wreath.

Bacon Sausage Bread

Makes: 8 slices

For the bread dough:

330g (11½ oz) bread flour

5g salt

100g (3½ oz) room temperature butter or lard

7g (¼ oz) fast-action yeast

3 large eggs

50ml (2fl oz) milk

For the bacon and sausage filling:

15g (½ oz)/1 tbsp butter

1 red onion, finely chopped

400g (14 oz) sausage meat (or the equivalent in sausages with the meat removed from the skins)

1 tbsp fresh sage, finely chopped

6 slices smoked streaky bacon

1 egg for egg wash

sage leaves, to serve (optional – they look great and are very tasty too)

METHOD

1. Start by preparing your bread dough, using either a dough hook or by hand. It is important that your lard or butter is at room temperature, and therefore soft and easy to work with. This makes it much easier to mix.

USING A MIXER WITH A DOUGH HOOK: Put all of the ingredients for the bread dough in your mixing bowl and mix at a low speed until it has formed a dough. If it feels sticky add a little more flour, a tablespoon should do it, but add more if you need to, slowly and mixing well every time. When it is no longer sticky but before it is dry and flaky, it is good. If it feels too dry, add a tablespoon of milk at a time (flours vary so both of these things can happen). Continue to knead with the dough hook for 5–6 minutes until the texture is no longer rough and it has an elastic quality.

BY HAND: the same as above but it takes longer to knead (approximately 10 minutes).

2. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and allow the dough to double in size in the warmest part of your kitchen or in your airing cupboard. This will be faster in the summer and slow in the winter; I usually put it near a radiator in the winter to help push it along. This proving stage usually takes an hour to an hour and a half.

3. Prepare your bacon and sausage filling. Melt the butter in a frying pan over a low heat and gently sauté the finely chopped red onion in it for about 10–15 minutes until soft, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool and combine with the sausage meat and sage and mix well with your hands.

4. When the dough has doubled in size, knock it back by punching the air out of it and allow it to settle for 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl to a floured board and divide into three equal amounts. Roll into sausage shapes roughly twice the length of one of your smoked streaky bacon strips and just as wide. Flatten each log so that the width doubles and lay two strips of bacon on each so that the surface is covered with bacon from top to bottom. Now divide the sausage meat mixture into 3 and place the sausage meat on top of the bacon in a strip. Pull the dough up around the bacon and sausage meat gently and press it closed as best as you can and lay the three strips next to each other. Bread dough can take it, don't worry.

5. Join the three strips of dough together at the top and pinch them together so that they all originate in the same place. Tuck the ends underneath what will become your loaf, and again, press them firmly underneath, without squashing the top, aiming to hide the messy bits and secure the braid. Braid the three strips by pulling the outside strand over the centre one, and repeating with the other side until you have a braid. These look best if done a little tightly. Join the ends as neatly as you can, and tuck underneath, just as you did the start. Place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and allow to sit at room temperature while you preheat the oven.

6. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180° Fan (400°F). Beat the egg and gently brush the surface of the braided bread with it. Bake your bread for approximately 25 minutes until golden brown. Best eaten warm and the leftovers (if any!) make a terrific French toast.

What to drink: Got to be a good strong cup of breakfast tea IMO!

All content copyright Niamh Shields from Bacon the Cookbook

A refreshing punch for a New Year's Day brunch

A fresh, zesty citrus-based punch that’s packed with vitamin C. It obviously tastes best if you squeeze the fruit yourself but bought freshly squeezed juice is fine if you’re short of time.

Serves 4-6

250ml freshly squeezed orange juice (about 4 oranges)
150ml freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice (1-2 grapefruit)
250ml chilled organic lemon drink (like Duchy Original's Lemon Refresher or Luscombe Sicilian lemon drink) or traditional lemonade
Slices of orange and lemon to decorate

Simply pour the orange and lemon juice into a jug, top up with the lemon refresher and stir well. Add a few slices of orange and lemon to the jug and serve.

* If you have some Grand Marnier add a tablespoon - no more! Of course it no longer makes it non-alcoholic but it does make the punch extra-delicious.

Sticky Pork Ribs Marinated in Black Vinegar, Muscovado and Spices

One of the most exciting books to come out last year was Angela Clutton's much awarded The Vinegar Cupboard which not only explains the origin of different vinegars and their culinary uses but contains some excellent recipes.

There's a fascinating section on wine vinegar but I've picked this one based on Chinese black vinegar because it sounds so very delicious.

Angela writes: Ribs marinated in Chinese black vinegar are a far cry from the tough, chewy spare ribs too often found in Chinese restaurants. The vinegar gives intensity to the marinade and the glaze, and it tenderises the meat gorgeously. A feast. And one to be shared with people who you don’t mind having sticky fingers with.

Ask your butcher to prepare the racks by removing the thin film of membrane on one side. Or you can do it yourself by using a knife to lift up one edge and peeling it off. Note that these are racks of spare ribs from the loin of the pig, not from its shoulder.

Sticky Pork Ribs Marinated in Black Vinegar, Muscovado and Spices

serves 4

juice of 1 orange (don’t throw away the fruit’s outer shells)
4 tablespoons Chinese black vinegar
6 tablespoons dark muscovado sugar
1 teaspoon English mustard
1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds
1⁄2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 racks of pork spare ribs, cut in half to create about 5 or 6 ribs per portion
4 bay leaves
4 sprigs of rosemary
5 garlic cloves, unpeeled salt

To create the marinade, combine the orange juice, black vinegar, sugar, mustard, fennel seeds and cloves with a good pinch of salt and mix well.

Sit the rib racks in a roasting tin. You might need to use two, depending on the size of your racks and tins; if you do, just make sure everything is spread evenly across both tins and racks. Rub the marinade all over the racks and sit a bay leaf and a sprig of rosemary under each portion. Cut the reserved orange shells in half and put those into the tin too. Set aside for 5 hours – in the fridge if your kitchen is warm – turning the ribs in the marinade a few times.

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 150°C/130°C Fan/Gas Mark 2. Add the whole, unpeeled garlic cloves to the tin alongside the rib racks, rolling them in the marinade. Cover the tin and bake for 21⁄2 hours, basting twice, until the meat on the racks is nicely tender. Dig out and discard the orange shells, garlic, bay and rosemary. Turn the oven up to 190°C/170°C Fan/ Gas Mark 5.

Using a pastry brush, spread the marinade that is in the base of the tin all over the racks. Return to the oven, uncovered for about 25 minutes so the ribs become sticky, turning the racks twice. When the racks are a glossy, sticky, rich brown colour, take them out and let them cool a bit before serving. You need to be able to hold them in order to rip them apart satisfyingly.

VINEGAR VARIATION

Chinese black vinegar really is best here, but a balsamic or rich sherry vinegar could work too.

What to drink: The vinegar and sugar in this recipe don't make it the easiest dish to match but I reckon I'd go for a ripe, juicy Australian grenache.

Recipe from The Vinegar Cupboard by Angela Clutton (Bloomsbury Absolute, £26) Photography © Polly Webster

Pork rillettes with fennel

Like many of the best recipes this came about by accident. I bought a box of free-range organic pork and didn’t have enough room for it all in the freezer so left out 4 thick slices of pork belly ...

I originally thought of giving them an Asian spin but suddenly hit on the idea of rillettes, spiced not in the classic French way but Italian-style with fennel. A great success and a handy dish to have to dig into mid-week.

Serves 8

2 tsp flaked or coarse sea-salt
1 tsp black peppercorns
2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp dried thyme or herbes de Provence
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
About 700g-750g good quality organic pork belly cut into 4 thick slices
2 tbsp olive oil
2 bayleaves + a couple more for decoration

You will also need a pat dish or earthenware bowl, about 725ml (1 1/4 pints) in capacity)

Put 1 teaspoon of the salt and the peppercorns and fennel seeds into a mortar and bash with a pestle until roughly ground. Add the thyme or herbes de Provence, grind again them add the chopped garlic and pound until you have a wettish paste.

Put the pork belly pieces side by side in a small roasting tin and rub with the oil. Season both sides with the garlic paste rubbing it in well and tuck a piece of bayleaf between each piece. Cover loosely with foil, put in a hot oven (200°C/Gas 6) for 10 minutes then turn the heat right down to 130°C and cook for about 3-4 hours until the meat is practically falling apart. (I cooked mine overnight in the simmering oven of the Aga.) Cool for about half an hour then pour off the fat and pan juices.

Cut away any skin, remove the bones then pull the meat apart with a couple of forks. You can take out a bit of the fat behind if you want to but it’s fat that gives rillettes its flavour and spreadable texture. Sprinkle over the remaining salt, mix together and pack into a lightly greased pat dish or earthenware dish. Skim off the excess fat from the roasting juices and pour it over the surface of the pork.

Decorate the dish/bowl with some bayleaves and a few peppercorns, cover with cling film and leave in the fridge to set for at least 12 hours, preferably overnight. Bring to room temperature for an hour before serving with sourdough toast and cornichons or cippolini (balsamic glazed onions).

What to drink: This needs a fresh-tasting wine with good acidity to cut through the fat. Beaujolais is the classic match for French charcuterie but you could easily accompany it with a young Italian red like a Langhe nebbiolo.