Red Wine & Coriander: Meat-free Monday

So I came across this thing called "Meat Free Mondays" and apparently it’s BIG in the foodie world. To be honest, I struggle to understand this concept. Cows over populate our beautiful countryside. As Dylan Moran, in a very heavy Irish accent, once said “…cows are big, stupid, lumbering animals and we should eat them all…” But because I am a new blogger and I am afraid of being shunned from the foodie blogger community I will comply.

I give you ……. BREAD!

500g self raising flour

1 packet instant yeast

1.5 tsp salt (I don’t like a lot of salt; it’s bad for your heart anyway)

1 cup of water (maybe a bit more)
1 tbl white sugar

Method

Sieve the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Make a little well in the middle of it to "catch" the water.

Mix the yeast and the sugar in a measuring jug with 250ml of hot water. Heat helps to “activate” the yeast.

Pour the water into the well that you created in the flour. Using a wooden spoon coated with flour, (this will help the dough not to stick to the spoon) mix the water and flour until dough starts to form.

Now comes the fun part. Coat your hands in flour and start kneading the dough until most of the flour is out of the bowl. Throw some flour on a flat surface and put some elbow grease in it.

Kneading the dough really gets the yeast going so don’t rush it. You want to pull the dough apart and then push it all together again, getting a nice soft smooth texture throughout the dough. The dough should be “wet” but not too wet. If it is too wet add little bits of flour at a time while kneading. If the dough is too dry wet your hands and keep kneading until the right consistency is reached.

Alternatively throw everything in a Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook attachment and press the “on” button. Then go and sit in the corner with your finger on your mouth because no one wants to play with you! Better yet, get in your car and go buy a loaf of bread from Yuppie Chef!
(Yes, I'm green with envy).

Now you want to proof the dough. This is the fermentation process caused by the reaction between the yeast, flour, salt, water and sugar. Ideally you would leave the dough in a cool dry place for about 2 hours, flatten the dough and proof for another 2 hours. This will give you wonderful, fluffy bread but it takes too long.

When I start kneading my dough, I switch the oven on to grill. I let the oven heat up for about 3 min an then switch it off. When I have finished kneading the dough I pop it in the oven to proof for about 20 minutes.

Please first check that it is not too hot. If you stick your hand in the oven and it melts the nail polish off your beautifully manicured French tips (see H, I do pay attention) it’s too hot. The oven needs to be a bit warmer than room temperature.

After 20 minutes the dough should have raised a substantial amount. Now … knock it flat! And do it again!

After the second proof you can place the dough in a bread tin, plait it or shape it and bake it at 250 degrees for about 30 min.

I decided to plait my bread and keep it plain, but there are millions of things you can do with fresh bread so don’t be scared to experiment.