Bread


Spanish Migas are not the same as their Tex-Mex cousin, popular in Austin and other parts of Central Texas. Not even close actually. I have enjoyed the Tex-Mex kind heartily, from Trudy’s and other Austin favourites. I’ll have to make some of those soon, now that I think about it…


Spanish Migas are another beast. Variations can be found across different regions of Spain (I’m particularly drawn towards creating the Aragon version which includes chorizo and Jamon serrano and is served with grapes).

However, after reading a Bitten blog post I decided to give into simplicity and combine mushrooms, bread, butter and shallots for this New Twist on Migas.


The reason I call it “beginners” Migas is because of the sheer simplicity and ease that you can throw this together – traditional Migas incorporates a few more ingredients for a more Spanish flavour. I think this is a great way to start, though and from here you can add what you please: peppers, chorizo, eggs, and on and on.


Spanish-Style Migas

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 tbsp butter for cooking
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • salt and pepper
  • crust of one loaf of Pugliese bread (funnily enough, Pugliese is Italian…) or whatever leftover loaf you have on hand
  • 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
Directions:
  1. Heat butter in a pan over medium heat
  2. Cook mushrooms gently, but thoroughly in the butter along with the shallot, salt and pepper.
  3. In the meantime, cut the crust off a loaf of good bread (such as Pugliese), creating 2 generous cups of roughly torn croutons.
  4. Remove the mushrooms from the skillet and add more butter to the pan for the bread.
  5. Fry the bread until a little crisp and a little brown.
  6. Return the mushrooms to the pan, let them heat through and add more salt and pepper, if needed.
  7. Serve immediately, garnished with fresh parsley.


Making these made me crave all variations of migas at once. I’m thinking about making the Spanish Aragon version next time we have chorizo in the house (how delicious with a glass of red wine and a bowl of olives at your side?) and some Tex Mex Migas certainly would not go astray for a weekend breakfast.

What was the last non-American breakfast you had? I’d love to hear some recommendations for delicious international breakfast traditions.

english muffins

February 9, 2010


It was only a matter of time before I had some hours to devote to this project. The only thing about baking bread that is prohibitive is the time it needs. That is also, actually, what I like about it since it means I get to dedicate a weekend afternoon to pottering around my house and catching up on life, reading, drinking tea and occasionally tending to the bread.

You don’t need any fancy equipment to make these english muffins; it’s all done by hand and as per all these d.i.y. posts – there are no weird ingredients and it costs a lot less than buying packaged muffins at the store. hell yeah.

The recipe is from Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads which was given to me as a gift and is awesome.

I am still mastering the art of baking bread – it’s really hard! This recipe said that it yielded two dozen muffins…after all the kneading and rolling in the world, my batch turned out significantly smaller. It didn’t seem to negatively affect the taste which is weird but it definitely means that each of mine are a meal on their own!

These don’t necessarily look exactly as you would expect a store-bough english muffin to, but looks aren’t everything! I had my first one with butter, herbed turkey, cheddar and black pepper. Yum.

You can find plenty of recipes for english muffins online. Would you give these a go? Do you think it’s worth the time?

If you like baking and trying out new things then I think this is wholly worth the time spent since you have a massive batch of cheap-as-chips, healthy lunch and breakfast staples awaiting you and you didn’t spend a mini fortune to get them! So satisfying.

the first loaf

January 23, 2010


Today, I took my first stab at baking bread. I’ve been looking forward to this moment since Christmas when I received Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads as a gift:


I cannot wait to get my bake on. First up, and the obvious choice for a new baker: “The First Loaf“. I was so happy when I saw this beginner’s loaf listed first (in a book of hundreds of recipes). It made me feel completely at ease.

This simple, white loaf was a doddle to make. My favourite thing about this book? Every recipe contains instructions on how to make your bread by hand or machine, depending on what you prefer. Since we don’t own any mixers or fancy equipment, this book is perfect.

For our first loaf (let’s be honest, this was totally not just me. See those man-hands above? Yeah.) this turned out surprisingly well. I think we should have kneaded for a bit longer, since there was a slight doughy taste.


Baking a bit longer might have helped too, especially because I am a big crust fan! So far, I have enjoyed it dipped in soup and toasted up with lashings of butter:

Yes.

Have you ever made your own bread? What are your favourite loaves to make?
I’m super excited to get into a whole wheat loaf and a sourdough.