…from a café sign
Didn’t have to look far because my current obsession made me reach out for Ottolenghi… a book that is possibly the best & most used one that I own. The fact that Jamie also has the same book, adds to the connect. {Add Hilda & Meeta to this explosive package, & you have the Ottelenghi sistah’s!! YAY}.
Dried Cranberry & Walnut Stick
adapted from Sour Cherry & Walnut Stick, Ottolenghi – The Cookbook
160ml lukewarm water (not more than 30C; I used a little extra)
2 1/4 tsp tightly packed fresh yeast (or 1 1/2 tsp active dried)
1 tbsp olive oil
40ml orange juice (from about 1 large orange)
200gm plain flour
50gm whole wheat flour
65g buckwheat flour
1 tsp salt
50g dried cranberries (or sour cherries)
50 gms walnuts, roughly broken up into pieces
Oil to oil bowl
Method:
Mix the flours together in a big bowl, and knead with yeast mixture for 8-10 minutes into a smooth and silky dough, adding a little more water if required. Knead in the cranberries & walnuts. Put into an oiled bowl, cover with cling wrap & leave in a warm place to double.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Trying not to beat too much risen air out, pull the edges so that they all met in the centre to form a puffed round cushion shape.Using a long object, divide the dough into 2 equal spheres.Press down a little & fold one half over he other. Crimp the edges with your fingers like you were making Cornish pastry. Now roll this on th floured surface to create a torpedo like baguette shape. Lay it gently on a floured tea towel, cover loosely with cling film, and leave to rise in a warm place for another 45 minutes.
Heat the oven to 220C, place a bowl of hot water on the base. Roll the bread off the tea towl onto the baking sheet gently so as not to lose air. Use a sharp serated knife to give it 3 diagonal slashes, 1cm deep.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, till the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. (I baked for about 30-35 minutes). Leave to cool on a wire rack.
The Ottolenghi cookbook is a celebration of tastes, texture, flavours, complexity, simplicity… so much. The glossy colourful pictures have the food leaping out of the pages, the presentation droolworthy. It is comforting, rustic and tantalizing! A book I have an instant connect with. Just my kind of book. Never have I baked/cooked so much out of a single book! Thank you Hilda.
The kids loved the pasta to bits, nuts and all. The flavours really come out deep and strong thanks to the roasted bell peppers. The sauce would have been redder, but I had 2 red & 1 yellow bell pepper, which explains the orangish hue! The recipe is adapted from The Pioneer Woman’s recipe here. In Muneeba’s words, ” The Pioneer Woman, Ree, being a cowgirl who is also usually short on time and needs to take a break from her typical man-pleasing food, had the perfect recipe for me. A pasta dish that came together in almost no time flat.”
Pasta With Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
adapted from An Edible Symphony
based on Ree’s original recipe
Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
3 roasted bell peppers(charred on the stove, skins removed, then deseeded)
3 tbsp walnuts
2 tbsp olive oil
4-5 garlic greens with stems, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup cream
fresh Parmesan, shaved or grated
fresh parsley OR cilantro OR basil
1/2 lb penne pasta
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Lightly toast walnuts in a skillet and set aside.
Puree peppers with walnuts with a stick blender and set aside.
Cook pasta according to package instructions.
In a pot over medium heat, drizzle in the olive oil, and saute the garlic and garlic greens till soft. Pour in pepper puree and stir together. Add plenty of salt and pepper – for some reason this sauce needs it.
Pour in cream and stir over low heat to combine. Add the cooked pasta and stir again. Taste for additional seasoning if needed. Place pasta in a comfortingly large bowl and sprinkle your fresh herb of choice over the top, as well as lots of shaved Parmesan.
…Then smile as you dig in to this bright, cheerful and super-quick pasta… in true ‘edible symphony’ style!!
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This looks amazing, Deeba. I love rustic breads, and you made it better by adding in the cranberries and walnuts. And I agree that bread always tastes that much better which a bit of wholewheatfour in it, for some strange reason.
I really should get the Ottolenghi cookbook – I hear the foccacia recipe is to die for as well! Will have to get it after I'm done cooking myself silly from the Bill Granger cookbook I got a few weeks ago (and am in love with), hehe.
Oh Sistah, this fantastic bread is doubly fabulous: Handmade by you, my sistah, for my BBD Birthday Party and flavors that I absolutely love! Add to that Ottolenghi and I'm dancing! Thanks thanks thanks for baking this fantastic bread for me!
Hug!!!
I love rustic breads. I love the addition of other ingredients and they are really fun to eat. The pasta looks amazing.
Love your pics, your bread and your pasta! They look fabulous! Now if only I can take a bite off my screen. 🙁 Do u think they will come up with a virtual bite any time soon?
That is a gorgeous bread! Nice combination and lovely shots!
Cheers,
Rosa
Cranberries and Walnuts – my husband will love this bread. I need to find time for bread making. I love home made bread.
That is a very nice loaf, the power outages not so much! Beautiful work.
Oh! Your pasta looks delicious and Good tip about getting the right pasta.
Yum! Everything looks so very delicious Deeba!
The bread, the pasta…where do I begin?
Hello Deeba, I would be going crazy with those powercuts so well done getting all this blogging done with all those outages, it must have been very frustrating lately.
This is beautiful bread, I bet it is lovely with soup. I managed to have a proper look at the Ottolenghi book in Waterstones yesterday and it looks wonderful, I will be ordering it from Amazon very soon I think.
This would be dangerous for me to make. I would eat the whole loaf by myself. Great pictures. The bread looks delicious!
I am always amazed by your clear pictures.
Bread looks so so yumm. I canimaging making this and serving up when there is a cheese evening, i am sur emy guests will go wow if i make this bread. Delicious.
6 hours powercut, i can imagine the beker in you going crazy.
In jully/August when we are in kerala there was always half hr power cut in the evening ( ofcourse during day too they had) and we had always our dinner during the power cut saying it is candle light dinner 🙂
Oh Deeba, this Bread makes my heart sing! I too love the buckwheat in this. That broccoli sounds perfectly killer GOOD.
wow you bake bread. Nowadays it s surely not an easy task . Looks perfect 🙂
Oh I was hoping the recipe would be here..I found your post from Foodgawker and it looks beautiful..Thank you!
As always, Deeba, your stunning photographs look good enough to eat! I have yeast on my grocery list to try my hand at mini-baguettes, but this bread is very tempting!! I haven't made bread in about 30 years. 😀 We would never know that you are dealing with power outages. Your food always looks scrumptious! *hugs* Dani
What beautiful bread. It is so satisfying to make your own bread. Letting it rest overnight in the refrigerator is such a great way to improve the flavor of yeast breads.
Mimi
Everytime I come to your website, I'm reminded I don't bake enough bread. Think I'm going to have to dedicate a month to it soon. This looks so tempting!
yum and yum – that bread looks delicious and the pasta too – love walnuts and will bookmark these recipes to try
Wow Can't get enough of bread.Looks GREAT as ALWAYS.I too Love the red pepper sauce.I can understand the powercuts.Here we are having 4 + hours as well.I should give up baking I feel.Its a truimph if something edible comes out of the oven within the limited time.
I need to get this cookbook – the stuff you've made from it so far all looks delicious. A definite keeper!
aaah, darling Ottolenghi! My book got packed in June when we moved and has not reappeared since – still in the stack of book boxes in our conservatory 🙁 but we boght shelves and started unpacking books this weekend, so hope is in sight! This bread looks utterly gorgeous!
What a wonderful bread! I have added this book to my wishlist, you naughty lady, yet another must-have!
Great meal, so vibrant and healthy too.
The dried cranberry and walnut stick looks incredible! It must be so hearty and delicious with the dried fruit and nuts. It looks lovely!
I love how attached you've become to this book, Deeba. For some strange reason, I haven't seen this book on Philippine or US shores, but I hear it's a good one. As evidenced by your lovely bread 🙂
Looks brilliant.
I'm so happy to have found your blog too. Great recipes and gorgeous photos! Best Wishes.
Azita
A lovely bread for a lovely lady!
wow great bread Deeba I just started making my own bread as well!
love Rebecca
This bread look amazing Deeba, I love the pictures, love your bread always look tasty, xx gloria
Deeba, what a great post. I love both recipes but particular the rustic bread which I'm going to bookmark. The pictures as usual are simply, simply gorgeous.
That bread looks so hearty and inviting. I just want to cut off a thick slice and smear it with some sweet butter. Mmmm!
Oh, I love walnuts in bread and adding some cranberries makes it looks divine. Lucky Jamie! 🙂 I have to get this cookbook.
finally, I could find this post again. You have few [url=http://tipswift.com]useful tips[/url] for my school project. Now, I won't forget to bookmark it. 🙂
i know sometimes you don't wanna be a Mama but you're crazy good at it. You make all this amazing stuff for lunch? Gotta bow down to you. bread looks fab- i totally love the quote and shall now speak of bread with a capital 'b' – Bread. gorgeous warm Bread. 😉 xxx
lovely spread! evrything looks great, and i cant say anything thats not already been said! thanks for introducing some new blogs! 🙂
Really love this hearty looking bread, Deeba. The cranberries were a super addition; would much prefer those to cherries. I like buckwheat too; may have mentioned my grandfather used to make some delicious buckwheat pancakes when we visited. He had a yeast starter too.
Mmm, I love cranberry bread! I definitely want to try the yeasted version and buckwheat is also an excellent addition!
Oh sweetie, I'm so so glad I gave it to you! I had no idea you would love it this much but I thought you might really like it. And this is wonderful, you know how much I suck at baking bread but I do love this kind of bread a LOT. So I might actually try it and hope for the best. xoxo
Looks lovely. Like the idea of nuts in it….
Oh Deeba, that pasta looks and sounds divine. And there's nothing quite like home-made walnut bread – yum!
What a gorgeous bread. And the pictures are so nice.
Both of these recipes look gorgeous! I love the way you've worked walnuts into two such different dishes.
WEll done on the bread. It looks fantastic!!
The bread looks amazing!
What a fantastic combination of cranberry & walnut in the bread, worth trying with the yummy pasta 🙂
I've an award waiting for you at my blog!
Cheers,
Gera
This looks marvelous – and I have to check out that cookbook!
When do we use the orange juice? And I am assuming the oil is to oil the bowl?
Sorry, but I am not quite following the steps – when kneeding the "silk smooth dough", I'm assuming that's after combining water/yeast mixture with the flours? (You don't really say this.)
Sorry I missed the orange juice Emme. Thanks for pointing it out.Updated now!
This bread sounds amazing! I love artisanal breads and also that you used a whole grain in it. Cranberries and walnuts sound perfect for a birthday celebration.
I made it and we are enjoying it~ I did use the bread machine..(Blush) I hope you don't mind..not for the baking…just the kneading and a first rise..
Thanks again~
Hello, I came to your blog from Monique's Table La Nana. Thank you for sharing Ottolenghi. I have not baked alot of bread – probably not more than 5 times. Your bread looks really good and as Monique has pointed out, you have a beautiful blog.
Everything about this bread makes me giddy. And I may not have buckwheat flour, but this lovely bread has given me a reason to shop.
Stunning pictures!