Courgette, chive & cheddar soda bread
In case you aren’t already familiar with the double butter approach, it goes like this. Round one: apply a generous layer of butter straight onto warm toast or bread. It will soak into the bread and, depending on the crumb, maybe trickle right through, leaving golden pools on the plate. Round two: once the bread has absorbed the first layer of butter and cooled ever so slightly, apply a second thick smear. If timed just so, this layer will soften rather than melt completely into the bread, retaining its form enough to act as a little cushion upon which flaky salt can then sit.
I can’t think of a toast/warm bread situation in which I wouldn’t favour this approach, but it’s especially welcome in the case of this courgette, chive and cheddar soda bread. In fact, the bossy boots in me would go so far as to make it a fundamental (the fundamental?) part of the recipe.
As with all soda bread, this is best eaten warm from the oven. After that, I find it’s best to slice up the rest of the loaf for the freezer then pop slices straight into the toaster from frozen as and when.
2 courgettes (about 500g)
125g mature cheddar
1 green chilli
Bunch of chives (about 30g)
400g white spelt flour
50g polenta
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp sesame seeds, plus extra for topping
1 tbsp nigella seeds, plus extra for topping
300g kefir or natural yoghurt
Coarsely grate the courgettes, sprinkle generously with salt and scrunch with your hands then set aside for 10-15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Coarsely grate the cheddar, finely chop the green chilli and finely slice the chives. In a large bowl, mix the flour, polenta, bicarbonate of soda, sesame seeds, nigella seeds and 1 tsp salt.
Using your hands, squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the courgettes. Transfer to a clean tea towel and squeeze out even more liquid. When you think you’ve squeezed enough, try to squeeze even more (this quantity of courgettes gives out about 200ml liquid). It’s really worth the elbow grease. Add the courgette to the dry ingredients and use your hands to incorporate until evenly distributed. Add the cheddar, chilli and most of the chives (hold back on some for serving) then mix again. Finally, add the kefir and use your hands, a wooden spoon or a spatula to mix.
Working as swiftly as possible, shape roughly into a round loaf, transfer to the lined tray and use a bench scraper or sharp knife to score a cross on the top. Top with extra sesame seeds and nigella seeds. Bake for 30 minutes then lower the temperature to 180C and bake for a further 10 minutes until deeply golden and hollow sounding when tapped on the base.
Allow to cool for about 10-15 minutes then serve warm with lots of butter, the remaining chives and flaky salt.
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