Gretchen Noelle at Canela & Comino is hosting an event featuring quick bread made from homegrown ingredients or having some sort of connection with your local area. As soon as I read the particulars of the event I remembered a quick bread I used to make many years ago: Cheese, Onion and Potato Bread. This is a very simple and tasty recipe which completely fits the bill except I couldn't really say that the ingredients are exactly New York specialities. However, on a recent Saturday morning stroll around the Union Square farmer's market I noticed that I could buy most of the ingredients there, from New York producers. So I decided to buy locally grown potato, thyme and spring onions, some eggs and a lovely-looking truncated pyramid of goats' cheese from a couple of upstate farms, and to make this my entry for the event.
Cheese, Onion and Potato Bread
Serves 4
4 oz firm goats' cheese (feta works too), cut into fairly small cubes (about 1/4")
5 spring onions, trimmed and sliced
1 red potato, grated
1 large egg
1 heaped tsp fresh thyme
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp salt
6 oz (1.5 cups) self-raising flour (or plain + 1 tbsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp grain mustardHeat your oven to 375 degrees. Put the grated potato into a mixing bowl and sift the flour, salt and cayenne pepper onto it. Add the onions, thyme and 2/3 of the cheese. Mix thoroughly. Beat the egg with the milk and mustard, add it to the bowl and mix everything together thoroughly until you have a moist, rough dough. Be aware that this won't look or feel like regular dough: it will be much stickier. Fear not, this is normal. Get plenty of flour on your hands to stop sticking, then transfer the dough to a well-greased baking sheet and form into a rough round. Push the remaining cubes of cheese into the surface, evenly spaced, dust lightly with flour then bake in the centre of the oven for 40 - 45 minutes.
The result should be a small loaf with a rugged exterior and a soft, savoury interior, and it should taste wonderful. Fortunately this one did, even though it'd been something like twelve years since I last made this.
(Ann's on a "roll!" Get it? ROLL? 'Cause of all... the... bread? No? Haha :)
Seriously, that would be PERFECT with a hearty soup. A thick chowder comes to mind (and ties it in with the potatoes).
Posted by: Manggy | January 21, 2008 at 07:47 AM
Manggy - Ann? What's Ann got to do with it? :-)
Posted by: Jack | January 21, 2008 at 10:25 AM
BWAH! Teach me not to assume the who the writer is (Benny Hill: "never assume, it makes an ass out of u and me."). I equate any bread on this site with Ann. Out of pride I will never believe that you made it. Kidding! Sorry, Jack :)
Posted by: Manggy | January 21, 2008 at 10:33 AM
This would take me alone about 25 minutes to finish - in entirety
Posted by: giz | January 21, 2008 at 02:14 PM
This looks like the perfect accompaniment for a bowl of vegetable soup. Except that I'd probably polish off the entire loaf before I ever got around to making the soup. :P
Posted by: Adele | January 21, 2008 at 02:53 PM
giz - my advice is try to resist eating a slice while it's still warm, if you want to avoid finishing the whole thing. Because it really is irresistible then!
Adele - oh yes, this definitely goes well with soup.
Posted by: Jack | January 22, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Few foods come close to a freshly baked bread.There is something so satisfying about taking a golden crusted bread out of the oven and having a knob of butter melt into a slice....now I can't stand it any more and I'm not browsing foodposts any more...off to my consoling cup of coffee.
Ronell
Posted by: myfrenchkitchen | January 22, 2008 at 11:04 AM
yum! i saw this event and was trying to figure out what would be quintessentially "new york" ingredients! i got as far as bagels and pizza, and realized those didn't go too well into bread. i'll continue to ponder...
Posted by: katy | January 22, 2008 at 02:55 PM
Jack, Thanks so much for entering the Homegrown Gourmet event. This bread really sounds delicious and there is a rather good chance of me trying it. Yum! I bet this would make an incredible sandwich bread. Thanks again and great job!
Posted by: Gretchen Noelle | January 22, 2008 at 07:37 PM
GREAT loaf ... I think there's a serious chance of my making this;) I've been wanting a good cheesebread recipe for a while ...
Joanna
Posted by: Joanna | January 23, 2008 at 04:00 AM
Hi - I made this last week and will post on it within the next day or two - it was divine and wanted to say many many thanks for a wonderful recipe - I did a few changes but basically followed your recipe
Posted by: Johanna | February 02, 2008 at 07:59 PM
Love the ruggedness!mmm warm with butter...soryy just dreaming there! :o)
Posted by: Bev | February 15, 2008 at 12:19 PM
This recipe contains many of my favorites: from goat cheese to potatoes, onions, and mustard...great combination. I saved this and will make it soon to serve with some nice soup.
Posted by: baking history | February 15, 2008 at 12:48 PM
Wow, that looks great. Goat cheese and mustard...yum!
Posted by: Karen | February 15, 2008 at 01:25 PM
Wow, this looks great.
Posted by: Ivy | February 15, 2008 at 03:43 PM
Wow, Jack! This looks seriously tasty!
Posted by: Michelle | February 15, 2008 at 07:32 PM
Great looking bread. What interesting ingredients. Would be excellent though with a nice bowl of homemade soup!
Posted by: Judy | February 17, 2008 at 10:12 AM