Beet Brioche Couronne

Back in the UK I watched Paul Hollywoods series on bread making on the BBC and knew I had to buy his book. He was kinda shmoozy in an 'old guy fancies himself' type of way and I wasn't sure whether I found him attractive or not, so I continued watching and came to the conclusion that he was no Sean Connery, but this guy made bread making look pretty easy. I was all over it!
My friend Tracy and I used to have a 'Loaf off'. Sending each other photos of our latest creations, and it was fun and so much nicer than the store bought loaves
I was on a bread kick and it was great while it lasted, but it does command dedication. 
Once every 2-3 weeks now I make a few loaves of bread and my family love it. (Well, I think they do, but do I recall my brother and I being around 8 or 9 and pretending to like my mums brown bread, but proceeding to go and play outside and feed it to Deva (our German Shepherd). Sorry mum! I should check the chicken coop since they don't have a dog disposal at their service.)........

I digress...................//

This bread here was inspired by Paul Hollywoods Savoury Brioche . This bread is a showstopper! It looks impressive and tastes divine.

 

I had an abundance of beets one day and had roasted them all up, because I hate throwing anything out. Then I had an idea of a beautiful purple bread with a green filling oozing out. Ta-da.......in walks the Beet Brioche Couronne.

Sometimes when you bake with beets the colour seems to fade out during the cooking process, and we all hate it when that happens, don't we?  So here I blended the beets with the butter beforehand and it seemed to stain the butter a vibrant pinky purple colour which remained throughout the baking process. Result!

Beet Brioche Couronne

This is my white flour of choice

Serves 4-6

• 500g Organic white bread flour
• 10g Salt
• 10g Fast action dried yeast
• 150ml Tepid milk
• 4 Medium free range eggs (+ 1 egg for brushing before the oven)
• 200g Butter cut into small pieces.(at room temp)
• 70g Cooked organic beetroots
• 1 Block of cream cheese
• 2Tbs Pesto
• 1 Cup spinach
• Grated parmesan (optional)

Butter and Beet paste

Blend the butter and beets in a food processor until thoroughly combined.  Set aside
In a separate bowl combine the cream cheese with the pesto and spinach and set aside.
Place the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other.
Mix the eggs into the tepid milk and add it all into the flour mixture.
Run the mixer at speed 1 until all ingredients are incorporated. Then let it run for another 5-7 minutes to activate the yeast.
Next, drop the butter/beet paste into the dough a tablespoon at a time. Wait until every spoonful is blended in and then repeat until all the purple paste  used up.
Run the mixer at speed 2 for another 5 minutes.
Now this dough is going to be very sticky, but should still clump together in your mixer.
We then need to decant the gorgeous purple dough into a large well oiled container. This mixture is going to increase x 3, so make sure it has plenty of room. Cover will a lid or a piece of lightly oiled cling film, and place in a warm (18-22deg) room until it has tripled in size (about 2hrs).

After this time, flour a work surface and dump the dough out. It should be full of air and still a wonderful purple/pink colour.

We want to roll the dough out into a rectangle about 21" x 14". (Lets not be perfect here, look at my 'rectangle' below???) What we are aiming for here is to not knock the air out of the dough. So be as light as you can when you are rolling and if you end up with a hexagon then so be it!

Grab your cream cheese and pesto mixture and slather it on top of the dough with the lightest of touches. 

Now start to roll the dough into a sausage shape as neatly as you can.

 

 This is what it should look like once rolled up and it will seal itself with the cream cheese.

Take a knife and cut the soon to be bread into 2, lengthways, right down the middle and part them.

Join the two ends together at each end and start to twist in opposite directions until you have one long twisted looking rope bread. The filling is meant to ooze out, it adds to the gorgeousness later on.

Carefully move the dough to a big baking sheet and construct into a Couronne (French for crown)Now we need to let the bread rise once more.

Cover with oiled cling film and leave in a warm spot for 1-2hrs, until it looks fluffy and podgy like the one below.

 

Set the oven to 200deg C (392deg F) and give your bread an egg wash. At this stage you can sprinkle it with grated parmesan, but this will taint the pink colour, so I like to leave it off.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until the top is shiny and starting to turn a slightly darker colour.

Let cool slightly (or the cheese will leave your mouth with 3rd deg burns. I speak from experience!) and serve warm.

 

NB - The type of beets used will effect the colour, so go for organically grown and the deepest purple you can find.

One Pot Lasagne

This is a wonderfully easy meal to make that will satisfy soup lovers, stew lovers and our Italian friends!
You can make this lasagne into a soup by adding more water to it, or keep it thick and cheesy like you've just stirred up a big dish of baked lasagne.  Either way it is a sure fire winner. I make this at our daycare and there are always clean plates with bellies full of helpings one, two and three!

Lasagne soup version dished up....

One Pot Lasagne :-
Feeds 6-8 adults / 24 pre-schoolers

• 1 onion, chopped finely
• 2tbs olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 3tsps of Italian seasoning (a mixture of oregano, basil, rosemary and thyme.)
• 1 pack of ground turkey (400g)
• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes (2 x 754g)
• 1 tin tomato paste (2 heaped tbs)
• 5 cups of broth (veg, chicken, beef)
• 12 wholewheat/grain lasagne sheets
• 1 cup of mixed cheese, grated (mozzarella and cheddar)
• 1/2 cup cream
• pinch of chilli flakes
• salt and pepper

Fry the onion and garlic in the oil for 4 minutes then add in the seasoning and turkey. Fry till the turkey is coloured and starting to brown.
Stir in the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and broth. Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Pot lasagne version.....
 

Take the pasta sheets and break them up into 1-2 inch pieces. (I find smaller children prefer the pieces around an inch long) Drop them into the sauce mixture along with the chilli (if using) and season to taste.
Stir to combine and keep at a simmer for 12-15 minutes.
Check the pasta is done by stabbing a piece with a fork. It should be al dente rather than soggy.
At this point you could add more broth and take it to the next level with lasagne soup, or just keep it as is.
To finish, take the cream and 1/2 the cheese and stir it thought the lasagne.

For the daycare, I decant the lasagne into dishes and sprinkle again with cheese on top before serving. But at home, save on the washing guys, and just ladle straight from the pot and top with extra cheese.

Variations

Replace the turkey with beef , pork or chickpeas.

Make it vegan with chickpeas, vegan cheese and some coconut cream.

Cut out the cream and opt for a low fat cheese for a calorie conscious serving.

Add in grated carrot, kale, spinach or any other vegetable you have on hand at the tomato stage to increase the veg ratio.

 

 

This is a pretty easy, cost effective meal to serve at schools and daycares. Only one pot is involved and it is a one of those scoop and serve items. (always a winner!)

Many vegetables can be hidden or used up in this soup too, making it a great menu item to use up surplus veg from school gardens.

Average cost per adult serving $2/per pre-schooler 70c (based on turkey mince and ww past sheets)



Winter Healers

I thought I'd title this post 'Winter Healers', but the remedies I use to heal myself and my family can be used all year round. I just really notice over the winter when we are getting into hibernation mode that our bodies are craving vitamin D and greens, but the sun has no heat and the greens are now in stews.
Kids are fantastic at sharing when they want to be and if you have kids in school or daycares, they love passing their bugs and snot around, so you're going to end up with something or other whether you like it or not.  Its how you deal with those symptoms, that's where you have choice.
I used both these remedies before a cough gets to the chest or a runny nose becomes a full out cold.

Use your head and your heart when your kids are sick though. You know in your heart when they just aren't quite right and then your head will tell you that perhaps this time anti-biotics are the medicine of choice. 

Information is knowledge and maybe one of these remedies will work as well for you as they do for me.

Colloidal Silver -

This is a new one to me this winter. My lovely Teresa at our local health food store Mere Enough Health Foods recommended this one to me.
We have lived in Nova Scotia for 3 winters now and the first two were pretty brutal, weather wise and sickness wise.  My 2 young boys both had serious chest infections which lead on to pneumonia.  I don't know if it was the severe cold and their body's were saying wtf,  -25 wind chill, can we board that plane back to balmy Scotland?  Or if it was just an unlucky winter.  Regardless, both of them ended up on antibiotics to combat the infection, despite my various attempts at home remedies. Ces't la vie.
Welcome winter 2015/16 and I'm back with a cough heading into the chest of my 4 year old.  I head on out to stock up on Manuka Honey (which I'm a HUGE advocate for) and Teresa suggests Colloidal Silver. I'm baffled as to why you would ingest silver particles, but I was intrigued.  That's the thing with have a trustworthy, knowledgeable, friendly person working in your health food store.

Colloidal silver has been known as a remarkably effective natural antibiotic for centuries. And in past several decades, research has shown colloidal silver can eradicate antibiotic-resistant microbes like MRSA, the Avian Influenza (bird flu), and Human Corona virus (SARS). 
As usual there are lots of major Health Bullies out there discrediting Colloidal Silver even with its ancient history. But we know these guys aren't truly interested in your health they are just after your illness and your wallet! (Don't get me started on that or you will be reading for days!)

We give the kids a teaspoon of silver when they are at the beginning stages of a cold, chest infection or sick and we follow it up with a probiotic, like kombucha, within a few hours.
The reason to give the probiotic a while after is because Colloidal Silver does indeed act as a broad spectrum natural antibiotic. As such, if enough mineral silver reaches the intestinal tract it most certainly can kill off the friendly (i.e., beneficial) bacteria that live there.  
Stay calm in the knowledge that the gut has between 3 and 7 pounds of beneficial microorganisms living in the entirety of the intestinal tract at any one time and you would have to glug down soup ladle after soup ladle to kill all these guys.  But when kids are involved, you just want to be on the safe side. And if they're sick, probiotics are always a good idea.
Since there are health risks involved if you select the wrong formula, (as there are various types of Colloidal silver out there) it is recommended you use colloidal silver only under the guidance and supervision of a qualified alternative health practitioner, who can help you select a high-quality product.

Oil of Oregano -

This amazing essential oil was also new to me over here in Nova Scotia. ( It is available all over, as we have Grandad Robertson in Scotland on it now. And who says your too old to learn new tricks??)

As the name suggests, it is the oil extracted from the oregano plant, like the greens you use in pasta sauce or over pizza, only this baby is way more potent. 
This oil is loaded with free radical fighting anti-oxidants, vitamin E and C, magnesium and zinc, to name a few, which is why I use it when I feel a little run down or when my kids are starting to cough and sniff at night.

One study straight from the United States Department of Agriculture reported that oregano oil has such a strong action against germs that it could easily fight Salmonella and E. coli. (now that's a statement and a half!)

I'm not going to lie, this stuff is pretty hard to get used to ingesting. It has a burning, menthol type taste to it (sorry there is no essence of pizza going on there AT ALL!).  The theory is, if you take it under your tongue, it is carried rapidly in your blood stream and dispersed to where it is needed. But if you have a sore throat, cough or chest infection, take it right on your tongue and swallow it down.  My kids have 3 drops on a small teaspoon of sugar. (They actually ask for it these days when they feel a little rough, but I'm not sure they'd participate if the sugar wasn't involved.) Adults can have it in a glass of water, but there really is no getting away from the taste, even with dilution, so pull up your big boy panties and get it down you!
I also make a chest balm with Oil of Oregano as one of the main ingredients, as it can be used topically to treat internal ailments too.

When searching for an oregano oil product, make sure to look for one that is organic, in liquid form, has an organic extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil base and has at least 80% carvacrol content. Carvacrol is the main ingredient in this Superhealing Oil.