Work, Olive, Oregano & Sundried Tomato Bread and ... just stuff...
June 11, 2007 at 9:45 AM
by Ashleigh
So I'm starting work. In 35 minutes to be exact. Close enough to ride to on my bicycle and be there in 5 minutes, I think it's probably the perfect distance away from my apartment. 5 minutes in the other direction and you'll find the kids' school. Perfectly placed!
I'm going to be helping at Bloom, a florist in the shopping centre in my area. If you live in Amstelveen, it's behind the C1000 at the Bankras. I love the work that Carla, the owner, does. She has a very specific flair with flowers. So, if you need flowers you know where to come!
We had guests over for the first time in months, and I cooked lunch. Husband was badly behaved and kept running off to go play computer games. Luckily, the guests were 'computery' too, so they were more understanding of him than most would be.
We had warm olive, oregano and sundried tomato bread, salad with fresh leaves and baby carrots from the garden and loempias (spring rolls) filled with rice noodles and vegetables from the garden. The loempias weren't as nice as they have been previously, but the bread was wonderful. I'm not supposed to eat bread, but I had a tiny taste to see if it was really as good as everyone said it was. And it was!
Here's the recipe:
Warm Olive, Oregano and Sundried Tomato Bread
1 tablespoon active dry yeast (this is not instant yeast)
1 cup tepid water
3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt, preferably seasalt
about 16 stoned black olives, chopped across into rings
a few sundried tomatoes, chopped, or sundried tomato topping
a bunch of oregano (chop half finely, keep the rest for decoration)
extra olive oil for your hands
coarse sea salt
- Place the water in a large bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the top and add 1 cup of flour or so to make a thick spongy batter. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for 30 minutes. It will start to resemble a head of beer.
- 30 minutes later, place the rest of the flour and the salt into your food processor bowl and add the sponge mixture slowly through the tube. You might need to take the cover off the machine and just plop the sponge into the flour mixture.
- Run the machine adding the olive oil and any extra water you might need to make a very soft malleable dough.
- Remove the dough from the machine once well kneaded and place into an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to stand for an hour or so until doubled in size.
- Oil your hands and the countertop.
- Flatten out the doughball and put the chopped olives and chopped oregano in the centre of your circle of dough and knead to combine. You want the olives and herbs evenly distributed through the dough.
- Shape into a circle about 8 inches in diameter. Place on a prepared baking sheet (I sprayed mine with cooking spray) and then cover loosely with clingwrap.
- Leave to double again, about an hour.
- Preheat your oven to 225C.
- Uncover the dough, make about 12 dimples in the top with your finger and insert sundried tomato topping or chopped sundried tomatoes into each dimple.
- Using your pretty oregano stems, push them into the bread randomly.
- Sprinkle with coarse salt and drizzle with olive oil.
- Bake for about 25 minutes until the loaf is golden and sounds hollow when tapped.
- Best serrved warm with butter.
And the 'stuff' part of my post? Just quickly, because I'm running out of time... we went to the Summer Fair at the Elsenhove yesterday and it was fun! I bought some honey that is from the bees at the allotments where I have my garden. I also got some very aged organic cheese.
The kids got candyfloss and had fun playing a game where they had to eat liquorice shoelaces faster than anyone else. Seb kept winning. I'm surprised he wasn't ill from all of it! Here are some pictures of a bit of the fun!
There is more, but it looks like I ran out of time. I'm due at work in 10 minutes!
Comments
I'm looking forward to hearing all about your new job, Ash. I hope all goes very well! :)
I had lost the link to your Blog and just found it. Off to catch up one your previous posts, Ashleigh.
Good luck with your new job! Funny, there's a grocery store here called BLOOM - you'd think it was a florist with a name like that.
Good luck on the new job. I don't live in A'veen, but I work there. I may muser up the courage to drop by someday :-). Funny, I though you were somewhere around Rotterdam :).
Good luck! What a wonderful place to work. I've often thought I'd be very happy surrounded by beautiful flowers all day. I hope to see some pictures soon!
That bread sounds lovely!!
How is the exercise going? Are you still loving your new job? Sounds like the perfect fit.
Ash- Are you not eating bread because you are dieting or do you have some sort of allergy? I ask because if you are doing it because of allergy and you are baking anyway there are a lot of options. I have been pretty much wheat free for 3 years or so. I discovered I was allergic to wheat while on a low carb diet. So whichever it is, I have been there and done that and I encourage you to keep it up. If I can help in any way let me know.
June 11, 2007 1:58 PM