Tick of Yum

You might have heard that I met enough happy new Thermomix owners last year that I earned a trip to South Africa!!!!  Well.... that pleasure isn't going to go unpunished.  My lovely manager, Michelle, has asked me to do a cooking segment in our next meeting... and to cook something South African.  Well.... what the heck is something "South African"??

I turned to a very useful search engine and there were some lovely sounding recipes all for the taking.  I have decided to do a cranberry, cous cous salad for the meeting... but couldn't resist trying (Immediately!!!) this recipe for Picnic Bread, which sounded just LOVELY - and let me tell you... it sure is!!  I had a piece last night at our coking class for my "dinner" (I was helping, not participating... so no taste testing for me!) and it was enough!  Although... I admit to having TWO pieces for brekky this morning!  Couldn't resist

When I wanted to find the recipe again for this post I was surprised to see it repeated, almost exactly, on about 15 websites... all attributing it as a favourite South African delicacy.. I think it'll be a favourite South AUSTRALIAN delicacy from here on... at least at this house!

I halved the original recipe as I converted it.  It is easy to make, although not cheap!  But, because you don't need much of this to fill you up, it works out reasonably economical.  This would be a suffieicient meal for a family of 4 or 5 depending on appetites!  As for low fat... nope!  Not even close... but I did work out the calories (I am on a diet at the moment and squeezing every pleasure into my 1500 daily calorie count) and if you cut the bread into 10 slices it is 190 calories per slice.  That's not bad!

I like the texture of this bread, it is heavier than a bread but isn't stodgy or dry, it has a lovely flavour and the sweet chilli gives it a lovely colour without any zing.   The comment on the original website was correct, you won't need butter (although HOW much more heavenly would it be with it!! oh well... after my diet finishes in 31 days (when I leave for South Africa)  24 hours after baking, it was still the lovely same texture... didn't dry out at all.

HINT: Don't cut this (or ANY bread or cake) until quite cold unless you are going to eat the lot (you'll release all the steam that is trapped in the bread/cake... making it dry).  I would store this in the fridge after it has cooled.

So enought waffle?  Would you like the recipe?

Picnic bread

Ingredients

• 45g of spring onion or shallots
• 180g Plain Flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (not soda)
• 150g tasty cheese
• 200-220g of lean bacon chopped into smallish pieces (raw!  it'll cook in the bread)
• 4 large eggs, lightly beated
• 1 teaspoon salt - very nice with the spicy salt from the Indian Cookbook
• 1/2-1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 20g of sweet chilli sauce - double if you'd like a little zing
• 3 tablespoons soft butter
• milk... but this may not be needed - can substitute another egg if you don't have any milk... or even a touch of water