We’ve been getting back into watching some old episodes of River Cottage this past couple of weeks, and as usual we’re inspired to take the kitchen by storm. Tonight I was inspired to make a quick and easy soda bread to go with my mushroom soup.
Mushroom Soup
- homemade chicken stock (inspired by River Cottage)
- dried wild mushroom mix from Neudorf Mushrooms (purchased and the Neudorf festival held on the weekend)
- Slightly old “fresh” mushrooms”
- Riverside cream skimmed from the top of raw milk (just down the road from our place)
- fresh parsley from my garden (the parsley “bushes” are wild and lovely now)
- chunk of butter from Wangapeka Downs (another local dairy)
- black pepper and salt to taste (I LOVE loads of pepper in this dish)
Served with Soda Bread ala River Cottage I did not think this was going to work out in the end. I had no buttermilk and only a smidgen of yogurt left so I performed the old vinegar to milk trick (1 tsp vin to 1 cup milk) and added what I had of the yogurt then accidentally added it all to the bread flour and ending up with a slightly wetter bread mix. Added to this little stuff up I had the dedicated help of a 2.5 year old who wanted to poor in everything he could reach, stir and stir and stir and then throw in handfuls of flour. So between juggling him on a chair up to his elbows in flour, the visit from a friend and her daughter who had dropped Pip off and not quite getting my measurements, I ended up throwing a fairly wet pile of ahhh, slop, onto the baking tray (there was no way I could cut a cross in the top as the knife just stuck it was so moist) and closing the oven door and ignored it for 40 minutes while I whipped up the soup.
The result was an absolutely delicious and filling dinner of hot bread and hot soup – and I don’t even like mushrooms! 
Oh and I almost forgot to mention the cold glass of Elderflower cordial we made a few weekends ago (along with Elderflower Champagne that should b ready in a few weeks).
