Bhí mé ar Radio na Gaeltachta inniú ar Iris Aniar le Éibhlín Ní Chonghaile. Tháinig sí ag an teach cupla seachtain ó shin lena cuid páistí álainn, chun labhairt faoí céard a chuirim insteach i mboscaí lón na caillíní. Ach ar nós gach ‘chat’ maith, thosaigh muid ag caint ar neart eile agus thíos faoí tá an taifeadadh a tháinig as. An cineál bean a chloiseann sibh ar an radio, sin go díreach an cineál bean í Éibhlín – tá sí faoir eascamh labhairt leí…tá sí  álainn.

Ghlaoigh sí orm i ndhiaidh an clár agus d’inis sí dhom go raibh cúpla duine ag cuardach an oideas nó ‘recipe’le haghaidh an cáca baile. Tá an recipe seo thíos, chomh maith le link don píosa ar an radio agus téacs an sean alt a chuir mé suas ar an mblog. Bhí an téacs sin i mbearla agus tá brón orm nach mbeidh cuid agaibh in ann é a leamh.

Cáca Baile Mhamó:

• Déanann sé 2 x tin puint
• Cur an oigheann ag 180⁰C, 350F nó gás marc 4.

Measc na comhabhair tirim le chéile i mbabhla:

• 2 x cupán plúr ‘self-raising’;
• 2 x cupán plúr ‘whole meal’;
• Glac ‘Wheat Germ’;
• Leath spúnóg tae salann;
• Spúnóg tae ‘Bread soda’;
• Spúnóg tae siúcra;
• 100-150g meascán síolta (pumcín, giúsach, poipín)

Measc iad seo go maith agus déan poll sa lár le haghaidh na comhabhair fluich:

• 15ml ola ológ;
• 3/4 L bainne gear (Cuinneog más féidir leat) – is garmheastachán é seo. Cuir i ndótháin isteach chun meascán fluich a dhéanadh ach meascán nach mbeidh ag rith amach as an mbabhla.

Cuir neart margarine ar an dhá tin and cuir na chácaí san oigheann ar feadh 35 noiméad. Seiceáil na cácaí ag an bpointe seo agus cuir isteach san oigheann iad arís gan an tin an t-am seo.

Bá cheart go mbeadh na cácaí réidh ag 45 noiméad. Seiceáil go bhfuil fuaim folamh ag teacht uathu.

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Clár radio Iris Aniar a bhí air an aer inniú le fail ANSEO – tosaíonn an píosa ag 26 noimeád.

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Alt a bhí foilsithe ar an suíomh seo 5ú Bealtaine 2015 –

Many of life’s most intimate minute details can come flooding back at the sight or smell of particular foods. It happened to me recently when I baked some brown bread. I asked my Aunt Cáitín for the recipe Mamó used for her brown bread or cáca baile (bread for the home). It always looked very different to my mother’s brown bread and I remember as a child realising for the first time that baking could be a very individual expressive thing. And also at the time, very much a woman’s domain. Everyone’s brown bread, from my mother’s to Mamó’s, to the headmistress of my national school, to Cáitín’s  all tasted completely different despite the fact that they all contained basically the same ingredients. Baking from that moment on became a strange act of alchemy in the oven for me. I never quite knew what was going to come out.

I was never much good at baking sweet desserts. That was my sister Eileen’s area. Her strawberry pavlova Swiss roll is a work of art that gets savaged at every family get together. I stayed on the road of bread making and fell in love with flour and yeast experimentation. I’m not very good at that either but the recipe for proper white yeast bread could not be simpler: strong flour, salt, yeast and warm water. You can add extras like garlic and herbs but that is the basic recipe. Yeast is a living thing that can be kept alive in a starter dough for repeated use to make fresh bread, as long as you look after it and feed it. I heard about a French woman who had her starter dough for over 30 years.  Mine never lasted the week – a thriving half jar of bubbling goo in the fridge one day to dead as a dodo the next. I end up using dried yeast or if I can get it, some fresh yeast. The kids love making fresh dough and watching it grow and puncturing it with their fingers as it proofs. They love turning it into pizzas or garlic bread or just tasty, properly proofed white bread.

The other day as I made cáca baile using my grandmother’s recipe, I was transported back to when I was about six or seven to her back kitchen, standing at her elbow in front of the window with my sister at the other, watching her stir her cake with her wooden spoon. I can see it and smell it.