New Year, New Thai Curry Bread

New Year's Eve was in part bright and sunny, as it happened during a trip into the city for some important work, and also mild and rainy. By the time I returned from the city my thoughts turned to plans for New Year's Eve which were to involve a trip round to the house of some good friends who live nearby me to have some excellent homemade chilli, let the New Year in with them and most importantly have a good catch up.

I decided that one of the best things you can make to compliment chilli is a good quality bread and I settled on a recipe of my own creation that had the required flavours to compliment the chilli. I first fried one diced red onion and a red pepper that I had removed the top from and all the seeds before cutting it into small squares. I put the squares of red pepper and the diced red onion into a wok and fried them with a tablespoon of savoury soy sauce and tablespoon of Thai Curry Powder for about fifteen minutes on a low heat on the hob. I then turned the hob off and left the contents of the wok to one side while I made the dough.

To make the dough I took 16 ounces of wholemeal bread flour and a teaspoon of yeast and stirred them together. Next I poured quarter of a pint of water into the mixing bowl with the wholemeal bread flour and yeast.

The trick with the water is to make sure all the dough and yeast absorbs the water and there is no loose dough or yeast. After that the next job was to fashion all the ingredients into a ball and knead them out into a flat piece of dough. I did this by punching into the dough repeatedly and with plenty of energy too. I often find that kneading dough is quite cathartic in this way and lets you use the process as an outlet for your frustrations, in the nicest possible way of course.

When the dough was laid out flat I put the contents of the wok on top of it and folded the corners of the dough into the centre to cover all the ingredients from the wok. I then put the bread on a greased baking tray and then cooked it in my gas oven at gas mark 6 for half an hour. After this I took it out and left on the rack for the afternoon while I got ready to go out for New Year's Eve.

I have yet to taste any chilli con carne anywhere that is better than the homemade chilli my friend makes and the chilli on New Years' Eve was no exception. The aim with my bread recipe was to make something that was strong and flavoursome like the chilli and with the ingredients I used I was hoping to create some of the tastes you find at a quality Thai Restaurant.

It helped contribute to a very enjoyable evening that was the perfect way to see out one of the most memorable years I've experienced and bring in the new one in style.

Straight out of the oven and festooned with pieces and pepper and onion