Olive and Cheese Loaf

I should probably state outright that I'm not a fan of olives, however, the fact that this recipe also had ham and cheese as main ingredients was enough to convince me to copy if from a copy of BBC's Good Food November 2010 magazine.

This was the original recipe:

100ml/3.5 fl. oz. olive oil, plus extra for the tin
250g/9oz. self rising flour
100g/3.5oz. firm mozzarella or gruyere style cheese, coarsely grated
100g/3.5oz. sliced ham, chopped
50g/2oz. black olives, pitted and halved
pinch of salt
0.5tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 free range eggs
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Heat oven to 200 degrees C.
Oil a 22cm x 12cm loaf pan and line with baking paper.
Combine the flour, cheese, ham, olives, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl.
In another bowl, whisk the eggs and 100ml olive oil.
Make a well in the flour, then tip in the egg mixture.
Mix quickly but thoroughly to form a think batter.
Spoon into the tin and smooth the top with a large metal spoon.
Drizzle with EVOO.
Bake the loaf for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Turn out onto a cake cooling rack.

Now for my version.

I didn't use any olives.

The only thing that I probably actually bothered to measure was the flour and the other measurements I figured I could just wing it.

I also did use three eggs, they weren't free range though, at least not as far as I know.

I used maybe 1tsp of freshly ground black pepper. Now I feel like its necessary for me to expound on this because I am officially a convert of using freshly ground black pepper. Generally I would just buy the regular black pepper, that's what I grew up with. The other day I went grocery shopping with my cousin and she was looking for peppercorns only because she already had a grinder. I asked why doesn't she just get the already ground up pepper and she told me that the freshly ground taste better. I was skeptical and I couldn't imagine that it would taste that much better that it would warrant hunting all over the place for. A couple weeks later my grandmother visited from Florida and whenever she comes she usually brings random food stuff. This time around I got raspberry preserves, organic peanut butter, cherries, raisins and organic peppercorns and a grinder. It's been sitting in the cupboard for perhaps about two weeks now and I figured once the regular black pepper finishes, it would save me having to buy a new one for a while. This morning I wanted to make something. At first I was thinking cupcakes but I may have a guest later who isn't a big fan of sweets so I thought let me try something savory. This recipe came to mind because he's a big cheese fan. So I reviewed the recipe and then saw that it needed freshly ground pepper. Here was my chance to test the powers of fresh pepper and with the first twist of the grinder I got a whiff of the aroma of the ground pepper and it was amazing. After that I just couldn't stop  adding pepper to the recipe.

I ran out of olive oil. I had bought a little bottle some time ago just to see what all the hype was about. Again I jump on the bandwagon, because EVOO is pretty darn good. It has a fragrant taste about it that it gives to whatever is cooked in it or with it. My dear little bottle however was just about finished ad I had had no idea. When I was ready to measure out my 100ml of olive oil the bottle only got me to 50ml. For the remaining 50ml I then used vegetable oil.

The time that the recipe called for is already up by the way. I've checked on it and it was far from ready so then I upped the temperature to 350 and left it for another 15 which hasn't finished yet. Once it's done and out and presentable I'll post photos and let everyone know how it went.