Irish Soda Bread with Garlic - Quick-Bake Loaf (No Proving)

This month's Food 'n' Flix challenge is the John Wayne film The Quiet Man, chosen by Joanne at What's On The List. I'd never heard of it, and since it starred John Wayne I assumed it was a Western so started mulling over some cowboy-themed dishes I could make for the challenge. I couldn't have been more wrong - the film is actually a love story set in 1920s Ireland!


The film is about an Irish-American called Sean (Wayne) going back to his birthplace to take over a farm he has inherited, where he falls in love with a woman called Mary Kate. Her brother Red won't give permission for them to start courting so they trick him into believing another woman is in love with Red but wants Mary Kate to move out of his house. Red agrees, but founds out he was duped on Sean and Mary Kate's wedding day and refuses to hand over her dowry.

As Sean refuses to stand up to Red and demand what Mary Kate is entitled to, it causes problems between them and eventually she tries to leave him, until Sean drags her back and they go to see Red, who is shamed into handing over the dowry. Sean and Mary Kate then burn the money, showing it was the principle they cared about, not the cash. Sean and Red then fight and at the end, the rift is healed and Mary Kate heads home to make dinner for her husband.


To be honest I didn't really like this film, and was surprised that not only did it win the Best Director Oscar at the time (1952) but according to Wikipedia, in 2013 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". While there were still themes in this movie that people can identify with today, I had a problem with the way that Mary Kate was treated. I understand the tradition of dowry, and needing your father or brother (who in this case is her only male relative)'s permission to marry as that was the case at the time. However, the scene when Mary Kate is forced to walk back to the village with Sean is horrible - he literally drags her across the ground at one point, and one of the other villagers cheerfully offers him a stick to beat her with! Apparently this is a comedy but fashions and tastes change and unfortunately this film really didn't do anything for me.

I wanted an Irish recipe for the Food n Flix challenge and came across this recipe for Wild Garlic Irish Soda Bread. I couldn't get any wild garlic so I decided to crush a few garlic cloves and add to the mixture, which worked really well!

The best thing is this loaf is really quick - it contains no yeast so you don't need to leave it to prove and just mix the ingredients and put it in the oven. It tasted delicious with a bowl of soup!

Adding the buttermilk to the other ingredients

Ready to go in the oven

The baked loaf

Sliced and ready to eat

 I'm sharing this with Food 'n' Flix as mentioned at the beginning of this post.