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Malted barley is ‘supposed’ to be for beer-makers, but it’s a wonderful bread-makers’ ingredient too. I got some ‘chocolate’ malt, very dark, very smoky with delicate chocolate flavour. . Here it is in a spelt sourdough. This bread has two ‘porridges’ added to the dough. One is of the barley, which I baked as inspired by @morgancarsandbread. The other is of sorghum. . 56% wholegrain spelt, 25% white spelt, 12% barley and 7% sorghum. I’m pretty chuffed with the result considering it’s spelt and there were a lot of add ins. . It tastes great :-) . Video and more chocolate loaf gratuitous photographing in my story today.

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Malted barley is ‘supposed’ to be for beer-makers, but it’s a wonderful bread-makers’ ingredient too. I got some ‘chocolate’ malt, very dark, very smoky with delicate chocolate flavour.
.
Here it is in a spelt sourdough. This bread has two ‘porridges’ added to the dough. One is of the barley, which I baked as inspired by @morgancarsandbread. The other is of sorghum.
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56% wholegrain spelt, 25% white spelt, 12% barley and 7% sorghum. I’m pretty chuffed with the result considering it’s spelt and there were a lot of add ins.
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It tastes great 🙂
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Video and more chocolate loaf gratuitous photographing in my story today.

… Read More

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Pork scratchings. I remember those from a looong time ago. Salted and flavoured to the hilt and sold in tiny bags in pubs. . If you look carefully at my lunch today, you’ll see my home-made equivalent. After a day rendering in the slow cooker the local pig fat we use transforms into not only spreadable lard but also small, crunchy, crazy-tasty pig fat nuggets. My son goes mad for them…oh what am I saying, we all do! . They are so much better than the bagged, pub-sold version and a great-tasting #zerowaste kitchen practise. . Ancient cultures all over have prized fat. I feel grateful to have such good quality local source that I can honour and enjoy in this way.

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Pork scratchings. I remember those from a looong time ago. Salted and flavoured to the hilt and sold in tiny bags in pubs.
.
If you look carefully at my lunch today, you’ll see my home-made equivalent. After a day rendering in the slow cooker the local pig fat we use transforms into not only spreadable lard but also small, crunchy, crazy-tasty pig fat nuggets. My son goes mad for them…oh what am I saying, we all do!
.
They are so much better than the bagged, pub-sold version and a great-tasting #zerowaste kitchen practise.
.
Ancient cultures all over have prized fat. I feel grateful to have such good quality local source that I can honour and enjoy in this way.

… Read More

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How gorgeous does this dough look?! It’s a spelt sourdough with two ‘porridges’ mixed in – one of sorghum and the other of chocolate malted barley. The barley (which are the little grains you can see) gives it the dark colour and there’s a fab chocolatey/smoky smell too. . Check out my story today to see the chocolate malt up close ;-) . Thank you @morgancarsandbread for inspiring me to get back to malts in my sourdough. Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out!

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How gorgeous does this dough look?! It’s a spelt sourdough with two ‘porridges’ mixed in – one of sorghum and the other of chocolate malted barley. The barley (which are the little grains you can see) gives it the dark colour and there’s a fab chocolatey/smoky smell too.
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Check out my story today to see the chocolate malt up close 😉
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Thank you @morgancarsandbread for inspiring me to get back to malts in my sourdough. Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out!

… Read More

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I am really not a winter girl. But I’ve only just discovered the wonders of sourdough soup and I want to have it more…perhaps I’d suffer a few more cold weeks so I could prepare and eat this food, which has been dubbed as, “the soup that makes a man as strong as a wall”! . I’ve written up my version of it, based on the Polish Żurek. If you’d like to try it, and use up some sourdough discard whilst you are doing it, check the link to the recipe in my profile. . Thanks @dreamtemplearts for the fabulous Polish handed-down original instructions. Please thank your Mum ;-)

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I am really not a winter girl. But I’ve only just discovered the wonders of sourdough soup and I want to have it more…perhaps I’d suffer a few more cold weeks so I could prepare and eat this food, which has been dubbed as, “the soup that makes a man as strong as a wall”!
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I’ve written up my version of it, based on the Polish Żurek. If you’d like to try it, and use up some sourdough discard whilst you are doing it, check the link to the recipe in my profile.
.
Thanks @dreamtemplearts for the fabulous Polish handed-down original instructions. Please thank your Mum 😉

… Read More

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Yeah to Sicilian avocado! Here on my lectin-free sourdough toast, with ground linseed and this year’s beautifully peppery extra virgin olive oil from @aziendaagricolapodereruggeri. A totally Italian, and totally yummy breakfast.

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Yeah to Sicilian avocado! Here on my lectin-free sourdough toast, with ground linseed and this year’s beautifully peppery extra virgin olive oil from @aziendaagricolapodereruggeri. A totally Italian, and totally yummy breakfast.

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Cook My Recipes | Recipes | sourdough

Sourdough Discard Soup

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This sourdough soup is so good, I literally make discard for it when I don’t have any. And I’m not alone in believing it’s worth the effort. Traditionally, all over Slavic and Baltic regions, cereals have been purposely fermented into … Read More

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I made chocolate the ‘old’ way and I’m so chuffed! Two videos here of cacao beans I roasted, winnowed and ground, by hand, with no added cacao butter, into chocolate. . This is very close to how the Mesoamericans used to do it thousands of years ago. The taste is just amazing. . I’ve spent the last few weeks reading about the staggering nutritional benefits of cacao. I am *totally* convinced that, judiciously consumed it is a health food. . And I’m not complaining!

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I made chocolate the ‘old’ way and I’m so chuffed! Two videos here of cacao beans I roasted, winnowed and ground, by hand, with no added cacao butter, into chocolate.
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This is very close to how the Mesoamericans used to do it thousands of years ago. The taste is just amazing.
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I’ve spent the last few weeks reading about the staggering nutritional benefits of cacao. I am *totally* convinced that, judiciously consumed it is a health food.
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And I’m not complaining!

… Read More

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Now I’ve started home-curing my own bacon, I can’t stop. It’s so good to eat and amazing to witness how the salt, sugar and herbs transform the meat. . Here’s my pork belly, from Flavio at @lavalledelsasso about to go into the fridge for a 5-day cure. I ground bay leaves, juniper berries and pepper as aromatics and they smelt amazing. It’ll be interesting to see how the taste differs from my last batch that used rosemary. . If you want to have a go at curing and are new to it, bacon is a good place to start.

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Now I’ve started home-curing my own bacon, I can’t stop. It’s so good to eat and amazing to witness how the salt, sugar and herbs transform the meat.
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Here’s my pork belly, from Flavio at @lavalledelsasso about to go into the fridge for a 5-day cure. I ground bay leaves, juniper berries and pepper as aromatics and they smelt amazing. It’ll be interesting to see how the taste differs from my last batch that used rosemary.
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If you want to have a go at curing and are new to it, bacon is a good place to start.

… Read More

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Multi-tasking doesn’t really count as a vice if I’m making the most of an empty house and super enthusiastic about what I’m doing, does it?! . Here’s a sorghum fermentation experiment. I’m making it into a boza-style drink, so it’s about to go somewhere warm for a few days. . And the notebook has plans that I’m hoping to bring to fruition as the year goes on.

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Multi-tasking doesn’t really count as a vice if I’m making the most of an empty house and super enthusiastic about what I’m doing, does it?!
.
Here’s a sorghum fermentation experiment. I’m making it into a boza-style drink, so it’s about to go somewhere warm for a few days.
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And the notebook has plans that I’m hoping to bring to fruition as the year goes on.

… Read More

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Cured heart from the farm up the road @lavalledelsasso, stuffed with sourdough rye breadcrumbs, bacon, onion, sage, garlic and nutmeg and cooked long and slow in an onion, carrot and stout mix. . I’ve served it on celeriac, mashed with tumeric, garlic and lard. . A real comfort food. We loved it. . Rolling the heart was fiddly, but the result satisfying enough for me to want to try it again. . The recipe was from my @rivercottagehq book on smoking and curing by @lambposts. It could easily be made #lectinfree by using lectin-free breadcrumbs.

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Cured heart from the farm up the road @lavalledelsasso, stuffed with sourdough rye breadcrumbs, bacon, onion, sage, garlic and nutmeg and cooked long and slow in an onion, carrot and stout mix.
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I’ve served it on celeriac, mashed with tumeric, garlic and lard.
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A real comfort food. We loved it.
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Rolling the heart was fiddly, but the result satisfying enough for me to want to try it again.
.
The recipe was from my @rivercottagehq book on smoking and curing by @lambposts. It could easily be made #lectinfree by using lectin-free breadcrumbs.

… Read More