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Home » Instagram » Doing chocolate research is satisfying :-) I’m learning about *so* much more than ‘just’ chocolate. Here’s my tuppence-worth (does anyone non-British say that?) about vanilla.
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Doing chocolate research is satisfying :-) I’m learning about *so* much more than ‘just’ chocolate. Here’s my tuppence-worth (does anyone non-British say that?) about vanilla.

March 17, 2021 by Ali

Previous PostMy second batch of home-cured bacon is delicious. This time, the cure had salt, sugar, bay, peppercorns and juniper berries. When I took the lid off the spice grinder and sniffed, it nearly blew my head off! . I like my bacon crispy, but it’s *really* hard to cut bacon thinly by hand, so chunky and cast iron-panned has to do me. Chef also gets the first dibs on the liquid fat left in the pan! I love to pour it over my bread ;-) . Pigs raised over the hill by Flavio at @lavalledelsasso. Thank you! . How do you like your bacon?
Next PostEvery time I make Sowans, the Scottish oat ferment, I have both a drink and an oat ‘porridge’ ready to use. There’s quite some competition for how it’s used! . Sometimes, we cook up the porridge and eat it for breakfast with crunchy decorations! Other times, I reserve it for this: Spelt and Fermented Oat Porridge bread. . The crust is crackly, nutty spelt and the crumb is soft from the addition of the porridge. It also helps the bread last longer. . There’s a slice shot in my stories. Wish I could feed you some!

Recent Posts

  • Spelt, lemon and poppy seed muffins risen with a starter made from wild yeast water made from lemons and raisins. . These were a semi-success. . The yeast water starter was brilliant. Gave them tonnes of lift. . The ingredient mix not so great. I wanted a soft dough without having to add fat or milk. I tried using a portion of scalded flour (as I know this softens dough incredibly). It made the crumb soft, but the crust was far too bread-like. . I want a muffin without milk (dairy or plant) and ideally without fat (though I’d consider olive oil). . Anyone got advice/ideas? Gratefully received :-)
  • Beef heart, slow-cooked whole earlier in the week. Italian asparagus bought from the local health food store. Sourdough bread made from spent spelt grain (previously used to make ancestral beer) spread with home-rendered lard made from fat from @valledelsasso. . Simple, local and delicious lunch which I ate with sauerkraut and a small side of beer. . I’m just uploading some videos I took in my garden early this morning – so if you fancy a nose, head to my story today. . Happy Saturday. What are you up to this weekend?
  • How gorgeous is this?! . It’s our lunch. A sourdough spelt pizza, topped with home-made pesto, and thinly sliced fresh garlic and spring onions. . The pesto (and all it’s glorious olive oil) soaked into the pizza and the crumb was divine. . Pesto: Previously soaked and dehydrated walnuts and almonds Handfuls of basil from the garden Some garlic – half of which I roasted the day before, half raw A bit of salt A lot of local olive oil . The recipe for the base is in my profile and there are more delightful green wavy, curvy photos in my story today (to be saved to the pizza highlight – I’m liking the collection of pics in there!!)
  • Yes, this is actually what my fermenting garlic looks like. Gorgeous, eh?! I got clear on what this colour-change is (the allicin reacting with the fermentation acids) thanks to @savage.craic who does a whole lot of interesting ferments. . Seeing colour changes like this in my ferments makes me feel even more like an alchemist! I like that :-) . If you don’t ferment garlic, I totally recommend that you give it a go. Peel the cloves, chop the big ones, cover with a brine (5g salt to 1 cup water is what I use) and find a way to keep the cloves under the brine level (using a cabbage leaf here). . Then pop the jar in a corner for it to hide for 6 weeks and you’ll have a wonderful stash of cloves that aren’t as strong as raw garlic, but haven’t been as ‘denatured’ by the cooking process (which destroys the medicinal powerhouse, allicin).
  • This ancestral beer, made with Italian spelt, gets fermented with the help of sourdough starter and the yeast and bacteria I have living around me. There are no commercial yeasts in it. And there wouldn’t have been in any beer further than a hundred or so years back, as yeasts were not a commercial thing. . For centuries, before industrialisation, yeasts were valued so highly that they were associated with divine intervention and when they appeared they were honoured and nurtured. . My favourite example of this is the yeast log. This was a piece of carved wood that was placed in the fermenter as the beer was in progress. It would catch the yeasts and bacteria. When brewing was complete, it’d be taken out and hung up to dry. The live organisms would remain on it in a dormant state. Then, when it was time to brew again, it’d be taken down and placed in with the liquid. Crazy simple, yet so effective. . I want a yeast log. I can’t tell you how much I want a yeast log. . Getting all my ancestral beer inspiration kicks from the #stephenharrodbuhner book Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers. Will put a few pictures in my story if you want a nose. . Shame you can’t have a taste of the beer too. It’s unusual. But good.

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