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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

  • These are ‘niblets’, named that by my 7 year-old. He loves them. So do I. . Niblets are the crunchy pieces of solid fat that are left-over after rendering lard in the slow-cooker all day. . I had them here for supper last night. I sprinkled them with salt and served with some #lectinfree millet and sorghum sourdough warmed gently in the cast iron pan and topped with #rawmilk Parmesan. Alongside was a sliced tomato from Irene at our local farmers’ market. . Eating real food, I consistently leave the table satisfied. My senses have been fed, my tummy’s been given something that it can digest and loves and my sanity and sense of economy knows that every penny spent on this meal went to places that I really want it to go. . I love that I can harness the power of my plate in this way.
  • Freshly rolled oats are such a beautiful food. Oats are good whatever, right, but freshly rolled, they become a heaven-sent food. Perhaps it’s something to do with the fact that they are high in fat and the freshness preserves that? Or perhaps it’s something more tangential, like the love that goes into them when you grind yourself? . These oats are destined for sourdough porridge. There’s a video linked in my profile if you want to see how it’s done. . Before I pop them in the porridge mix to ferment, I’ll put them in a sieve and agitate them over a large bowl. The ‘crumbs’ that fall into the bowl I’ll also be fermenting. These will become ‘Sowans’, the traditional Scottish oat ferment. . My head’s full of Sowans at the moment. I’ve just spent two consecutive Sunday afternoons filming a Sowans course for @thefermentationschool. In it, there will be full instructions on how to make this ferment whatever equipment you have in your kitchen. I am excited about releasing it next month!
  • Rendering lard today with fat from @valledelsasso. We use lard as a cooking medium (for everything from pancakes to chard) and also as spread, much like butter. . It’s easy to render from back fat at home in a slow cooker. I get up early and put the slow cooker on low. I chop the fat into c. 2cm cubes (as you can see here) and then pop it in the cooker with the lid on. Every hour or so I tip the contents of the cooking pot into a metal sieve above a metal bowl. The liquid fat drains through and then I pop the solid fat back into the cooking pot. . The whole process usually takes about 9 hours. By tea-time we have warm, crunchy lard ‘niblets’ (as my son calls them) which are truly heavenly. I freeze 2/3rds of the fat and the supply (from 3kg back fat) will last us a month. . Do you render your own?
  • Breakfast fit for a king (well, my 7 year-old thinks he *is* The King, at least in our house!): Sourdough spelt pancake, local watermelon, ‘waste’ water kefir grains, ground linseed and soaked and dehydrated crunchy almonds. . He then gets to be in charge of the olive oil bottle, liberally dousing the goodies. . We usually eat a incidentally vegan breakfast. I wholeheartedly believe that any sustainable agricultural process needs animals at its core, but it doesn’t mean we eat their produce with every meal. This plate will be devoured by a little man who eats animal produce (including offal and lots of fat) at other meals and – importantly for me – everything on the dish comes from Italy, most of it from Tuscany. . I’d love to hear whether ancestral eating for you means animal produce at every meal and how you feel about the non-animal foods that you have available locally.
  • Spelt sourdough with left-over oat porridge mixed in before the fermentation. This is such an easy way to give a spelt loaf a softer crumb and to make it last longer…let alone the lovely oat tang you get. . If you want to try this, there’s a recipe linked in my profile for Spelt Sourdough with a ‘scald’. Just replace the scald bit with the same weight of cold porridge. Works a treat. . And if you are a porridge fan, do check out my fermented oats video (also linked in my profile) where I talk you through how to make a breaky that’s super tasty and super-healthy!

Recent Comments

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