Year: 2023

I thought the joys of soft-boiled eggs were universal. Then, I started talking to @farmandhearth and realised that not everyone does (or even knows that others do) this to their eggs!
.
She asked:
.
But don’t you get shell everywhere?
.
How do you eat it?
.
I’ve been promising I’d share a video showing how ‘us Brits’ get into our soft-boiled eggs, so here’s one I snapped as my morning tummy was rumbling!
.
Have I convinced you (or were you already convinced?!)? Soft-boiling is so easy (put egg in water that almost covers it, bring to boil (no lid), turn down to a strong simmer, cook for three minutes). Try it – a runny yolk is amazing with bread dipped in!!
.
Are you a soft-boiler?! Aren’t they great?!
.
I’m trying to up my morning protein: I’m now often soft-boiling two eggs for breakfast, instead of this one here. Protein at our first meal is so important: if you’d like an email in your inbox next week with 16 ideas on how to get a protein-rich breakfast, you can sign up for my newsletter at ancestralkitchen.com/newsletter (link in profile).

… Read More

Healing is hard.
.
But, for us, the possibility of achieving it naturally far, far outweighs the ‘sentence’ that you can end up with if you go the standard medical route.
.
We embarked on the GAPS protocol as part of our quest to heal our son. All three of us learnt so much in those two years. And it was a platform for more healing, which continues to this day.
.
Listen to today’s @ancestralkitchenpodcast to hear a personal take on two years of the GAPS diet. We talk about why we started the protocol, how we organised our kitchen, our practical routines, what we found challenging, what results we experienced, how we transitioned off GAPS and how our healing has moved on since then.
.
If you’ve ever thought “perhaps GAPS is for me?” or wondered about the power of healing diets, this is the episode for you.

… Read More

Sometimes, leftovers outrank the original dish, right?!
.
That’s what we have here with goetta, a Cincinnati dish made from oats, pork and onions. I stuffed all our leftovers in a loaf tin, let them set, then cut slices off. Now I’m frying them in lard. And as I heard @sandorkraut say on a recent @taste podcast, “Everything is better with lard”!
.
More pics in my story today. Check my post two back for more goetta details.

… Read More

They’re alive! Microbes, doing their job in my ancestral ale, just like they would have done in the kitchens of females in my home country, the UK, five hundred years ago.
.
This ale is kitchen-made, grain malted at home, starter culture created here, glass bowls, saucepans and jars used.
.
I learn something new with every batch. This time, I’m using the spent grain in three, quite different, sourdough breads. I’ve taken tonnes of video…you can see it all in my story today.

… Read More

Food that makes you feel at home is so important. This dish, goetta, was invented by German immigrants to Cincinnati. It’s still made there and often eaters think it actually comes from Germany…but there’s no dish like it there! It was a Cincinnati creation; made to help people (who’d transported their entire life half way around the world) feel at ‘home’.
.
It’s pork, long-cooked in water, shredded, then added back to the broth created. After this, onions, celery and (my favourite!!) oats are added. You cook it until your spoon stands up in the mix.
.
Gosh, it’s good.
.
Comfort. In. A. Bowl.
.
We ate it with cauliflower and a glass of ancestral ale (oats in there too!). See my story today for lots of pictures (including the spoon standing up in my pot!).
.
My newsletter goes out tomorrow – if you’re not on it and want to be you can find the details in my story today or by clicking on the link in my profile.

… Read More

Two ingredients, old bread and sugar, and you can have Russian Bread Kvass.
.
I find home-made sourdough rye and some very dark brown sugar pretty unbeatable taste-wise. And I use the bread cubes again and again, brew after brew, so that they become a bit like kefir grains – a colony of probiotic yeasts and bacteria.
.
Here are the said bread cubes being filtered out as I pour the fermented liquid into a swing-top bottle for a second fermentation.
.
My favourite flavouring for this second ferment is raisins and mint. But orange and ginger are good too.
.
Some more pictures in my story today and the recipe (which includes videos) is the top link in my profile.

… Read More

My kitchen has its own music. The hissing is usually the sauerkraut. The fizzing is the water kefir. And this morning, as I type, my boza is singing to me with large gloopy pops as the fermentation gasses make their way up through the millet to the surface.
.
I’m looking forward to tasting this batch. The microbes create the most amazing thick, sweet yet tart drink that fizzes on my tongue!
.
There are some videos/pictures of the process in my story today. And if you want more, you can see how much I love this drink in my highlight 🙂

… Read More