Author: Alison Kay

Chestnuts have historically been one of the most important foods to Tuscans. There are vast tracts of the trees here and often the carbohydrate-rich fruit was the only thing that was available for sustenance during harsh times.
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They are an amazing food – gluten-free, starchy and sweet. I most often use chestnuts ground into flour, but I thought I’d have a go at cooking up some of the dried nuts. I half-followed a recipe from a locally-authored cook book, using onion, wine, stock, bay and fennel.
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Here’s the result. You can see how I did it in my story today, where I walk through the process. This stash will last us the best part of a week – they are so very sweet that topping your meal with three or four is enough. Isn’t the shine on them in this pic wonderful?!

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What emotion do you feel most often in your kitchen?
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For me it is joy.
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I believe in joy.
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I believe joy has immense power to facilitate sustainable change.
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And so, when I write about my passion, the image of dancing with our food jumps into my head.
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I hope you get to dance with some food today 🙂
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This is a quote from my article “What is Good Food”. It’s linked in my profile if you want to have a read.

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Brains attempt #2. This time, in the hope of having them less squidgy, I followed the prep instructions in #nourishingtraditions. Then I coated them in millet flour with sage and oregano before frying here in tallow.
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They are captivating to watch frying! Video in my story today, plus, whilst I was waiting, I took a quick vid of the #tuscanhills I can see from the kitchen window…because when I’m not looking at food, I’m usually looking out there!

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Do I eat processed foods? Damn right I do! Take a look at my breakfast:
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Fermented millet and sorghum porridge – I ground the grains and added water and sourdough discard before leaving to ferment overnight.
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Goat milk kefir – I fermented raw milk using kefir grains.
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Nuts – I soaked the almonds and walnuts in water and salt for a day, before draining and dehydrating.
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You can also see ground cacao bean (fermented in its processing) and ghee (heated to remove the milk protein).
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This is processing as it should be: Ancient practices, simply applied. This type of processing enhances food; it removes toxins, makes it more digestible, increases its power.
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Industrial processing was created with profit as its focus. It keeps us in our place. It creates harm.
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Swapping industrial processing for ancestral processing could change everything.
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And. It. Tastes. Amazing. 🙂

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There’s a lot of millet action going on in my kitchen at the moment.
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The DIY proofing box is out (it’s colder now and I want warmth for my experiments!) and in it I’m growing two things:
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A millet sourdough starter, and
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A millet starter for a Turkish fermented drink called Boza.
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The sourdough starter is easy, I just need time and persistence. The Boza starter more difficult…documentation is nowhere near as available, so I’m kinda using my nous and seeing what happens!

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This is what happens when you *really* ferment a pancake dough. Crumpet pancake!!
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Recipe for sourdough pancakes is in my profile. It’s this month’s #ancestralcookup and is super easy and delicious.
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If you’re feeling brave (or curious) let it super-ferment and cook up a crumpet pancake like this. And then have fun choosing what you want to melt into the holes before you devour it!

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I have just finished “Honey from a Weed” the amazing cookbook by Patience Gray. I refuse to put it on my shelf. I want to start it again. I want to dip into it over tea. I want to cook everything in it (OK, well maybe not the recipe for garden snails).
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These are Borlotti beans cooked ‘alla Toscana’ as per page 62. Check out my story today to see how they came to life – there’s even some bean art in there 🙂

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The stardust in my cells did a little jiggle when I read this comment on my wholegrain sourdough spelt pizza.
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It wasn’t from my hubby this time, but from @lvtrevino who cooked it up using the recipe in my profile. And this lady has eaten in both NYC and Italy.
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Eating a good sourdough wholegrain pizza base with nutty spelt flour is a joy…so much so that you don’t want many toppings, the dough itself is the star.
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Check out the recipe in my profile 🙂

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I bought some celeriac which still had the abundant green tops on. What better excuse to try out a new ferment?
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I added some garlic, black pepper and coriander seeds. Just have to wait a few days now – the most difficult part!

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