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The best pizza dough maker in the house. Seriously, the dough he makes is far better than mine. I think it’s because he takes a loooong time over it so it gets super-worked. . Looking forward to eating this tomorrow – it will go in the fridge tonight to long ferment. I think I’m going to make a Fitascetta, which is a dough (in this case wholegrain sourdough spelt) topped with an enormous quantity of fried red onions.

May 4, 2020 by

The best pizza dough maker in the house. Seriously, the dough he makes is far better than mine. I think it’s because he takes a loooong time over it so it gets super-worked.
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Looking forward to eating this tomorrow – it will go in the fridge tonight to long ferment. I think I’m going to make a Fitascetta, which is a dough (in this case wholegrain sourdough spelt) topped with an enormous quantity of fried red onions.

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Chicken stock. Today I am coming to the end of a fast. I love food and am a grumpy faster. But I appreciate what it brings me and very much believe it has an important place in the routine of our days and weeks. . Eating is not just about fuel. And fasting brings with it much mental and emotional challenge. To not base my life around food. To see how much I do use it as an escape, despite years of self-work. To rest, truly rest – man, how hard is that? . We fast as a family, together makes so much difference. Up till recently, it’s been ad-hoc, whenever a health challenge presented itself. But more and more we plan to work it into our weekly routine. The grumpy me doesn’t like that. but all the other parts of me think it’s a brilliant step.

May 3, 2020 by

Chicken stock. Today I am coming to the end of a fast. I love food and am a grumpy faster. But I appreciate what it brings me and very much believe it has an important place in the routine of our days and weeks.
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Eating is not just about fuel. And fasting brings with it much mental and emotional challenge. To not base my life around food. To see how much I do use it as an escape, despite years of self-work. To rest, truly rest – man, how hard is that?
.
We fast as a family, together makes so much difference. Up till recently, it’s been ad-hoc, whenever a health challenge presented itself. But more and more we plan to work it into our weekly routine. The grumpy me doesn’t like that. but all the other parts of me think it’s a brilliant step.

… Read More

Instagram

Want to bake bread with me? This month’s @ancestralcookup is bread. Gorgeous, dense, cakey soda bread…but with a twist – made ancestrally so that it’s as nutrient-dense as it possibly can be. . I’ve written up a template recipe that you can take and adapt to your kitchen, your supplies, your preferences. I’ve even included a method to make soda scones – trust me, they are delicious! . Here’s how: . Click the link in my profile. . Adapt the recipe to suit you. . Bake it sometime this month (or two or three times this month!). . Share it here and tag me. . Enjoy it! Fresh. Toasted. With stew. With butter. With cheese. In you PJs. However you like :-)

May 1, 2020 by

Want to bake bread with me? This month’s @ancestralcookup is bread. Gorgeous, dense, cakey soda bread…but with a twist – made ancestrally so that it’s as nutrient-dense as it possibly can be.
.
I’ve written up a template recipe that you can take and adapt to your kitchen, your supplies, your preferences. I’ve even included a method to make soda scones – trust me, they are delicious!
.
Here’s how:
.
Click the link in my profile.
.
Adapt the recipe to suit you.
.
Bake it sometime this month (or two or three times this month!).
.
Share it here and tag me.
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Enjoy it! Fresh. Toasted. With stew. With butter. With cheese. In you PJs. However you like 🙂

… Read More
Cook My Recipes

Nutrient-Dense Soda Bread

May 1, 2020 by

Don’t you just love soda bread? It’s density, its moreishness, its cakiness, its simplicity. The only downside, in the past, for me, was that the flour wasn’t pre-fermented or pre-soaked, and I know that means less nutrients available for my … Read More

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We’ve an organic farm a few miles uphill from our place. Last time my husband ran there he came back with an absolutely huge piece of beef fat. We used the slow cooker to render this – tallow. . Tallow is good for a lot of reasons. It’s a saturated fat with naturally-occurring A, D, E and K. The reason I love it so much though is that it’s very stable at high temperatures, which means I can use it in my super-hot cast iron pan for frying without worrying. . We got this beef fat for literally pennies (they throw it away) and from it have rendered bowls of tallow that, with the other fats I use (lard, olive oil and coconut oil) will last us several months.

April 30, 2020 by

We’ve an organic farm a few miles uphill from our place. Last time my husband ran there he came back with an absolutely huge piece of beef fat. We used the slow cooker to render this – tallow.
.
Tallow is good for a lot of reasons. It’s a saturated fat with naturally-occurring A, D, E and K. The reason I love it so much though is that it’s very stable at high temperatures, which means I can use it in my super-hot cast iron pan for frying without worrying.
.
We got this beef fat for literally pennies (they throw it away) and from it have rendered bowls of tallow that, with the other fats I use (lard, olive oil and coconut oil) will last us several months.

… Read More

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I cleaned the shelf where I hide my ferments. They looked so splendid on the table I’d thought I’d take a photo. And I remembered you haven’t seen me for a while ;-) . From left to right: banana skin vinegar – fermented garlic – bread kvass 1st ferment – ginger carrots – sauerkraut – water kefir 1st ferment – another water kefir 1st ferment – water kefir 2nd ferment with lemon and ginger – bread kvass 2nd ferment with mint (almost gone!) – water kefir 2nd ferment with strawberry (almost gone too!). . And off camera there’s a sourdough starter, some blended fermenting millet and some blended fermenting farro. . There are a lot of bubbles in my small kitchen.

April 29, 2020 by

I cleaned the shelf where I hide my ferments. They looked so splendid on the table I’d thought I’d take a photo. And I remembered you haven’t seen me for a while 😉
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From left to right:
banana skin vinegar – fermented garlic – bread kvass 1st ferment – ginger carrots – sauerkraut – water kefir 1st ferment – another water kefir 1st ferment – water kefir 2nd ferment with lemon and ginger – bread kvass 2nd ferment with mint (almost gone!) – water kefir 2nd ferment with strawberry (almost gone too!).
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And off camera there’s a sourdough starter, some blended fermenting millet and some blended fermenting farro.
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There are a lot of bubbles in my small kitchen.

… Read More

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Fermenting garlic is easy. You need a lot of garlic, a glass jar, salt and some way of keeping the cloves under the brine you add – I use a bit of cabbage leaf cut to the shape of the jar and ‘pickle pebbles’. . Peel the cloves and chop large ones in two. Pop them in the sterilized jar. Make a brine using 5g of salt to every cup of non-chlorinated water. Pour this over the garlic so they are well-covered. Weigh them down so they stay under the liquid. Lid the jar and leave it covered somewhere warm. Wait. Wait. Wait. . It’s best after 6 weeks – the rawness mellows. Still, they pack an incredible punch and are well-documented as being one of the most potent anti-pretty-much-everything you can get naturally. . I have a chequered history with ferments. I can’t just eat them as I wish. I tried that and couldn’t sleep. It took me a while to realise what was happening. And then it took me a while to get the discipline of weighing out sauerkraut. I started, over 2 years ago with 1g a day! Slowly, slowly I’ve increased it and am now on 24g a day. I’ve done the same with water kefir and currently drink 2 egg-cups of it a day. . My biome needs extra care, I think, after abusing it so royally as a child with the over-eating which saw me twice the size I am now. Changing body ecology is not something I’ve been able to click my fingers and make happen. It’s made in every slow, conscious choice.

April 27, 2020 by

Fermenting garlic is easy. You need a lot of garlic, a glass jar, salt and some way of keeping the cloves under the brine you add – I use a bit of cabbage leaf cut to the shape of the jar and ‘pickle pebbles’.
.
Peel the cloves and chop large ones in two. Pop them in the sterilized jar. Make a brine using 5g of salt to every cup of non-chlorinated water. Pour this over the garlic so they are well-covered. Weigh them down so they stay under the liquid. Lid the jar and leave it covered somewhere warm. Wait. Wait. Wait.
.
It’s best after 6 weeks – the rawness mellows. Still, they pack an incredible punch and are well-documented as being one of the most potent anti-pretty-much-everything you can get naturally.
.
I have a chequered history with ferments. I can’t just eat them as I wish. I tried that and couldn’t sleep. It took me a while to realise what was happening. And then it took me a while to get the discipline of weighing out sauerkraut. I started, over 2 years ago with 1g a day! Slowly, slowly I’ve increased it and am now on 24g a day. I’ve done the same with water kefir and currently drink 2 egg-cups of it a day.
.
My biome needs extra care, I think, after abusing it so royally as a child with the over-eating which saw me twice the size I am now. Changing body ecology is not something I’ve been able to click my fingers and make happen. It’s made in every slow, conscious choice.

… Read More

Instagram

Two wonderful people, @farmandhearth and @forest.grace have taken part in the first #ancestralcookup – my slow-cooked beef and barley stew. Thank you so very much ladies. My heart is warmed and my feet dancing a little as I wander between fridge and oven. . We ate it again today here in my home. It’s sooo good – if you fancy giving it a go, check out the template recipe in my profile. I’m going to leave it there till we hit May. I have a new cook up coming for next month. I think you’re going to like it :-)

April 26, 2020 by

Two wonderful people, @farmandhearth and @forest.grace have taken part in the first #ancestralcookup – my slow-cooked beef and barley stew. Thank you so very much ladies. My heart is warmed and my feet dancing a little as I wander between fridge and oven.
.
We ate it again today here in my home. It’s sooo good – if you fancy giving it a go, check out the template recipe in my profile. I’m going to leave it there till we hit May. I have a new cook up coming for next month. I think you’re going to like it 🙂

… Read More

Instagram

I managed to find wholegrain spelt flour again and am back to baking my favourite 100% wholegrain spelt sourdough loaf. The experience of eating it makes me realise just how much I prefer wholegrain hands-down to white or semi-white flour. Its texture and taste pleases me so much. And, thanks to the @smallfoodbakery post about milling waste the other day, I realise just how much it is an environmentally and socially good choice too. . After experimenting with sourdough wholegrain spelt loaves for a while and finding that they went stale quite soon, I tried adding a ‘scald’ to the dough. That is a portion of flour that is made into a roux beforehand and added into the mixing bowl with my flour, salt, starter and water. It makes such a difference – the loaf is softer, more sliceable and ages better. . At some point, I’ll write it up. In fact, at some point, I’ll get to documenting a whole load about wholegrain sourdough. It is magic. . Wish you were here for lunch :-)

April 25, 2020 by

I managed to find wholegrain spelt flour again and am back to baking my favourite 100% wholegrain spelt sourdough loaf. The experience of eating it makes me realise just how much I prefer wholegrain hands-down to white or semi-white flour. Its texture and taste pleases me so much. And, thanks to the @smallfoodbakery post about milling waste the other day, I realise just how much it is an environmentally and socially good choice too.
.
After experimenting with sourdough wholegrain spelt loaves for a while and finding that they went stale quite soon, I tried adding a ‘scald’ to the dough. That is a portion of flour that is made into a roux beforehand and added into the mixing bowl with my flour, salt, starter and water. It makes such a difference – the loaf is softer, more sliceable and ages better.
.
At some point, I’ll write it up. In fact, at some point, I’ll get to documenting a whole load about wholegrain sourdough. It is magic.
.
Wish you were here for lunch 🙂

… Read More