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This is my fermenting millet – a blended mix of hulled and unhulled grains that I soaked and sprouted – readying itself for its journey into oven-baked millet cakes. . Those bubbles have been growing over the last 24+ hours. I love bubbles – they seem the sign of such hope to me. . I’ve written a couple of articles for my website the last few days. There’s my formula for sauerkraut and another article titled ‘5 simple steps to start cooking ancestrally’. If you use the ‘What’s Cooking’ menu at www.ancestralkitchen.com and scroll down, you’ll find them.

April 22, 2020 by

This is my fermenting millet – a blended mix of hulled and unhulled grains that I soaked and sprouted – readying itself for its journey into oven-baked millet cakes.
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Those bubbles have been growing over the last 24+ hours. I love bubbles – they seem the sign of such hope to me.
.
I’ve written a couple of articles for my website the last few days. There’s my formula for sauerkraut and another article titled ‘5 simple steps to start cooking ancestrally’. If you use the ‘What’s Cooking’ menu at www.ancestralkitchen.com and scroll down, you’ll find them.

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This is a milestone in our house. Fresh liver from a local organic farm. The first we’ve sourced since moving to Italy. My husband ran up a hill for an hour with a slip that explained what he was doing outside the house in his pocket. . It is from a Cinta Senese pig – a variety that is highly prized here. We bought the whole liver – it was huge. It is so delicious, mild, soft and melt in the mouth. . Eating local liver again makes me feel empowered – to be making use of a part of the animal that is usually shunned, to be feeding my two boys serious amounts of vitamins A, D, E and K, to be supporting a local farm who care for these animals.

April 21, 2020 by

This is a milestone in our house. Fresh liver from a local organic farm. The first we’ve sourced since moving to Italy. My husband ran up a hill for an hour with a slip that explained what he was doing outside the house in his pocket.
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It is from a Cinta Senese pig – a variety that is highly prized here. We bought the whole liver – it was huge. It is so delicious, mild, soft and melt in the mouth.
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Eating local liver again makes me feel empowered – to be making use of a part of the animal that is usually shunned, to be feeding my two boys serious amounts of vitamins A, D, E and K, to be supporting a local farm who care for these animals.

… Read More

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Baked fermented goat’s milk heaven. That’s what I’d call this cup of gorgeousness I made from @darra.goldstein’s book ‘Beyond the North Wind’ full of the most amazing raw, sour, fermented recipes. I have not bought myself a cook book since I got Nourishing Traditions over 10 years ago. I’m not good with following recipes (I can prove it – I messed this up the first time and curdled the milk) but just sometimes, I get so excited I have to cook by the book. . This is milk that’s baked thick and creamy and then fermented. I like mine sour, so left it overnight next to the warm slow-cooker. When it’s baking you take the skin off and save it and then add it back to the finished dish, Oh my, it was so good. . Thank you for such a beautiful, poetic book Darra. I’m hoping to bake some the barley and rye bread in cabbage leaves next.

April 20, 2020 by

Baked fermented goat’s milk heaven. That’s what I’d call this cup of gorgeousness I made from @darra.goldstein’s book ‘Beyond the North Wind’ full of the most amazing raw, sour, fermented recipes. I have not bought myself a cook book since I got Nourishing Traditions over 10 years ago. I’m not good with following recipes (I can prove it – I messed this up the first time and curdled the milk) but just sometimes, I get so excited I have to cook by the book.
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This is milk that’s baked thick and creamy and then fermented. I like mine sour, so left it overnight next to the warm slow-cooker. When it’s baking you take the skin off and save it and then add it back to the finished dish, Oh my, it was so good.
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Thank you for such a beautiful, poetic book Darra. I’m hoping to bake some the barley and rye bread in cabbage leaves next.

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Have you ever cooked with wholegrain (i.e. brown) millet? I didn’t even know you could buy it with the hulls on until I saw it at a healthfood store here in Italy. I got very excited and promptly bought two packets! . Researching told me it’s most often used in Asian cuisine to make dumplings, but it does have a history here in Italy, where millet, often brown, as flour was added to bread mixes. . I love fermenting grains and got exploring. This is what I came up with. Here you see the two grains about to be soaked. I do this for at least a day as the brown millet is hard. Then I drain and rinse and leave to sprout. The tiny tails on the little grains as so cute! Then I food process for a long time with a little starter and leave for another day or two to ferment. It takes on a cheesey funk that is gorgeous. Then I either make porridge with it or bake it into cakes. . I’ll snap some pics the next day or two to show you the outcome. . Can you buy it in your part of the world? Have you used it? What do you do? I’d love to meet another brown millet fermenting geek :-)

April 18, 2020 by

Have you ever cooked with wholegrain (i.e. brown) millet? I didn’t even know you could buy it with the hulls on until I saw it at a healthfood store here in Italy. I got very excited and promptly bought two packets! .
Researching told me it’s most often used in Asian cuisine to make dumplings, but it does have a history here in Italy, where millet, often brown, as flour was added to bread mixes.
.
I love fermenting grains and got exploring. This is what I came up with. Here you see the two grains about to be soaked. I do this for at least a day as the brown millet is hard. Then I drain and rinse and leave to sprout. The tiny tails on the little grains as so cute! Then I food process for a long time with a little starter and leave for another day or two to ferment. It takes on a cheesey funk that is gorgeous. Then I either make porridge with it or bake it into cakes.
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I’ll snap some pics the next day or two to show you the outcome.
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Can you buy it in your part of the world? Have you used it? What do you do? I’d love to meet another brown millet fermenting geek 🙂

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The literal meaning of the word companion is ‘the one with whom I break bread’. I feel that power – to bring people together – every time I make a loaf. I keep baking and trust that the future will hold so many potential around-the-table gatherings that it’ll make my heart sing; just like working the dough does. Love from my kitchen to yours. x

April 17, 2020 by

The literal meaning of the word companion is ‘the one with whom I break bread’. I feel that power – to bring people together – every time I make a loaf. I keep baking and trust that the future will hold so many potential around-the-table gatherings that it’ll make my heart sing; just like working the dough does. Love from my kitchen to yours. x

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If you want to bake sourdough but aren’t, what is the biggest thing that’s stopping you? . I have spent a lot of the last year and a half teaching myself sourdough, focusing on wholegrains and local flour. It has brought me so much. And I want to pass that on. . So, if you’re struggling to bake it, tell me where you are having problems; what you’re struggling with. I’ll take that and try to figure out how I can mix it with my own skills and turn out something that’ll help people move on. . In addition, if you want to help me out, please feel free to share/re-post this. The more people I can reach, the better I’ll get at figuring out how to get more beautiful loaves out there. A big THANK YOU!

April 16, 2020 by

If you want to bake sourdough but aren’t, what is the biggest thing that’s stopping you?
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I have spent a lot of the last year and a half teaching myself sourdough, focusing on wholegrains and local flour. It has brought me so much. And I want to pass that on.
.
So, if you’re struggling to bake it, tell me where you are having problems; what you’re struggling with. I’ll take that and try to figure out how I can mix it with my own skills and turn out something that’ll help people move on.
.
In addition, if you want to help me out, please feel free to share/re-post this. The more people I can reach, the better I’ll get at figuring out how to get more beautiful loaves out there. A big THANK YOU!

… Read More

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I’ve always found the phrase ‘comfort food’ difficult. It’s because, as a child, I abused ‘comfort’ food. I turned to sugar to make life seem OK and was an obese teen who weighed 20 stone (280lbs). Comfort food for me then was anything sweet and creamy – think condensed milk (I used to eat it from the can with a spoon). . Despite losing half my body weight between the ages of 20 and 21, and not having had weight issues for many years, that energy hasn’t left me. Occasionally, on bad days, having a little honey, or a square of 90% chocolate feels like the panic-ridden edge of a slope; a slope where I just fall, fall, fall into the oblivion of how I used to be. . But I know that’s an echo and I remember who I am now. I choose to breathe, to create, to look at the hills, to play with my son. And with the space that those moments afford, I see just how damn far I have come. I have sweet and creamy foods regularly and enjoy them. Full stop. I express myself in all the ways I couldn’t even imagine doing when I was that ‘fat’ girl turning to a bag of ‘goodies’. And I’ve found other foods that bring me comfort – it’s not all about sweet/unctuous anymore. Here’s one: Whole spelt grains that I’ve sprouted, cooked and served warm with spoons of peanut butter and a big blob of miso. I mix it all together and watch the colours change. I hold the bowl in my hands and feel it’s warmth. I smell the salt, the peanuts and the grain’s earthy aroma. It’s comforting and beautiful. . Thank you @julskitchen for your comfort food podcast and the musings it brought out of me today.

April 15, 2020 by

I’ve always found the phrase ‘comfort food’ difficult. It’s because, as a child, I abused ‘comfort’ food. I turned to sugar to make life seem OK and was an obese teen who weighed 20 stone (280lbs). Comfort food for me then was anything sweet and creamy – think condensed milk (I used to eat it from the can with a spoon).
.
Despite losing half my body weight between the ages of 20 and 21, and not having had weight issues for many years, that energy hasn’t left me. Occasionally, on bad days, having a little honey, or a square of 90% chocolate feels like the panic-ridden edge of a slope; a slope where I just fall, fall, fall into the oblivion of how I used to be.
.
But I know that’s an echo and I remember who I am now. I choose to breathe, to create, to look at the hills, to play with my son. And with the space that those moments afford, I see just how damn far I have come. I have sweet and creamy foods regularly and enjoy them. Full stop. I express myself in all the ways I couldn’t even imagine doing when I was that ‘fat’ girl turning to a bag of ‘goodies’. And I’ve found other foods that bring me comfort – it’s not all about sweet/unctuous anymore. Here’s one: Whole spelt grains that I’ve sprouted, cooked and served warm with spoons of peanut butter and a big blob of miso. I mix it all together and watch the colours change. I hold the bowl in my hands and feel it’s warmth. I smell the salt, the peanuts and the grain’s earthy aroma. It’s comforting and beautiful.
.
Thank you @julskitchen for your comfort food podcast and the musings it brought out of me today.

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I am totally in love with the recent podcast series ‘Cereal’ from @farmerama_radio. Yesterday I listened to episode 5, about sourdough and bakers who are championing local flour, community projects and real bread. . Two threads from it are filling my thoughts right now: . 1 – Removing commodity from our food system at every level. . This makes me want to ask, how can we get more people making sourdough at home? I think the *making* is the key, as when you start doing that you are naturally led to questions such as ‘where does my flour come from?’ . 2 – Around 1/3 of bread in the UK ends up in the bin. . This astounds me. I moved from the UK to Italy recently – a country that has an incredibly rich history in its ‘cucina povera’ of making stale bread taste a.m.a.z.i.n.g. in thousands of ways. I am reading a book by a local food author/historian which includes recipes like this right now. It might not solve all this problem, but we need to get people cooking with old bread. . Can you tell how fired up I am?! I am so passionate about local food and there’s nowhere I feel that more than in my bread-making. If you’ve any thoughts, experiences or advice to share, I’d welcome it. I’d also really recommend listening to the Farmerama podcast. . And, yes, almost forgot, I posted a picture here. This is today’s local spelt flour loaf. I am totally in love with not scoring my bread. Look at the beauty of that burst!

April 14, 2020 by

I am totally in love with the recent podcast series ‘Cereal’ from @farmerama_radio. Yesterday I listened to episode 5, about sourdough and bakers who are championing local flour, community projects and real bread.
.
Two threads from it are filling my thoughts right now:
.
1 – Removing commodity from our food system at every level.
.
This makes me want to ask, how can we get more people making sourdough at home? I think the *making* is the key, as when you start doing that you are naturally led to questions such as ‘where does my flour come from?’
.
2 – Around 1/3 of bread in the UK ends up in the bin.
.
This astounds me. I moved from the UK to Italy recently – a country that has an incredibly rich history in its ‘cucina povera’ of making stale bread taste a.m.a.z.i.n.g. in thousands of ways. I am reading a book by a local food author/historian which includes recipes like this right now. It might not solve all this problem, but we need to get people cooking with old bread.
.
Can you tell how fired up I am?! I am so passionate about local food and there’s nowhere I feel that more than in my bread-making. If you’ve any thoughts, experiences or advice to share, I’d welcome it. I’d also really recommend listening to the Farmerama podcast.
.
And, yes, almost forgot, I posted a picture here. This is today’s local spelt flour loaf. I am totally in love with not scoring my bread. Look at the beauty of that burst!

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I am extending the #ancestralcookup to cover the whole of April. If you want to join in, it’s a beef and barley stew, and there are tonnes of options for you to use what you can get hold of in your part of the world. . The template recipe is linked in my profile here. Check that out, cook it up and then post a pic and let me know how your version turned out. It’s a fun way for both me and you to feel part of a community of awesome homecooks who love nutrient-dense foods. . We are lunching on it again today. Because I really love crunch, I got my 6-year old to be in charge of frying up chucks of my sourdough bread in lard to top it. It was yum!

April 13, 2020 by

I am extending the #ancestralcookup to cover the whole of April. If you want to join in, it’s a beef and barley stew, and there are tonnes of options for you to use what you can get hold of in your part of the world.
.
The template recipe is linked in my profile here. Check that out, cook it up and then post a pic and let me know how your version turned out. It’s a fun way for both me and you to feel part of a community of awesome homecooks who love nutrient-dense foods.
.
We are lunching on it again today. Because I really love crunch, I got my 6-year old to be in charge of frying up chucks of my sourdough bread in lard to top it. It was yum!

… Read More

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This is the view from my kitchen window. We found this place to live about 4 weeks before the corona lockdown in Italy. Before that, because of an unforeseeable disaster, we were without a home for 2 months. I am so, so grateful we found this place before everything shut. And I feel so, so blessed that I can see green, trees, hills and birds whenever I want.

April 12, 2020 by

This is the view from my kitchen window. We found this place to live about 4 weeks before the corona lockdown in Italy. Before that, because of an unforeseeable disaster, we were without a home for 2 months. I am so, so grateful we found this place before everything shut. And I feel so, so blessed that I can see green, trees, hills and birds whenever I want.

… Read More