Honey from a Weed is a book with such wisdom *and* such beauty. An ode to real food and lives fully lived. Having finished it, I have written a ditty to it. You can read, look and listen (I included two audios) via the link in my profile.
This is my Boza after just one day of fermentation…it’s gone bonkers! Several hours after I took this pic, I open the proofer again to find it had overflowed and I had a mess to clear up…
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Boza is a traditional Turkish drink. This is the first time I’ve made a fermented drink out of cooked carb – in this case millet. Ostensibly, I’m doing it for my son, who we’ve seen wonderful strides with, health-wise, since starting on a lectin-free diet. Millet is lectin-free and he loves my fermented drinks!
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Really though, I’m doing it as much for me..there’s just such a wonderful alchemy to fermenting, and fermenting something new – a challenge, that have to use my nous with – brings me so much joy.
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I hope we’ll be drinking this soon!
Have you tried black fermented garlic paste? It is goooood. To me, it tastes like a heavenly umami-laden smooth prune paste. I hadn’t heard of it until last week and now, of course, I want to make it…but a quick online search makes me realise it’s complicated!
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Here it is, a top ricotta, a top left-over sourdough pancakes.
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I often intentionally make too many pancakes, so I can snaffle them out of the fridge and make myself a treaty supper…like this one.
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There’s a tiny bit of fermented garlic paste left in the jar. I might get to taking a vid of it to show you before it goes.
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AND the recipe for my sourdough pancakes is this month’s #ancestralcookup. The recipe is in my profile.
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?!
Honey from a Weed is a book from 1986 written by Patience Gray. It is a collection of recipes, techniques, and experiences gathered in the 1960s and 1970s in five communities around the Mediterranean. Gray describes the “Honey” in the … Read More
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.
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!
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. 🙂
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!
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!