The crust. Is it the best bit? Or is it the place where the juicy topping meets the dough? Or maybe the crispy bottom?!
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All of those places on the wholegrain spelt sourdough pizza I make are gooood.
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What’s your favourite bit?
Fermented barley and rye cakes baked in cabbage leaves. These are an #anccestralfood version of a recipe in the Russian cookbook ‘Beyond the North Wind’. I soaked the flours in #rawgoatmilk kefir overnight and then added in some melted ghee. Baked in a very hot oven, the cabbage crisps and the cakes are creamy and gorgeous.
Mint-Choc-Chip Kefir? Here’s my water kefir going in for a second ferment with mint from the garden and a generous helping of cacao nibs. We’ll see how it turns out!
My first attempt at making wholegrain spelt sourdough pasta was…shall we say…interesting! Here is the tagliatelle with a courgette, onion and mushroom sauce, topped with nutritional yeast. Those kinda curly ends sticking out are my pasta.
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I need a bigger pan, I need to leave the pasta to dry for a few hours before boiling, I need to roll it more thinly. I have hankered after a hand-crank pasta machine for ages and have settled on the reasonably priced Imperia which should arrive soon. I mean, it’s gotta be fun to feed sheets of dough through the rollers while my hubby and little one catch it the other side?!
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…this sourdough pasta story is to be continued 😉
I tried out a new method for my 100% wholegrain spelt sourdough. It included a lot of water and some super-stretchy letter folding. Coming out of the oven, it looks and smells wonderful. I feel like a proud Mum.
Like bread? Like lasagna? Then you’re going to love this month’s new Ancestral Cook-up: Bread Lasagna!
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Seriously, there is something magical about layering the (already darn yummy) sponge-like substance that is bread with tasty filling, covering the whole thing in stock and then baking it up.
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You can do this any which way. It’s designed to suit your tastes, your kitchen and your creative whims. Check out my profile for the recipe where I talk through the options and give you loads of ideas to play with.
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And then come cook with me this month 🙂
Soda bread anyone? Here’s my latest version: wholegrain, ancient grain – this time baked in a tin. And it’s nutrient-dense, by that I mean the flour has been given time to soak in the sour milk, removing the phytic acid that stops you digesting all the minerals.
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Soda bread, made in this way, is this month’s #ancestralcookup. You can use any flour you like – wholemeal, white, wheat, gluten-free…whatever you can find, whatever your body loves. You can use whatever ‘milk’ you like – kefir, soured, oat, barley…whatever works for you.
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I’d love to have you cook along and enjoy the super-delicious outcome. Link to the recipe is in my profile.
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?
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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.
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.
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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!
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Here’s how:
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Click the link in my profile.
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Adapt the recipe to suit you.
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Bake it sometime this month (or two or three times this month!).
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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 🙂
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.
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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.
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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.
