What’s cooking?

Oats as the main ingredients of a sausage are delicious. And who needs an electric sausage-stuffer?!

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This is what 25kg (55 pounds) of wholegrain spelt flour looks like!
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And if you want to know what the same amount of sorghum looks like, check behind the sofa!
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Seriously, I have things tucked in places you would not believe! Buying in bulk (here from @tibiona.italia) plus living in a small flat means I have to be resourceful.
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This spelt will be portioned into six. One bag will go into the cupboard, one into the fridge and the other four into the freezer (they’ll take up a third of my freezer space, I had to plan!).
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Do you keep flour under the bed? Ferments in an airing cupboard? Seeds behind the sofa? I’d love to know 🙂

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Most of my meals aren’t dreamy instagrammable shots. They are simple, the work of previous days, repeatable and hopefully as local and nutrient-dense as I can get them.
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Here’s pig’s liver from @valledelsasso (choose pigs liver over beef liver if you find the strong flavour difficult – it’s milder). I try to eat liver twice a week – sometimes simply fried like this in the cast iron pan, sometimes mixed with ground beef in meatballs or bolognese.
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We’re eating it with the last of the Brussels sprouts from @radiciumane (I’m so sad when Brussels sprouts finish, they are one of the best things about winter!). Plus there’s sourdough bread made from the spent grain from my home-made ale topped with home-rendered lard.
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The three cups have the actual rye/oat ancestral ale in them (yes, my 9-year old drinks our ale). It’s low in alcohol, isn’t bitter and feel like a digestive tonic.
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@farmandhearth and I are super-excited to announce our @ancestralkitchenpodcast cookbook…coming tomorrow. It includes 20 meals from our kitchens that you can take into yours play with and enjoy!

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What’s your ideal for an oatmeal cookie? Crunchy throughout? Chewy inside with crisp outer? Smooth or jumbo oats?
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Oat cookie experimentation means there are lots to try at the moment in my house! There are two types here – one with egg, one without. They were both made with a long-matured dough (the first picture): honey and oats left for 9 weeks to ‘ferment’ before being mixed up with butter/spices and baked.
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Turns out I prefer the non-egg, crunchy-throughout ones 🙂

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Sourdough oatcake pop tarts!
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When I came up with a recipe for sourdough oatcakes I never imagined sandwich-ing two of them together with a fruity jelly to make a pop tart. But man, it works, and I am ever-so-grateful to @mrsachase for taking my oatcakes and coming up with this idea in her kitchen!
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The recipe for the sourdough oatcakes is on the resources page of my site (ancestralkitchen.com). Check my story today for some step-by-step photos (I’ll save them to my oats highlight).
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You could also make a version of these pop tarts using a traditional Scottish, unfermented, oatcake (again, recipe on my site). The Scots didn’t ferment many of their oat products – I’ve got a newsletter going out tomorrow talking in depth about that fact. If you’d like to receive it go to ancestralkitchen.com – there’s a sign up at the top of every page.

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Ale in medieval England was made with a portion of malted oats. Until now, I’ve not been able to replicate this as standard oats won’t sprout (they are heat-treated as threshing damages them).
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But then I learnt about naked oats, with their paper-thin hulls. And I scoured Italy for a supplier. Having sourced them, I’ve soaked and sprouted them and here we have my first brew with malted oats included 🙂
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Note the wooden spoon. I use kitchen equipment to brew. If you want to know more, check @ancestralkitchenpodcast #54 where I get super-enthusiastic about all things ancestral ale.

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