What’s cooking?

How many books do you have on the go at the moment?
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Want some more?!
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I’m reading four right now and holding myself back from many more!
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The four I’ve got on the go are:
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@historicalitalianfood’s Chewing the Fat (top in the stack!)
The Essential Herbal Medicine by Simon Mills
How to Brew by John Palmer
Contadino 2.0 featuring Flavio at @valledelsasso (in Italian, started this *ages* ago and am determined to finish it!)
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Lined up for after these, I have Defending Beef by Nicolette Hahn Niman, Eating to Extinction by @dan.saladino, Wild Brews by Jeff Sparrow and ValdiSieve e Lode (again in Italian, again featuring my farmer!)
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After even these, there are two or three more I definitely want to get to – including Nourishing Fats by @sallyfallonmorell and Taste and the TV chef by @foodgillysmith.
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Will there be time for *anything* else this year?! After recording today’s podcast with @farmandhearth and hearing all the books she is diving into, I’m not sure.
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What are you reading?
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What do you want to read this year?
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Inspire me some more!

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Starting the year as I mean to go on: With a beautiful sourdough spelt crust made by wild yeasties!

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My sous chef, fermentista-in-training, joy-infuser and part of the reason I have spent so much time focusing on health-giving food the last 7 years.
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Happy new year from our kitchen (and all the ferments, including this ginger beer!) to yours.
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Thank you. I look forward to more wonderful interaction next year.

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Honey-fermented chestnuts enveloped in home-roasted 100% cacao chocolate.
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I cannot believe my “I wonder what happens if you ferment chestnuts” rabbit hole resulted in these. The chestnut is sweet, smoky and squidgy and permeated by a spicy, mead-like liquor. Then the chocolate comes in and gives it all a dark, bitter, fortifying note.
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They are *so* good. I wish you could taste. If you have chestnuts, put them in some 50/50 honey/water solution with some spices and ferment them! Then, in Jan, I’m going to do a bean-to-bar chocolate with no special equipment day. If you can save them till then, you can cover them in that deliciousness 🙂

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I’ve been waiting so long to do this: Wassail!
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In case you don’t know, wassailing was a traditional UK custom involving a warm, spiced alcoholic drink (which obviously would have been farmhouse-made) known as wassail.
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It generally included apples (wild ones, much more tart than we’re used to now) and winter, immune-enhancing spices.
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I did two versions. The first was with a home-made, non-flavoured rye ale (that had been bottled for 2 days). To this I added roasted apples and lots of warming spices. The second was with the same rye ale but from a bottle that had been second fermented with a wild apple and juniper paste that was made locally. I just added spices to this one, no extra fruit.
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We’d just been for a long walk. Up a hill. In the rain. It felt amazing to cuddle up on the sofa and wrap our hands around this.

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Alternative Shepherd’s Pie!
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Pork mince cooked with onion, cabbage, garlic, coriander seeds and heart stock topped with 2-day fermented sweet potato mashed with lard, more stock and ground coriander.
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We ate this for Christmas lunch together with Brussels sprouts and cauliflower roasted with my home-cured lardo (debut for this delight!).
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As usual, there were leftovers. They’ve all gone now though!
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Other Christmas/Boxing day food highlights were home-made chocolate covered fermented chestnuts, spent grain breakfast pancakes and mulled ancient ale. I’ve got lots of pictures to share with you over the coming week 🙂

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Every Christmas day, we eat something we’ve never eaten before.
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This year, somewhat unusually, I’m creating a simple dish. I’ve started it this morning by putting this cooked, mashed sweet potato in a warm spot to ferment. Whey cubes from the freezer are in there to give it a kick-start.
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Tomorrow, I’ll add some ginger left over from ginger beer and some spices. Then I’ll use it to top a mix of pork mince, onion, garlic, cabbage and spices. It’ll all go in the oven and we’ll eat with my favourite Brussels sprouts (which magically appeared from @radiciumane at our local market last night just in time!!)
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It’ll be a warm, fermented, spicy alternative ‘shepherds pie’. Never done it before, but I’ve got high hopes!
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I wrote an article for @thefermentationschool about our home-made Christmas tradition of eating a new dish every year. You can find the link to it in my linktr.ee (first link in the articles section).
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Oh, and I finally got to covering the honey-fermented chestnuts in home-roasted 100% cacao chocolate this morning. Of course, we had to taste-test them. They are possibly the most delicious experiment to come out of my kitchen. Looking forward to snapping some pics and sharing them with you after the holidays.
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Much love from my kitchen to yours. Enjoy every moment you can.

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