What’s cooking?

Our weekends get assigned certain tasks. Sometimes, there’s sauerkraut making, other weekends it’s grain grinding. This last weekend it was chocolate making.
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I’d previously roasted and shelled the single origin Nicaraguan beans. I then gently warmed the mortar and Rob spent 60 minutes pestling (is that a word?!) the cacao nibs. As he goes on, the natural fat inside the beans releases and a paste is formed.
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And that’s it. All I do is press the finished 100% cacao mixture into a mould and wait for it to set.
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We end up with a coarse chocolate – a bit like one of those expensive ones ‘with crunchy nibs’ you see in the shops. All three of us love it. It’s bitter and deep and smokey and so, so strong.
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I made a rough-round-the-edges short video of the process. To show that you *can* make bean to bar chocolate at home without any special equipment. It’s linked in my profile if you want a look.

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Milk kefir bread first came into my life as a rookie sourdough baker. I found a mentor online, and when he told me that he’d made breads risen solely with the power of milk kefir, I just *had* to have a go.
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That was 3 years ago and since then, I’ve made this bread many times. I adore it’s delicate, milky flavour. I keep my standard sourdough starter quite sour and this kefir bread provides a lovely contrast in my bread bin.
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I love nurturing multiple types of wild yeast cultures in my kitchen. The sense of autonomy, wonder and pleasure I feel creating with them is something that now I’ve ‘tasted’ it, I couldn’t live without.
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Check my story today for a picture of the starter and a crumb shot.
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And, while I’m on kefir in bread, someone told me last weekend that they’d heard of people putting their actual milk kefir grains in bread. Anyone know anything about that?

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I started eating sorghum after learning about lectins.
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Lectins are a protective protein produced by certain plants to help them survive – one that can cause problems humans who are particularly sensitive to them.
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My son is, and we’ve been able to continue his healing journey by cutting certain lectin-containing plants out along with increasing plants – like sorghum – that are lectin-free.
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Because this grain is easier to digest, it is one of the few grains I don’t always ferment. Here is it cooked in stock, mixed into a kinda of pilaf, with raw carrots, cooked kale, onions and garlic and a sauce made from olive oil and miso.
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The veg were from the local market (see my story today for some *serious* local veg pictures!), the oil is local, the sorghum was grown in Italy and even the miso was made here.
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If you’re looking to get the most from the grains in your diet, Andrea and I talk about lectin-free grains along with re-introducing grains and other ways to minimise grain digestion-difficulties and maximise grain flavour and nutrition in the current episode of @ancestralkitchenpodcast.

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The rituals centered around food that I’ve developed with my husband Rob and son Gabriel impart so much joy and meaning to my life.
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We walk to our local market on a Thursday, talk to the producers and pick up our vegetables #mercatointransizione
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Every two weeks we walk to meet Flavio and collect the meat, fat and offal from animals he’s cared for in the local hills @valledelsasso
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At the weekend, we grind grains using a hand-crank grinder whilst reading books together.
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Every few days, I prepare bread ingredients and hand them to my son, who’s mixing and kneading skills grow week on week.
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In the morning, I commune with all my ferments – stirring what’s bubbling, sometimes the Scottish sowans, sometimes the Turkish boza, sometimes the ancient beer. They are ready to do their work for another day and so am I.
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And, lastly for this post, as pictured, every 6 weeks or so we render lard. These are my husband’s hands chopping the back fat. It’s his job. I sat by him and chatted as he meditatively worked through the supply. It goes in the slow cooker. For a day our house smells delicious and there are bowls, sieves and containers everywhere. And then, in the evening, we get to eat the crunchy fatty cracklings. My son calls them ‘niblets’.
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I think, not so long ago, our lives revolved around rituals like this. And having immersed myself in them, I can taste and feel in my body just how grounding, gratitude-inducing and joy-giving they are.
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Let me keep going in this direction. It’s a good one.
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I’d love to hear about one of your most enjoyable kitchen rituals…

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When I made wild beer, I don’t just get beer. I use the spent grains in bread and turn the spent ‘crumbs’ into porridge.
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Here’s spent rye crumbs made into a porridge, flavoured with 100% cacao liquor (ground roasted cacao beans, no additions) and topped with home-cracked local hazelnuts and melting ghee. It ain’t half bad as a breakfast!

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All grains, and all ways of cooking grains are not equal.
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Grains have been part of our diet for more than 12,000 years, but it’s only very recently that we’ve eaten them highly-industrialised and outsourced their preparation and cooking to corporations.
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In the past, I’ve avoided grains. Now they are a central part of my kitchen. But how I use and eat them looks nothing like how it did in my Mum’s kitchen. In today’s podcast episode @farmandhearth and I share what grains we eat and how we prepare them. You’ll hear a lot of talk of various forms of fermentation, a discussion on reintroducing grains into your diet and some easy ways for you to unlock the nutritional power of grains in your own kitchen.
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You can download using your podcast app – search for @ancestralkitchenpodcast, or you can stream/download from my site – there’s a link in my profile.

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If you’ve not put sweet potato in a sourdough before, I’d recommend it!
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Here we have two spelt sourdoughs, each with a big blob of mashed sweet potato in the dough. The one on the left I made and flavoured with nigella seeds and tumeric. The one on the right my son made (he even patiently peeled all the sweet potato!) and flavoured with rosemary.
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The bread is naturally sweet, from the potato, and the crumb is so bouncy and soft – it’s a trampoline bread 🙂
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Thank you so much to @elliemarkovitch and @flourambassador for getting me to finally do this. Your Zoom intuitive baking class was such an inspiration.
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Check my story today for a video and a picture of the crumb.
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I’ll be writing up the recipe I used and putting it into my newsletter that goes out later this week. If you’d like to receive it, there’s a link in my profile.

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Dark Italian greens – like the cavolo nero here – are bursting from the stalls at my local farmers’ market, so I’ve got my stew head back on. Here, the slow cooker has done its work on some ossobuco from @valledelsasso, lots of onions and a few carrots.
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I chop everything the night before, put it all on low and then by lunch the next day we have a heart and soul-warming dish. Slice a bit of sourdough and spread it with home-rendered lard and it’s done.
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If you’re in the northern hemisphere, are you getting some good ‘winter’ greens? What are you doing with them?

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This cake it both delicious and fascinating. It’s Castagnaccio: Tuscan Chestnut Cake, made with flour from just-harvested local chestnuts.
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Its flavour is a wonder – rich, deep, sweet, smokey.
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Its history is profound – chestnuts have, at times, been the only sustenance available to the communities in mountainous regions of Italy. So many dishes were creatively concocted by the generations who literally grew-up on chestnuts.
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Cucina povera, and its world-wide equivalents, gift us so much and it feels amazing to continue to honour the seasons, the produce and the simple recipes.
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Many people here with Italian ancestry have contacted me saying they can’t wait for the chestnut flour to appear in their local Italian deli. This is the way to use it!
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I’ll be cooking this live, a week today, Nov 12th at 7am PST/4pm CET, on Zoom with @farmandhearth and our podcast patrons. If you’re interested in cooking along and aren’t a yet a patron, do check @ancestralkitchenpodcast to find out how to come along.

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