What’s cooking?

Lardo: Have you tried it? I am completely in love with this cured pork fat and have been wanting to have a go at it myself for ages.

The fat’s from @valledelsasso and the herbs are partially from the garden. Traditionally, lardo is cured in marble basins. I don’t have one of those! All the alternative methods I read said to put it in a plastic bag. I was not keen on that…I don’t want this beautiful fat sitting next to plastic for 3-6 months (lardo takes that long).
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So, after the cure was on (check my story for the ingredients), I decided to wrap it in wax paper. I then covered it (the process requires darkness) and put it in the meat drawer of my fridge. The best lardo is weighted. After some thought, I decided the best option was to fill three empty olive oil bottles with water and rest them on top of it!
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All rather home-spun. But I think it’ll work 🙂
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Now I have to wait. Till 2022! That’s far and away the hardest part.

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You know when you hear about what someone’s building and you think, man, I’m glad they are doing that…it’s so important and I’d love to be part of it?
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That’s what I felt when @kobofermentary let me know about the fermentation school @kirstenkshockey and @mereleighfood were creating.
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It’s a B corporation. If you don’t know what that means, I assure you it’s pretty cool. It’s founded and led by women. Its aim is to raise everyone up.
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And how much, in these times, we need raising up; how much we need to get our voices out further and wider, to pass on the message of ancient food wisdom, to get peoples hands in bowls on on chopping boards. This message has the power to change the world.
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My course on the Scottish oat fermentation, Sowans (check out my story highlight if you’ve missed me posting about this gorgeous ferment) went up on @thefermentationschool yesterday. It’s $40. If you want to play with this delicious porridge and drinking-producing ferment, it’s a great idea to purchase it in the next two weeks (the pre-sale period) because you’ll *also* get free access to my course on the Turkish fermented millet drink, Boza.
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I’ve got a Sowans on the go at the moment. I love it so much I make it every week. I’m looking forward to seeing others bringing it to life in their kitchens 🙂
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The link to the course is in my profile.

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Pizza can *really* be this good. Local spelt flour sourdough, mixed by my 7 year-old, long fermented, topped with pesto made from garden basil and Italian almonds and liberally sprinkled with local onions and olive oil.
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There is no guilt; just bliss 🙂
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The recipe for the base is in my profile.

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I’m cooking heart, again.
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It’s become a ‘thing’ now. When @farmandhearth and I start a podcast, we always ask each other what the last thing we ate was. More than half the time, I say heart.
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That’s because heart is good on so many many fronts.
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It’s inexpensive: You pay less per kilo for a heart from a local, ethical farmer than you would for muscle meat wrapped in plastic from a factory farm.
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It’s easy to cook: Wash it and put it in the slow cooker with water and a few root veg.
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It gives and gives: It’s big hence it’ll do you many meals. It stays in the fridge and will freeze really well.
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It’s tasty: It’s deep-flavoured muscle-meat, easy to carve and great served hot, cold, on its own or in stews.
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This beef heart, just out of the slow cooker, is from the wonder that is Flavio @valledelsasso. I buy at least one a month and it lasts my family a good week.
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If you have any questions on cooking heart this way, ask away.

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Just turned out this sourdough polenta bread from the tin. It was made with sourdough barley polenta that I cooked up for breakfast and will give us easy-to-fix meals this weekend and into next week.
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Check the link in my profile to see a video on how to make sourdough polenta and polenta bread with whatever grain/s you fancy, along with the ever-so-simple sourdough porridge.
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This weekend my kitchen will see the fermentation of two sourdough spelt loaves, a sourdough millet and sorghum loaf, a sourdough rye loaf, some rolled oats, some sowans, and my usual sauerkraut, garlic and water kefir. That’s a lot of bubbles!
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Tell me what you’re fermenting this weekend! I’m taking Sat/Sun off here and I’d love to come back Monday and hear about bubble action 🙂

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This is Sowans, the Scottish oat ferment. My stirring action is so nifty that even my ‘posh’ camera can’t handle it!
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This one’s been fermenting a couple of days. When it’s ready, it’ll give me a super-easy-to-digest porridge and a probiotic-rich drink. Both are delicious.
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Check my story today: I’ve got quite the Sowans ‘factory’ going on here, having filmed a batch of videos explaining how to make this wonderful ferment this week.
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The course will be out next month, it’s going up at @thefermentationschool – a fabulous women-owned and women-led B corporation. I’m proud to be with them 🙂

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Climate change keeps me awake at night. How to get society to make the changes we need to? How to equalise injustice and give everyone the right to make fair choices? How to get governments to champion global health, not profit?
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I totally believe we can change the world by changing what’s on our plate. And, listening to @cfigueres #outrageandoptimism podcast last night, it was *so* good to hear climate experts speaking truth about the role that food plays in the issues that we are facing.
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Last weekend, the agriculture ministers from the G20 met in Florence and my family and I marched with small farmers and artisans who want and need to get their voices heard above the cacophony of industry, red-tape and marketing.
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But as @farmandhearth and I were talking about on a podcast recording yesterday, it’s everyday, repeated *action* that will make the difference. It’s this action that I want to embody and share through the work that I do. Yes, I love, love, love being in the kitchen, but I also love *real* food. When we chose real food we create community and we look after the world. I want that around me. I am fortunate enough to be able choose to run my kitchen and my life in the pursuit of that.
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What one thing would I have those who live, like me, in the affluent west, do? Buy local. Check out the @ancestralkitchenpodcast episode on Quitting Supermarkets if you need any encouragement, inspiration or help.
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I know there are so many more here that feel the same as I do, with their hands in the soil or on the chopping board. Thank you all for doing what you do. I wish I could hug you.

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There are a lot of chefs on Instagram. But I’ve never met one like Chef Aran Goldstein. Not only is he super-skilled in the kitchen, he’s also incredibly passionate about local, nutrient-dense food, being in the kitchen with children and creating the world we want through what we eat.
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We talk about that and more on the podcast interview he did with @farmandhearth and I. It’s today’s episode. You can find it in your app or download/stream via the link in my profile.
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Along with this interview, Aran also gave us an exclusive video cooking class on Injeera – the Ethiopian fermented teff flatbread. This class is available for all our podcast patrons. If you’d like to help support Andrea and I to keep the episodes rolling *and* watch Chef Aran’s, frankly amazing, pancake pouring skills, go to @ancestralkitchenpodcast to find out how to become a patron.

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Boza is a marvel.
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Let’s start with the taste: Thanks to the action of the probiotics, it’s tangy, fizzy, tart and sweet.
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It’s non-dairy, gluten-free, lectin-free and full of live probiotics. These probiotics are making the pattern of holes in this jar of Boza that is currently on my counter-top.
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You can make this in your kitchen. If you have dairy-sensitive or gluten-intolerant loved ones (or, frankly, any loved ones!) they will enjoy it…just like many thousands of people have in the Balkan area of Europe for many hundreds of years.
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If you want to get started, I’ve a straight-forward, non-costly video course on my website. Check my profile for details.

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