What’s cooking?

One of the things I love about Italy is the aliveness of its food-making traditions.
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This is taleggio. I bought it from a lady at the weekly farmers’ market in my home town. It was the first time I’d tried it. The washed crust is edible and contrasted beautifully with the spongy, light, fragrant middle. This chunk lasted me three suppers – with sliced, room temperature tomatoes and some home-made millet and sorghum sourdough.
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This was made from the milk from animals living close by, by hand, and I bought it from the person whose hands made it, with a real exchange and no plastic wrap in sight.
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This is the way food should be. Are you with me?

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Spelt sourdough, studded with chocolate barley malt and hazelnuts.
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We recently went to visit (and eat with) Flavio, the amazing man that raises the animals we eat on his farm. I wanted to take something. I had a feeling this bread would be a hit, and it was 🙂
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The recipe for it is linked in my profile. If you haven’t got whole malt, you could easily use malt powder or malt syrup….or if it’s crunch you’re looking for, how about swapping out the malt for cacao nibs?
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In other news, my sourdough porridge, polenta and polenta bread videos went out to everyone on my mailing list today. If you’d like to get news from my kitchen, there’s a sign up in my bio.

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This is the land that brings me my food.
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We planned a whole day out to visit @valledelsasso – where our #farmerman, Flavio, takes care of cows, sheep, pigs, ducks, geese and chickens. It’s only a few miles from our home, but with no car, the train and the bus into the hills was quite an adventure!
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We arrived hungry and saw that Flavio had already lit the barbecue! Along with his wonderful meat, I took a sourdough spelt, chocolate barley and sorghum loaf and some ginger beer.

Gabriel played with the other children, Rob borrowed Flavio’s guitar and noodled, I chatted, ate, and wandered around with my camera.
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So grateful for the community I am finding through the food choices I make. So happy to be able to support the people who choose a tough path – to work the land with love.
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It happened to be Rob and my 6th wedding anniversary. I couldn’t have imagined a nicer celebration.
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Going to pop some more pics and another video in my story.

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Hearing fermentation bubbles makes something fizz inside me too! So I decided to dig out the mic and give you the full #rootbeer effect.
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This is a carrot root beer, based on a #nourishingtraditions recipe. I used the frozen whey cubes I posted a pic of a while back – hear how active they are!

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I wanted a supper that felt luxurious, so I fried up two slices of sourdough millet/sorghum polenta in butter. Whilst it was crisping, I sliced a super-ripe Sardinian variety of tomato, bought from Irene at our local market. I popped it in the cast iron pan alongside the polenta and then took an egg (also from Irene) and barely scrambled it in butter.
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Sliding it all onto the plate, I wanted every last drop, so I drizzled the butter remaining in the pan over the top.
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Super-satisfying.

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I’m not the only one who likes nosing in fridges, right?!!
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In the latest episode of the podcast, I got to dive into every nook and cranny of @farmandhearth’s fridge and she, in turn, quizzed me about the contents of mine.
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The lists were long (no wonder the door of mine often refuses to shut) and included lots of staples, some wondrous ferments, home-made bits for our skin and a lot of creative leftovers.
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Have a listen by finding @ancestralkitchenpodcast in your podcast app or by using the link in my profile.
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*And*, to feed my nosiness, let me know one thing that’s in your fridge right now!!

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You know that *amazing* smell when you open a jar of pesto? I always thought it was dependent on the cheese or the pine nuts. Turns out it’s not!
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This is lacto-fermenting basil. A nudge from @savage.craic gave me the impetus to use our crazily-growing back yard basil this way. I added 3% salt and pounded (actually, I should say my son Gabriel did the pounding – check out my story today if you want a smile :-)).
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The brown liquid on the top doesn’t look particularly nice, but when I open the jar (which I topped with a small layer of olive oil) it smells like the most heavenly pesto your nose has ever sniffed. No cheese, no nuts…it’s just basil, salt and oil.
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Now I want to grow even more basil next year just to get to sniff this (and I haven’t even tasted it yet!)

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I scribbled this down when listening to @sandorkraut being interviewed by @flora_brewing back in June and I’ve been wanting to get it up on my feed since then!
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Because how true is this?! It’s what most of my kitchen is based on.
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Grains, water, time – oh my gosh, sourdough bread!
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Veg, salt, water, time – fiery, exciting ferments.
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Sugar, bacteria, time – fizzy, delicate, delicious drinks.
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Fermentation is a joy and it is simple. It creates connection and it sparks meals with such flavour. I use bowls and jars I got for pennies and ingredients that are local and simple. And by the magic of microbes I get deliciousness!
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Love to hear what your all-time-favourite-ferment is.

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My “Sourdough Porridge, Polenta and Polenta Bread” video series is ready to go! I’ll be sharing it first with my newsletter community. Just got to rope Rob, my hubby, into showing me how to use the newsletter-creator he made for me. Hopefully it’ll go out next week.
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If you want the videos in your inbox, or if you want to be on my newsletter and aren’t, use the link in my profile to pass me your details.
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In the meantime, I’ll be off to eat all the the fermented porridge I made in order to shoot the videos 🙂

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