What’s cooking?

I have never cooked live on camera – but I will be, next Friday! This is what I’ll be demonstrating – a sourdough discard sweet rye spice loaf. It’s a bread I’ve made countless times over the last three years, so hopefully I’ll be able to talk and mix at the same time!
.
My Ancestral Kitchen podcast co-host @farmandhearth will also be demonstrating lemon mousse and root beer. All three recipes come from Nourishing Traditions, the wonderful cookbook that we spent all of our last podcast episode raving about!
.
The interactive workshop is available live (and in perpetuity) to the patrons of our podcast. Check out our IG account @ancestralkitchenpodcast if you want to know more.
.
And if you want more mouth-watering previews, I’ll pop some pics in my stories in a mo and you can find the recipe on which this rye spice bread is based on page 491 of Nourishing Traditions.

… Read More

Whether you put a cover on your sourdough whilst baking makes a huge difference.
.
Here we have two loaves made from the same dough. It’s spelt flour mixed 50/50 with spent beer mash (which was barley and rye). The left loaf was cooked in an open tin, the right one in covered tin.
.
The crust is lighter on the left because it dried out. With a moist bread like this, it doesn’t really matter that much. But with the sourdough millet and sorghum bread I make not having a lid leaves me with a top that disintegrates into crumbs when I slice.
.
You do not need to have expensive equipment to ‘lid’ a bread. I have a loaf in the oven right now resting on a pizza stone and covered in a large stainless steel mixing bowl. Works a treat.
.
Do you lid your breads?

… Read More

I love ancestral food. In addition, photographing what goes on in my kitchen is a way for me to create and express beauty.
.
Many would judge this picture as anything but beautiful. I grew up in that ‘many’ and can feel its ties making me hesitate before posting.
.
Food that comes in plastic packets; cuts of meat that come from the middle of an animal; ready meals – these things do not give a clear visual cue of what they were. Because of this, it’s easier for us to not care how that animal lived.
.
To me, witnessing a scene like this is a moment of beauty. The reverence that it calls forth in me; the gravity with which it makes me grateful; the respect it gives me for all that a sustainable food system gives and takes.
.
It’s a duck that will nourish my family; one that was cared for by Flavio. I’ll use all the organs. I’ll make stock from the bones.
.
It has a face.
.
And it’s beautiful.

… Read More

In the last 10 years, I’ve moved over 10 times. And two of those moves have been across continents. There is only *one* cookbook that has stayed with me, on every shelf: Nourishing Traditions by @sallyfallonmorell
.
This book floored me when I first stumbled on it. It not only has over 600+ pages of ancestral recipes; each one of those pages also has the most amazing research notes in the margins.
.
I am in awe of Sally’s creative process – it’s a masterpiece of ancestral food and one that I hope will stay on my shelf for many years to come.
.
In today’s @ancestralkitchenpodcast, Andrea and I talk about this book – how we came across it, what it means to us and our favourite recipes. You can listen by searching for Ancestral Kitchen in your podcast app, or by streaming from my site (link in profile).
.
Because there is just *so* much to love about this book, we’ll also be doing a live Zoom cook-up of three of the recipes on Friday July 30th at 7am PST, 3pm BST, 4pm CEST. Patrons of the podcast can come and join in the fun for free. If you want more details, head over to the IG account we made for the podcast @ancestralkitchenpodcast and check out the Patreon link.
.
Do you have Nourishing Traditions? What does it mean to you?

… Read More

The best thing about new potatoes in my book is cooking them, leaving them in the fridge a couple of days and the giving them a serious fry up in lard – until they are well and truly golden and almost crack when you bite into them.
.
Are you with me?

… Read More

I’m trying to train this little man to do things around the house. And also to manage money – he gets a couple of Euros a week (which he currently is spending on crystals from @laporta_doriente in town) for, amongst other things, mixing all our breads. We eat homemade sourdough every day, so it’s quite a responsibility.
.
This picture is a spent grain dough, so it’s quite sticky. He’s also super-good with sourdough pizza (he makes better dough than me!).
.
One day he will realise that our world – of sourdough bread, no supermarkets, real food; our world of virtually no sugar, no ‘sweets’, no soft drinks; our world of no car, no deferring to medical ‘professionals’, no TV – is “different”. I hope, by then, he’ll be so adept and so in love with it, that it’ll stay in his heart for ever.
.
And I love watching what he brings to my kitchen and my world.
.
Baking – part of the #veryfarmish challenge for July from @farmandhearth @tiffany.bye and @untamed.nourishment.

… Read More

Some days you just need a bit of colour, right?!
.
My aim with beet kvass is always to keep the colour in the glass and not around my mouth or down my top (why am I always wearing white when I drink beet kvass?!)
.
My son’s aim however, is to get the biggest purple ‘moustache’ he can!
.
Once this has a good fermenty taste, I’ll second ferment it in a closed, swing-top bottle with a bit of sugar. A day later they’ll be no sweetness, but there will be, in its place, some fizz 🙂
.
Thank you Irene at #mercatointransizione for the beets.

… Read More

Roast local duck with roast local carrots, beets and radish (if you’ve never roasted radish, try it; they’re lovely!). I cooked up the beet greens too and then served with some sourdough barley bread (pic a few posts back).
.
My favourite bit about roasts is pouring the fat and juices form the pan all over my bread.
.
Anyone else can’t be bothered with making ‘proper’ gravy?!
.
Duck from Flavio (@valledelsasso), carrots and beets from Irene (@valdisieveintransizione’s #mercatointransizione) and barley from @spaccio_bio_molinorosso. Thank you for doing what you do.

… Read More

If you came to my house today, I’d offer you one of these. Which would you choose?

… Read More