What’s cooking?

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.
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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!).
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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.
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And I love watching what he brings to my kitchen and my world.
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Baking – part of the #veryfarmish challenge for July from @farmandhearth @tiffany.bye and @untamed.nourishment.

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Some days you just need a bit of colour, right?!
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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?!)
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My son’s aim however, is to get the biggest purple ‘moustache’ he can!
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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 🙂
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Thank you Irene at #mercatointransizione for the beets.

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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).
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My favourite bit about roasts is pouring the fat and juices form the pan all over my bread.
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Anyone else can’t be bothered with making ‘proper’ gravy?!
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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.

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

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Back to chocolate-making (because we’ve eaten the last batch!). My son was in charge of making these, and along with the freshly-roasted and home-ground cacao beans, we added cacao butter and (for the first time) a little bit of unrefined sugar.
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Most chocolatiers use refined sugar in their chocolate, because it has less of its own flavour. But he wanted the dark stuff! I think these little hearts work out to be around the 95% cacao mark.
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Meantime, I’ve got myself some single origin beans from Nicaragua and am about to roast them in the cast iron pan. I’m swapping back to pan (I was previously roasting the oven) after being inspired by watching cacao expert Marcos Patchett (author of pretty amazing 700+ page book The Secret Life of Chocolate) roasting his on the stove top.
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We’ve bagged Marcos (who is affectionately known as ‘The Chocolate Man’ in our house) for the @ancestralkitchenpodcast. I’m so excited to bring you 60+ minutes of chat all about ‘real’ chocolate later in the summer.
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More chocolate in my story today. Because, why not?!

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This is a home-ground 100% wholegrain barley sourdough. It’s dense – I knew it would be, but when working with a new grain I really like to start with it on it’s own so I know how it feels, acts and tastes.
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And I don’t mind the density. I’m not striving after some cloud-like loaf. I want local, real and tasty. And this tastes really good. I was kind of expecting a bit ‘cardboardy’ as that’s what I’d heard. But it wasn’t. What was most exciting was that it made my tongue fizz a little as I ate it. No other loaf I’ve made has ever done that.
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The barley had been destined for ancestral beer, but I can’t get this batch to germinate (and with no germination, I can’t make malt) so decided to make bread with it. I’ve since been reading about malting and it seems I need barley with all of its clothes (i.e. its husk) still on. Yet to find that here in Italy. Working on it though.
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If you’re a sourdough fan and haven’t heard the latest Ancestral Kitchen podcast episode, head to your podcast app (or stream from the link in my bio). It’s an interview with @ellys.everyday. I think you’ll love it.

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Strawberry wine anyone?
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It is wonderful, and the #wildfermentation process has taught me a lot.
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The best, best bit was taking some to our local farmers’ market for Masimilliano of @radiciumane who grew the strawberries, to taste 🙂
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Getting some pics and more vid up in my stories…

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I made ricotta for the first time! I’m a newbie at this and tried first with some citric acid…maybe there wasn’t enough, who knows, but it didn’t really work. I swapped, mid-flow, to lemon juice and finally I started to see the curds separating.
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This ricotta and is my ‘Freedom’ post as part of the #veryfarmish July challenge.
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Why freedom?
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My husband ran up the hill to @aziendaagricolapodereruggeri to collect the raw goat milk. No car needed…just legs and clean air and lots and lots of olive trees. He feels so joyfully free when he goes.
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I made the ricotta with help from the internet, that encyclopedia of freely-available traditional techniques. With it, I find freedom to create and play.
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The ricotta is served on a millet and sorghum sourdough. It’s lectin-free. After years of two-steps-forward, one-back with my son’s food intollerances, finding out about lectins blessed us with a huge leap forward in understanding and healing. That has given him so much more freedom.
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And all of it sourced, made and served here in Italy – the place where despite the many leaps and bounds taken (and still to take) living here, I feel freedom so much more strongly that I ever did in the UK.
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Thank you @farmandhearth @tiffany.bye and @untamed.nourishment for hosting the challenge this year. I’m really enjoying all the pictures.

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Lunch from above.
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Kale topped with goat stew. Alongside there’s sourdough 100% whole grain barley (which was homeground) topped with home-rendered lard.
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In the little cups are sauerkraut and fermented garlic. The glasses and bottle are hosting home-fermented local strawberry wine.
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Thank you to all my local suppliers:
@radiciumane (kale and strawberries)
@valledelsasso (pig fat)
@aziendaagricolapodereruggeri (goat)
@spaccio_bio_molinorosso (barley)
@valdisieveintransizione market (all the other veg)
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All everything you see (aside the Italian but not Tuscan barley) is from less than a few miles away and was brought to our house with leg-power!

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Do you know Elly? She’s a legend in the online sourdough world. If you want to bake sourdough, or want to bake more sourdough (and who doesn’t?!) her YouTube channel is such a fount of clear, non-nonsense, simple advice.
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And we got her on the podcast! Quite ambitious for our first ever guest. But the technology, working over three different continents held up and I’m delighted to bring you the interview.
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We talk about wholegrain baking, starters, milling, gluten-free sourdough, baking issues *and* we even get to chat about Elly’s other passion – soap-making.
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I’ll pop a run down of the contents from this @ellys.everyday episode in my story today. You can download by searching for Ancestral Kitchen on your podcast app, or stream it from the link on my site (click on my bio link to get there).
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And if you haven’t yet, head over to @ancestralkitchenpodcast 🙂

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