What’s cooking?

I made one of these for a friend, explaining how to make water kefir. She loved it so much, I thought I’d do another for Bread Kvass.
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Bread Kvass is fun, fizzy and full of probiotic goodness. I’ve written up the process and you can find a link in my profile – I’ve got vids in there too that’ll make it super-clear.
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As well as exploring in the kitchen, I love playing with colour. If you fancy a nose, you can see some of my colour play at @alisonfaithkay
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@brenna_quinlan inspires me. She makes such fun art with such big messages. I promised her I’d tag her when I posted this. Take a look at her feed, it’s wonderful.
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Back to the Bread Kvass, it’s this month’s #ancestralcookup, I’d love it if you fancied fermenting it up with me.

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I’m grinding oats today to make more Sowans.
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Sowans (pronounced soo-ans) is a traditional Scottish fermented drink made from the bran/husk of newly ground whole oat groats. I’ll put what you can see here through a sieve – leaving bran and tiny bits of white oat in the bowl and rolled oats still in the sieve.
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I’ll then take what’s in the bowl, cover it with water and ferment it for a week. And the rolled oats left in the sieve, we can use to make porridge.
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Check out my story today for grinding in motion (the #marcato grinder is so quiet and meditative) plus more Sowans pics and words.

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My bay leaf love is finding it’s way into more corners of my food creation. I’m fermenting garlic today and have decided to add bay. It’ll be on my shelf doing its thing for at least 6 weeks before we start eating it.
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Both bay and garlic have compounds that break down proteins. So when this is ready, we’ll get a double boost of digestive power as well as wonderful flavour.
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If you’ve never fermented garlic, it’s easy and very much worth it health-wise – I believe it to be the single most powerful foodstuff there is. Sterilise a glass jar, chop the garlic, add a salt solution (5g of salt to a cup of water) till well covered, top with something to keep the garlic under the water (a glass weight and/or cabbage leaf), put a lid on and leave for 6 weeks.

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I am in love with bay.
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I used to be completely underwhelmed by it – dried up, old leaves that I’d put in a stew, not really knowing what they imparted.
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But since growing and drying it myself, I’m amazed by its sweet, spicy and intoxicating smell. I ground some for my bacon cure last week and I’ve taken to putting it in the pan when I fry any combination of onions/mushrooms/garlic/fennel.
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Here are some Tuscan #fegatelli with veg and bay leaves. I stood over the cast iron pan like I had glue on my slippers, breathing in deeply.
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And talking with @farmandhearth I now know that, along with being an anti-inflammatory, it aids protein digestion.
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If you haven’t, give it a go next time you fry. It’s quite wonderful.

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Second go at a lectin-free bread. This time with 70% millet, 30% sorghum. And to help disguise the very light top, I sprinkled it with ground linseed before baking.
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I’m very happy with the rise and I like the taste.
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Aside from my own positive experience avoiding lectins, the thing that makes me feel sure that there is truth in the hypothesis of @drstevengundry is that ancient food wisdom has done things for eons that science now knows reduce lectins.
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Like Italians taking hours to remove the pips and skins of tomatoes before making sauce rather than throwing it all in; like rising bread through fermentation rather than whipping it up with additives to make a modern loaf; like pasturing animals rather than feeding them soy.
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We’re interspersing this lectin-free bread with my ‘normal’ sourdoughs (spelt and rye) and noticing what happens to our bodies and minds. Sourdoughing any grain reduces lectin content, but no-one really knows how much. I intend to find out what works for us.
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Taking responsibility for my own health is a vital part of my life. But through creativity and playing in the kitchen, I get to express it as joy and love.
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Now to eat some bread!!

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Wholegrain rye sourdough sculpted into a loaf and ready for proofing and baking.
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This is my hubby’s staple loaf. 2 days a week he takes our son to the school he loves. It’s an hour by train; too far to return home, so he spends the day in cafes and parks, working. He is powered to a great extent by the rye sourdough I make. He’s got two thick slices of it in his lunch box today.
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If there’s any of this loaf left, I love to steal a bit and make Russian-style fermented bread kvass. If you like rye and you like fizz, it’s really fun to make and drink. I written up how I do it as this month’s cookup. You can find instructions via the link in my profile.

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The slow cooker is out and my house smells good.

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Egg and toast? Well, yes, but it’s so much more…
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Millet and sorghum sourdough made at home by a Mumma for lectin-free experimenting son who misses his bread.
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Topped with melting lard made by @aziendaagricolapodereruggeri and brought down the hill to our house in a padded cool bag by my running husband.
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Sprinkled with home-charred black salt magically brought to life with the help of @darra.goldstein’s latest book, a joy to read.
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Accompanied by an egg from Flavio’s chickens, just over the hill at @lavalledelsasso
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On a plate bought in Florence, a table made by hand, looking out at a sunny Tuscan morning.
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None of these things were easily come by. And yet all of them emit such joy. Let me take a moment to really *feel* that.
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Morning wishes to you all. x

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How are you going without complex carb?
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I’m pretty rubbish! I think I killed my ‘metabolic flexibility’ (the ability to burn carb *or* fat as a fuel source) when, aged 20, and weighing more than 20.stone (280lbs/130kg) I decided to lose weight. Great, right?! Well, yes, but I did it in true 1980s-style by cutting fat from my diet.
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And, having lost half my body weight (hurrah!), I spent the next decade mortally terrified of fat. Literally. Having been the ‘fat girl’ all my childhood, I was a gibbering wreck when contemplating eating cheese or butter.
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In those 10+ fat-free years, I basically trained my body out of being able to burn fat by not ever giving it any.
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The last 5 years, I’ve been diligently working to try and regain this ability to digest and absorb fat. It’s slow work. Making my dinner earlier and my breakfast later has helped. Skipping dinner once a week has helped too. But neither of these are as nice as this – a complex carb free breakfast:

Raw goat’s milk kefir, an egg yolk, ground linseed, cacao nibs, cacao shells (left over from my morning tea) and a few hazlenuts.
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As I have learnt, quick fixes are few and far between. Healing takes such a long time and teaches me patience.

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Us Brits are kinda attached to our bacon. Put a bunch of us in heavenly Tuscany, with all it’s cured meats, and we miss food the way we’re used to. I think it’s a human nature thing…being in an unfamiliar culture (even if you love it, like I do) sometimes makes one crave familiarity.
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So, how else can I respond, other than try and make my own Bacon?!
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So I have some beautiful #rigatino from Flavio at @lavalledelsasso and a recipe (that doesn’t include nitrates) from @rivercottagehq.
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This is the end of day 1. The puddle you can see is liquid from the meat, coloured by my cure which is unrefined dark soft sugar, coarse salt, rosemary and bay leaves.
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I have no idea how this is going to turn out. And I like that feeling 😉

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