Honey from a Weed is a book from 1986 written by Patience Gray. It is a collection of recipes, techniques, and experiences gathered in the 1960s and 1970s in five communities around the Mediterranean. Gray describes the “Honey” in the … Read More
What emotion do you feel most often in your kitchen?
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For me it is joy.
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I believe in joy.
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I believe joy has immense power to facilitate sustainable change.
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And so, when I write about my passion, the image of dancing with our food jumps into my head.
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I hope you get to dance with some food today 🙂
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This is a quote from my article “What is Good Food”. It’s linked in my profile if you want to have a read.
Brains attempt #2. This time, in the hope of having them less squidgy, I followed the prep instructions in #nourishingtraditions. Then I coated them in millet flour with sage and oregano before frying here in tallow.
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They are captivating to watch frying! Video in my story today, plus, whilst I was waiting, I took a quick vid of the #tuscanhills I can see from the kitchen window…because when I’m not looking at food, I’m usually looking out there!
Do I eat processed foods? Damn right I do! Take a look at my breakfast:
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Fermented millet and sorghum porridge – I ground the grains and added water and sourdough discard before leaving to ferment overnight.
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Goat milk kefir – I fermented raw milk using kefir grains.
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Nuts – I soaked the almonds and walnuts in water and salt for a day, before draining and dehydrating.
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You can also see ground cacao bean (fermented in its processing) and ghee (heated to remove the milk protein).
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This is processing as it should be: Ancient practices, simply applied. This type of processing enhances food; it removes toxins, makes it more digestible, increases its power.
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Industrial processing was created with profit as its focus. It keeps us in our place. It creates harm.
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Swapping industrial processing for ancestral processing could change everything.
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And. It. Tastes. Amazing. 🙂
There’s a lot of millet action going on in my kitchen at the moment.
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The DIY proofing box is out (it’s colder now and I want warmth for my experiments!) and in it I’m growing two things:
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A millet sourdough starter, and
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A millet starter for a Turkish fermented drink called Boza.
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The sourdough starter is easy, I just need time and persistence. The Boza starter more difficult…documentation is nowhere near as available, so I’m kinda using my nous and seeing what happens!
This is what happens when you *really* ferment a pancake dough. Crumpet pancake!!
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Recipe for sourdough pancakes is in my profile. It’s this month’s #ancestralcookup and is super easy and delicious.
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If you’re feeling brave (or curious) let it super-ferment and cook up a crumpet pancake like this. And then have fun choosing what you want to melt into the holes before you devour it!
I have just finished “Honey from a Weed” the amazing cookbook by Patience Gray. I refuse to put it on my shelf. I want to start it again. I want to dip into it over tea. I want to cook everything in it (OK, well maybe not the recipe for garden snails).
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These are Borlotti beans cooked ‘alla Toscana’ as per page 62. Check out my story today to see how they came to life – there’s even some bean art in there 🙂
The stardust in my cells did a little jiggle when I read this comment on my wholegrain sourdough spelt pizza.
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It wasn’t from my hubby this time, but from @lvtrevino who cooked it up using the recipe in my profile. And this lady has eaten in both NYC and Italy.
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Eating a good sourdough wholegrain pizza base with nutty spelt flour is a joy…so much so that you don’t want many toppings, the dough itself is the star.
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Check out the recipe in my profile 🙂
I bought some celeriac which still had the abundant green tops on. What better excuse to try out a new ferment?
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I added some garlic, black pepper and coriander seeds. Just have to wait a few days now – the most difficult part!
The slow cooker is out!
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This is #ossobuco, from Flavio @lavalledelsasso cooked with lots of local veg.
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I’m totally enamoured by stirring sauerkraut into my stew at the moment, rather than eating it separately. The sour flavour goes so well threaded through the meaty broth.
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In gut-healing diets, this is shunned, as potentially the probiotics in the kraut are killed off by the heat of the stew. But I figure, I get so much else alive (with my kefir, kvass, fermented garlic etc) that savouring the flavour like this is worth it.
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Adding probiotically created sour to stews is an ancestral tradition in Eastern Europe (at least). The more I learn about traditional wisdom, the more I trust it *deeply*. And I remember Natasha Campbell McBride saying in her GAPS book that even dead probiotics do great work.
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So I let flavour be my guide.