Sour dough starter

After two unsuccessful attempts at making a decent sour dough starter, I decided last school holidays that I would try for a third time.
There is something fascinating about how nothing more than flour and water can create life, and then use that life to make something wholesome and nutritious. It is a humble reminder of how reliant we are on even the smallest of organisms for survival.

Day one. The starter. With the children playing happily outside, and remembering an article about a Russian baker who was quoted to have said that any stress in the self will show in the bread, I take a deep breath, centre my mind and mix a dough using warm, pre-boiled water and a mix of wholemeal spelt and wholemeal wheat flours.
This dough is then covered with a muslin and placed into the airing cupboard to keep at a constant temperature, and away from draughts.
Day two. The starter rests happily in the cupboard.
Day three. The first refreshment.
After two days, the outside had crusted over just as the recipe book said. This was reassuring, as was the otherworldly oozing of aerated dough that was trying to escape from underneath its air-dried shell.
Rather like eating a  kiwi fruit, I scooped out the insides, and mixed it to a sludge with warm, pre-boiled water, and spelt/wheat flour. Again, it is placed in the airing cupboard. (Although this time, a lid replaces the muslin)
Day four. Happily at rest.
Day five. The second refreshment.
Life will always prevail. In this case, it was the life I had hoped for and not the furry green mould that grew on my last attempt of leaven! After a day and a half, the dough had grown, and had taken on a distinctly sweet and rather sharp smell. Another round of water/dough sludge followed by more flour, and the starter is looking and feeling like a normal bread dough.
Day six. After a fourteen hour rise in the airing cupboard, I'm not too sure whether it has doubled or not. It certainly has risen to some degree though. I keep my fingers crossed that it will have the strength to raise bread.

Pain de Campagne (french heath sourdough bread)

Right. Let's put that baby to work!



Day 1. 8am. The first stage is exactly the same routine as making the starter. Water and dough slurry using the starter, add flour, stash in the airing cupboard. The gluten is very well developed, and the dough sticky.

3pm It has doubled. But only just. Still a big concerned that the starter doesn't have enough strength. Perhaps I let it rest too long? It smells tangy, but not unpleasant. Routine as 8am. Pre-warmed the bowl this time.




10pm. More of the same. The smell has reduced. Still concerned that it isn't rising sufficiently.


Day 2 9.30am. As 10pm yesterday. My four year old enjoyed helping to make a slurry with the dough and water. As a result, it took over an hour to mix!
8pm. The dough is rising very slowly now. It should have doubled at least after two to three hours. It has been nine hours now, and I'm being generous to say it has doubled.
8.30pm A Google search gave me lots of helpful, and not so helpful, advice. I'm quite sure now that the starter was left too long in between feeds, and won't be sufficient to rise the sourdough. The dough is quite heavy, so I added some extra warm water, and stashed it back in the airing cupboard until morning.

Day3. 7am. It's not looking good. Definitely not managed to double its bulk this time. As there is almost 3kg of bread dough at stake here, I decide it needs a helping hand and make a biga.




4.45pm.The biga is looking like a happy girl! Nice and bubbly, and growing well. I mix it into the sour dough, feeling both guilty and apprehensive, then pile the dough into two large bread tins.
 8pm. Still not doubled, but I can't leave it until tomorrow, so in the oven they go.
10pm. Surprise! The amount of rise in the oven was great! More than I was expecting. Typically, I forgot to take a photo of the end result! Maybe I should have waited a little while longer before baking the loaves? After cooling slightly, hubby and I decided the proof would be in the eating.....not the worst sour dough I've eaten. But not the best, either. At least it is edible, and I have a pot of starter in the counter to feed every twelve hours until I feel brave enough to make another batch.

Welsh Faggots

Loved in Wales, and the North and West Midlands of England, Faggots are a real, old-fashioned winter dish.
After sourcing a free-range pig liver, I was surprised  as to how large the liver was. Enough for four meals worth of faggots, and a little left over as a treat for the cat (lucky thing!)
 This recipe is taken from Delia Smith's 'complete cookery course' book, one of my kitchen stables for good, reliable food.

110g unsmoked bacon, cut into 2cm cubes

500g pig's liver, cut into 2cm cubes

175g belly pork, cut into 2cm cubes

2 onions, quartered

500ml beef stock

50g fresh white breadcrumbs

1tsp fresh chopped thyme

3/4 tsp dried sage 

1/4tsp mace

salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 190deg C

Place the bacon, liver and belly pork into a casserole dish along with the onions. Pour in the stock, cover and cook for 45 minutes.

Drain the liquid off, reserving it for later, then mince the meat and onions. Add the breadcrumbs, thyme, sage and mace, and mix well.

Form into eight balls, and place into a greased baking dish.

At this point, the faggots could be popped into the fridge for serving at a later date. If you wish to freeze them, freeze the liquid separately.

Pour over 275ml of the reserved liquid, and bake uncovered, for 45 minutes. 

If you want to be really traditional, serve with mushy peas, mashed potato and gravy. Enjoy their savoury goodness!

Longbush Pork

I've recently been in touch with Longbush Pork. A local farm that breeds traditional Large Black pigs on their farm in the Wairarapa. I had been looking for a local farmer to buy free range, healthy pork from for a long time. Especially as I wanted to make Welsh Faggots which entailed the use of the liver.

I firmly believe that good husbandry, natural food and happy animals produce the most nutritious and best tasting meat, and this is especially important where offal is concerned. I also wanted to buy bacon that had been traditionally cured and free from nitrates.   

Longbush Pork didn't fail me. I ordered a bacon hock, some shoulder bacon and liver. The hock went into a cassolet, the bacon was used in an asssortment of things, and the liver was turned into Welsh Faggots. Each dish was equally delicious. We noticed that the bacon in particular had a stronger flavour than the usual sort (by which I mean free range, supermarket bacon), but that didn't stop a plate of bacon and eggs being polished off in two minutes flat!
All in all, I would whole-heartedly recommend Longbush Pork to anyone who is interested in great quality, great tasting, and well-priced pork and bacon (and of course, offal).

Fermented vegetables

Last Wednesday, I went to a workshop on fermented vegetables at Commonsense Organics, Kilbirne.
Hosted by Nicola Cranfield, of the Brooklyn Kitchen, the workshop was packed full of like-minded people. Some were already on a well-established traditional food diet, others recovering from illness and some were just curious about what fermented vegetables could do for them.
First off, I learned heaps. Not just about how to ferment vegetables, but more about the role probiotics play in our health. Who knew that we have a kilo of bacteria in our gut, playing out its important role in digestion and immunity?
I decided to go to Nicola's workshop, because I had heard of fermented vegetables and their health giving properties, and was quite frankly, curious. I had read recipes, and thought they would have a high failure rate (at least to start with), and was not convinced my family would eat them. Thankfully, Nicola's demonstration alleviated my fear of failure, and her tastings showed that I should be able to incorporate the vegetables into my family's diet without too much trouble.
In fact, I was so enthusiastic, that I practically leapt off my chair at the end of the workshop when we were told that the shop was open if anyone wished to buy some veggies to make our first batch.
So it was, that I headed home a happy girl. Full of the excitement of another culinary journey.