Sunday, October 29, 2023

Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

This recipe assumes that you already have a sourdough starter and it is made with whole wheat flour. If using a white flour starter you will probably be fine if you reduce the hydration a little, and of course the final loaves will not be 100% whole wheat but near enough.   

This is a link to one description of making a starter, but you will find many more on the internet.

https://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/265890/whole-wheat-sourdough-starter/

Once you have an active starter you don't need to discard anymore, I keep about 500g of starter in the fridge and use what I need to bake, when I am down to around 50-100g remaining I feed my starter to bring it back to 500g let it start to ferment again and once you see it is getting active return to the fridge until you need it for your next bake. I keep an 80% hydration whole wheat starter (80g water/100gFlour) but this works for 100% hydration as well. Others just keep 20-50g of dormant starter in the fridge and take it out and feed it the day before they are going to bake, this is commonly known as the scrapings method.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj6YpNCUYYQ


To make 2 900g Sandwich loaves

 
200g of 80% hydration whole wheat starter ( if you use 100% just adjust the water to account for the extra in your starter. 
 
800-840g of water (depending on how high hydration you want, I use 840g) 1000g of Whole Wheat bread flour (mine is 16% protein, but anything over 13% is good, although you may want to dial back the hydration a little if on the lower side.
 
20g salt

EDIT: - I've started to reduce the hydration by reducing the water to 800g and adding 40g of extra virgin olive oil to the mix. This gives a softer final crumb and adds a day or so before it starts to stale, if it lasts that long.
 
Method

First Morning I make a sponge with all the salt, water and starter and 400g of the flour mix well and leave covered for 1-2 hours to start fermenting (if you need to leave for longer store in the fridge until you are ready to go to the next stage)
 

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Butternut Squash Gratin

This recipe is based on the classic potato gratin. However I love the nutty flavor of this squash and if you believe those that think potato is not a healthy vegetable (personally I think the humble spud is much maligned) it is a great alternative. 

Ingredients

1 Medium Butternut Squash
1 Medium Onion
ground black pepper

For the cheese sauce
200g Grated Cheddar Cheese  
400mls milk
Teaspoon of English mustard
35g butter
35g plain flour
salt and pepper to season

Saturday, January 26, 2019

Soffritto

One of the keys to good dishes is a base of sweated vegetables such as onion, celery carrot and garlic which when cooked in olive oil, is called a Soffritto in Italian cookery. In other parts of the Mediterranean and Latin America where Europeans settled this base to dishes may include other vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms, and have other names such as mirepoix (/mɪərˈpwɑː/ meer-PWAH); but the idea is the same to give a base flavour to soups, sauces, risotto and stew type dishes.

Monday, October 29, 2018

Coconut Lentill Dahl

This is a recipe that I had during a recent stay at Woodbrooke Quaker Study centre in Birmingham. I went home and managed to put this together and it is a fairly accurate recreation of that dish, I hope you enjoy.   

Coconut Lentil Dahl (vegan) – Mild to hot depending on the Garam Masala used.

6 - 8 portions

Ingredients

400g Red Lentils, rinsed until water runs clear
250g finely diced onion
250g grated carrots
3-4 (about 250g) sticks of celery finely diced
3-4 large garlic cloves minced
1 tablespoon Garam Masala
(powder or paste)
2 table spoons of coconut oil
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon of tomato paste (Optional)
400mls Tin coconut milk
750-1000mls of Vegetable stock or water and stock powder/cube
Ground Black pepper and dark soy sauce (I use Kokkaman). 

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Stir-Fry Veggies and Cashew Nuts

This dish can be made with any veggies you have to hand but this was what I had today when making it


Ingredients

1 medium carrot
1 medium onion
1 large hand full cauliflower florets
100g or so shredded cabbage
2 cloves garlic
60g / 2oz cashews
1-2 table spoons of Dark soy sauce
table spoon oil of your preference

Monday, August 21, 2017

Making Sauerkraut


Making Sauerkraut

First off I have to admit to being a bit of a foodie and I love Sauerkraut but getting naturally fermented sauerkraut here in the UK in my experience impossible and if you can it tends to be expensive. So I went and had a look on YouTube for some instructions on how to do it, and my first efforts worked well. I’ve just made another batch and took pictures as I was doing it. So this is a how to show on making Sauerkraut.

Just to say that this is about making basic sauerkraut but you can add additional flavours with garlic, other veg and spices at some point I will try chilli but this week I want the clean taste of a basic sauerkraut.

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Making Bramble Jelly


Hi again, its the time of the year when I turn my hand to foraging and making Jelly from the local wild brambles.

The season has started early here in the UK so I’ve already produced over 60 jars of bramble jelly this year with more to come. Thankfully I have people who donate old jam jars for reuse during the year which I store for this very time of the year so I have not had any problems with jars for storage.