My sourdough journey

I went on a course to learn about making nice bread. This describes my attempt to put what I learnt about making sourdough bread into practice.

Day one - mix flour and water (100gr/90gr) to start your starter. You can use almost any flour or combination of flours - I used a 75/25 split between strong white and rye. Now leave it covered at a moderately warm room temperature for 24 hrs.

"Feed" the starter at 24hr intervals for up to 10 days (to do this discard about 2/3rds of it each day and then top up with the same amount of flour and water as you did at the beginning). The pic above was at day 2 and you can see the tiny bubbles showing which is a sign the yeasts are forming.

("IT'S ALIVE")
The starter is ready when it looks pretty lively like this. This will be between 5 and 10 days. You can now use up to 90% of this to MAKE SOME BREAD (the remainder can be topped up again following the same schedule as above - you can potentially keep this starter going for ever - see it as a new pet).

My first sourdough loaf made from my own "starter" or "mother" (see below for a lengthy attempt at explaining how to prepare this). 
The basic recipe for this bread is 100% flour - 30-40% starter - 65% water - 2% salt.
So for example (500gr flour - 200gr starter - 350gr water - 10gr salt).

To make a loaf:

Here's the proportions for ingredients:

100% flour (strong white is what I used), 30-40% starter, 65% water, 2% salt

Here's what I actually weighed out to make two small loaves:

500gr flour

200gr starter

350ml water

2 level tsp (10ml) salt

Knead for about 10 mins (until dough is very elasticy) then add the salt and knead for another 5 (even more elasticy). It will feel very wet at first but persevere and as the gluten forms it should become more elasticy and less gloopy and sticky (it'll become even more manageable after adding the salt but don't be tempted to add it early as the salt does draw out moisture). 

Getting a good kneading technique requires practice (I recommend YouTube to see how it's done - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvdtUR-XTG0 is nearest to what I do but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1timJlCT3PM shows a slightly different approach - they both get over well what you are trying to achieve).

Form ("Cob") into a ball and leave in a covered bowl for an hour.

Divide, structure* and cob, and place (fold side up*) in floured bowls to proove overnight in a cool place (the fridge if you are leaving it for 24 hours).

*Structuring the bread is important as it helps the loaf have a good shape and form. Basically to do this pat your dough ball into a kind of flying saucer shape and then keep folding sides in on one another. When cobbing (ie forming into a ball) make sure that the side with the folds is on the bottom of the ball and that when placing in the floured bowls to proove overnight that these folds are face up - this will be the bottom of the loaf you see  (I know!! this is probably an inadequate description of this phase of the process - SORRY).

Next day you can bake:

Preheat oven to highest temp

Turn out your two loaves onto pans sprinkled with semolina flour (remember the folded side or upside in the bowl should be the bottom of your loaf).

Put some (deepish) slashes in the top (this is important for the cooking and the appearence.

Sprinkle each loaf with a bit more flour (again this will enhance the appearance).

Place a tray of water in the bottom of the oven to create some steam (this helps with crust formation).

Put your loaves in for approx 20-25 mins.

The loaves are done when they are golden brown AND a tap on the bottom of the loaf makes a hollow woody kind of sound like tapping a cardboard box.

Onion Bhajee recipe

If you want to eat lovely restaurant-but-better-than-restaurant onion bahjees at home have a try at this.

This'll make  enough for about 4 people

Ingredients:
600 gr onions sliced very thinly (NOT CHOPPED)  - VERY THINLY is important
450 gr of gram flour (sieved into a bowl)
1-2 t sp of salt
2  tbl sp of mint sauce (the stuff you get in a jar - get the best it's still cheap)
1 t sp garam masala
a good handful of chopped fresh coriander leaves (just quite a lot really)

Method:
Sieve the flour into the bowl and stir in about 300-400ml of water (you want a stiff batter)
Mix in all the rest of the ingredients (it is actually ok to taste for salt here - just a dab on your finger)
You want a well coated mix

Now, there's a few (3) ways you can cook these:
1. Best is probably the traditional deep fat frying method (oil at a good temp then golf ball sized balls for 3-4 mins) (tip: you can cook for 2/3 mins and remove - cool then re-mould into golf-ball shapes and fry again to brown).
2. I shallow fry mine - heat 5mm of oil in a pan and then spoon in burger sized patties [1.5cm thick) and fry in the pan like a pancake (turning at halfway).
3. Finally you could try and oven bake them. Maybe heat a tray with some oil in a very hot oven and slap them in to get the outside done (turn once) then turn down and cook for a few more minutes (I haven't tried this method).

On all the above methods the trick is to get a crispy outer and to cook the batter mix (ESP THE ONIONS) into the centre so getting the heat right is essential (practice makes perfect). The onions will need at least 4  mins so try and get your heat so that the bahjees can cook for that long without burning on the outside.

Serve with yoghurt mint dip (yoghurt mixed with a bit of the same sort of mint sauce) and salad.


 

Sichuan/Szechuan pepper corns (by Jon Fasman)

Lets refire this little blog with a wonderful exploration of the weird and wonderful Sichuan pepper corn by my friend Jon.
http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/lifestyle/jon-fasman/strangest-spice

Stop it!

Peeling vegetables is for restaurants. Don't do it at home (apart from creamy mash potatoes).

The Flavour Thesaurus - by Niki Segnit

This fantastic and innovative book on food has got to be one of the best new additions to food literature for quite a while. It's just incredibly informative and useful. Go buy it if you like having a bit of a play with yer flavours in the kitchen. Find out (for example) why some Italian housewives add a touch of cloves to their basil pesto. Brilliant!

The essentials of a Keralan curry

This (basic version) of  a Keralan classic (Malabar sauce) will work well with fish, poultry or vegetables. If you get into this there are lots of twists you can do (both in ingredients/spices and the precise curry method) but this is a good starting point and makes it easy to do veggie and non-veggie versions from the same sauce. Curries made with this sauce go well with rice or Indian breads, especially parathas (I will post a recipe for these soon).

You will need INGREDIENTS:
3 tbsp oil
1 onion
Fresh ginger (say 3cm x 3cm) grated
Fresh garlic (say 4-5 cloves) chopped
Fresh chilies (3 x green chopped) (or a tsp of chilli powder)
3 tomatoes chopped
50 ml tamarind water (see below*) or the juice of a lemon or lime
Spice mix (3 tsp coriander, 1.5tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp tumeric, black pepper and 1/2-1tsp salt)
1 tin coconut milk (400 ml)

METHOD:
Fry the onions on low to medium for 10-15 mins
Add the garlic/chilies/ginger and continue frying for 5 mins on low
Add the tomatoes and spice mix and saute until the tomatoes are softish (if it gets too dry splash in tablespoons of water during this phase)
Add the coconut milk and the tamarind water (or lemon/lime juice)
Simmer on low for 10 mins
THAT IS THE SAUCE - Use it as is or liquidise it for a smoother sauce (my preference).
You can then make a curry with almost anything.
Veg: cook your veg in your prefered way and then pour on the sauce
Chcken: fry some chicken pieces then add the sauce and make sure they are cooked through
Fish: Pour the sauce onto the uncooked fish and poach it in the sauce (10  mins for an average fillet of salmon for instance)

* Try and get a block of tamarind pulp from an Asian grocer as this flavour is better than lemon or lime for this recipe. To make 50ml of tamarind water, soak a 2cm wadge of the pulp in 70 ml of hot water fro 20 mins. Squidge it around to get the juice out then strain through a sieve (you'll end up with a murky looking brown liquid that should taste about as strong as lemon juice)

EXPLANATORY NOTES (might help you get a good result):
If the coconut milk is particularly creamy you might want to add some water - the key to this sauce is getting the balance right between the rich creaminess -alkaline quality- of the coconut against the citrus acidity of the tamarind water/lemon+tomatoes. Seasoning with just enough salt will marry those two together. The spices give depth and complexity.

When two blogs collide - Rowan Jelly and Add N to (X)

This Rowan Jelly is deliciously smokey/sweet with a satisfying burnt treacly after-taste. I just got a jar of it from a friend of my wife's. He picked the berries and made it from scratch and it's lovely. I had a teeny spoonful whilst playing some moog-rich Add N to (X) - cor! - what a mix! - so - because I'm big on sensation associations I hereby post a pic of both in action. Each work well with cheese and bics on a cloudy early Autumn evening under some fairy lights. I intend to try and work a recipe incl. the jelly.