FLOWER POT KITCHEN: SOURDOUGH CULTURE

16 Aug 2013

SOURDOUGH CULTURE

BETTY MY SOURDOUGH CULTURE

This sourdough culture is my living breathing baby, I have named her Betty and she will be adding great depth of flavour and natural wild yeast to my Sunday morning sourdough loaf. The older she gets the more mature depth of flavour she will bring and rising performance to my bread.

Your own Betty is easy to create. To look after Betty, she needs feeding every week and will hibernate in your fridge until 24hrs before you need her, then she will come out and sit in the kitchen have a feed and get a whisk to aerate her and allow her to warm up to full bubbleliciousness, then I will take 600g of her to make two sourdough loaves, one for us and one for the family to enjoy, and probably many pizza bases too.

STARTING A SOURDOUGH CULTURE

150g wholemeal organic flour

150g cold water

150g raised dough

FOR THE PROVED DOUGH

500g strong plain white flour

10g salt

50g ooil

15g active yeast

320g water

(mix and knead, fold in air for 6 minutes leave in fridge 24hrs to prove)

This is all it takes to start your culture, take 150g of the proved dough from the fridge and add the 150g of wholemeal organic flour and cold water, mix well and place in the fridge.

The very next day feed Betty with another 150g wholemeal flour and cold water and mix well again. Then on day three you should find little bubbles like above in the culture, and the smell will be of the promise of great fresh bread to come.

This is a magical moment because you have started a relationship that may last your entire life, this baby can live as long as you do with the right care and attention.

Long term keep Betty in the fridge, only removing her from the fridge 24hrs before needing and giving her a feed and leaving her out in your kitchen to warm up and bubble back to life.

As your sourdough, Betty, is a living culture there is always the chance that she can die, this has happened to me in the past, where I have left the culture out to long and got the feed ratio wrong, if this happens don't worry you will know as the culture will smell disgusting and not have the yeasty fresh promise of a smell of what a fresh loaf is going to taste like. Dont worry just start again.

BAKING A SOURDOUGH LOAF

I have weighed my culture from the start, so at day six she stands at 750g, I will take 600g to make two loaves and that will leave me 150g to start the process all over again, by feeding 150g wholemeal flour and water and then placing back in the fridge. If you wanted to make more loaves, you can increase the feed and increase your starter, but two loaves a week is ample for us. The key here is the older the culture the more fabulous the sourdough loaf will be.

THE SOURDOUGH LOAF

460g strong white flour

300g Betty sourdough culture

10g sea salt

230ml warm water

Add all the ingredients to your bowl or work top, gently incorporate and bring together to form your dough, knead with the wave technique, by lifting up the wet dough from the furthest side from you, like the crest of a surfing wave, then pulling back toward you and tucking the crest under it's self just like a wave crashing on the beach, rolling in the air, repeat and within a few minutes (6) you will have a gorgeous smooth springy dough, that has not had any extra flour worked into it and has not been over worked, so that your loaf will be light and airy.

Leave the dough to prove and relax for 3-4hrs, cover with cling film in a warm place. Sprinkle a little flour on your work top and gently turn out the proved dough. Mould the dough into two loaf shapes, dust the proving baskets and place the dough into the baskets, leave it covered with a damp tea towel overnight to double slowly in size (12 hrs).

Heat your oven or wood fired oven to 230 degrees and very gently ease the light airy dough out of the baskets, trying not to disturb the dough. Give the loaf a signature mark and spray or sprinkle over a hint of water, bake for 30 minutes plus until golden and you get the hollow sound when tapped.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.