Be Excellent To Each Other

You just need to mix flour and water; it's a slow process - I cheated a bit by cutting off a bit of a defrosted dough made with Doves Farm yeast and mixed that with some fresh flour and water, since then I've been feeding it daily (and more recently twice daily).

The cheating is why it was ready to use in a week. I fed him and he doubled in size in half an hour; Ian's a fighter!

I've been using Sourdough Home as a reference.

Just flour and water, eh? I thought yoghurt was involved at some stage? Or is that something else?

Something else. Naan bread, possibly.

I have rather a lot of leftover roast leg of lamb. Suggestions for how to use it? Curry is out; it’s too heavily flavoured with rosemary.

Some sort of meat pie seems like an idea.

Shepherd's pie! Have you got a mincer?

Absolutely pie.

Carnitas.

No. I should have mentioned that.

Mincing cooked meat really doesn't tend to work that well, either. You could just do a fine dice on it.

Might be too late now, but I'd make stovies with it.

Hm. 3 particularly virile cups of Ian in Ian Iansson II and it barely rose at all in a couple of hours, though it seems to have had a go left overnight in the fridge. It's a very different recipe though, with mostly spelt and smoked malted wholegrain flours (and added seeds, grains oatbran and, accidentally, couscous). Kneading and cutting into mini loaf tins for a further rise tonight!

What would be a good way to do a lamb rack? I'm tempted to do one, but I've never done it before. Rosemary and thyme are the classic flavour for it aren't they?

Garlic and rosemary. Blitz a load up with breadcrumbs and a bit of olive oil, smear it all over the fatty side of the rack, then roast it.

Pan sear it first right? And put foil over the bones so they don't burn when roasting right?

Yeah. Sear it before you put the crust on. Wrap the bones or french trim them if you've got lots of free time.

I had that n'Duja pizza from Zizzi yesterday.

Most enjoyable.

Later research has led me to conclude it's more commonly spelt 'nduja, incidentally. It's an Italian word derived from the French word andouille, hence the 'n bit. Craster and I have been getting that wrong since we first discovered it, although we're far from alone.

I've also found a couple of online sellers. Including one who sells it in jars.

DRUNK WEBPAGE MAKING

http://www.fullonrobotchubby.co.uk/random/fat/

I've always admired your work.

butter on a bacon sandwich?

Oh Pundy, you fool. Objecting to butter in any situation is the mark of the mind-broken.

A few days ago I made bread dough with yoghurt and crushed fennel, cumin and fenugreek seeds in. I'm still getting used to ian so I messed up the water/flour balance and it came out very sticky - added more flour and stuck it in the fridge for a few days since it barely rose either. Today I did a test bread - cut a chunk off, rolled it flat, oiled it and into the frying pan.

Bloody marvellous, it'll go great with heavily spiced lamb and some veg. Today it had to make do with salsa, Hot sauce, cream cheese and leftover doner meat.

Yeah, on the outside. Keep up.

My understanding is that you never really have a set formula to follow with sourdough starters, as they will vary from one use to the next. There's always an element of improvisation. Which is rather intimidating, in baking, of course.

Rack of lamb to be made tonight. Doing it with the rosemary and garlic crust with a red wine sauce and potatoes. Hopefully will turn out nice.

Who knows! Anyway, I made some bread and then a pizza dough to really take back the size of the starter as it was getting very big, and that means a lot of feeding. I'm thinking about chucking in a pinch of salt every so often to slow it down, since I'm keeping it at room temperature. Really I think the only reason it's still alive is that I cheated with the robust commercial yeast to start it.

The bread came out really very nice indeed after a couple of days in the fridge - the sour flavour is starting to build up now. I need to add less sugar though, I think there's a fairly large amount being produced by the yeast feeding on the carbs.

LAMB RACK: SUCESS!

Cooking folk! Risotto rice. What's the best? Quickly mind, I'm off out soon! Arborio?

I'm thinking roast cherry tomatoes and goat's cheese, by the way...

Not sure whether to just have a lot of it on its own or something with it, such as MEAT.

chuck in some lardons of a nice dry cured ham (to cut the acid sweetness of the cheese and tomatoes, if for some reason you need an excuse) and you're done. So what if it's supposed to be a veggie dish?

You might have a point there!

Edited for food 'science' (cough) rationale!

Well anyway I went for Arborio...

Yeah, arborio or carnaroli. Not convinced you can tell much of a difference between the two.

I have no idea about risotto - it's 'white' food so i do t do it

This is unreal! More to follow!

So anyway, I roasted some cherry tomatoes with a little garlic, extra virgin and seasoning.

Meanwhile I set to work on the risotto with a bit of white wine, garlic, shallots, and vegetable stock. Then I added in the goat's cheese at the end (with a little butter), and the delicious roast cherry tomatoes.

It was delicious. But! I used all of the goat's cheese in it which was probably a bad idea. I couldn't finish the whole plate. Pretty sickly after a while. So next time, less goat's cheese! Or, y'know, less risotto and an accompaniment.

I also need to work on my presentation...

http://i.imgur.com/v59Ex.jpg

Yeah. I mean, everyone else can, but I doubt WTB could.

If you'd used a handful of dry cure ham you'd have eaten it all, obviously.

Beer can chicken is on the barbecue.

is that the same as Jamaican bacon chicken?

I believe it is a whole chicken with, essentially, an open can of beer up its ass.

Beer can = bacon in a Jamaican accent.

Also: Ass? Close

Milkshake:
3 heaped teaspoons chocolate Nesquik
1 teaspoon coffee granules
shot of amaretto
glug of maple syrup
1 pint of milk
mix in a glass
Drink.

More ingredients than cooking, but I've started getting a meat box delivered from the Well Hung Meat Co. First one turned up on Friday, and it's an excellent selection of interesting bits of meat - and what I've used so far has been excellent quality. They throw in free offal and bones, so I've got some calves' liver for dinner tonight and a bit pot of stock on the stove right now from the bones. They reckon they've provided a box that's suitable for 4 people for a month, but they clearly don't know me that well. I think this is probably closer to being three weeks' worth for the pair of us - and for £125 that's not bad.

Just had a look and I quite like the idea of that, but can't guarantee someone being in to get it delivered every week, and access to the flats for them to leave it might be tricky...

But I've had a search and found a good local butcher I can pop to on a weekend and get £20 of meat to last the week, so I think I'll start doing that

They'll leave it in a sealed coolbox, but I guess that's still tricky in flats.

Indeed, if they can get its no problem, but they can only get in if someone answers, there is no tradesman button.

If they left it outside, would it get nicked?