Ask first © 2010 R Khooks, Rachel Khoo. All rights reserved.

Last week I started to dabble in with sourdough. I got a crash course in sourdough bread baking but was still a little dubious as my track record with looking after living things isn’t that great.  Maintaining a starter felt all too much like having to take care of a plant or a beer smelling tamagotchi. My last attempt of growing rosemary and thyme ended up in the bin. Luckily Clotilde from Chocolat & Zucchini has been doing a great job writing about sourdough with plenty of recipes.

Ask first © 2010 R Khooks, Rachel Khoo. All rights reserved.

Sourdough or a natural starter is a combination of fermented flour, water, wild yeasts and friendly bacteria which is used to leaven bread. It’s a tradition to name your starter, so I decided to baptise mine “Lucca” as I’m testing and researching sourdough bread recipes for some culinary workshops I’ll be doing in Tuscany near the town of Lucca.

I went about feeding my starter every day (organic white flour and filtered water). I accidently put it in the fridge and it froze but I managed to bring it back to life. It’s quite warm in Paris (Spring has finally kicked off) which is just the kind of temperature Lucca likes. A week of feeding and I thought it was about time to put Lucca to a test. I used the 1 2 3 sourdough recipe which is pretty fool proof. I went for a mix of wholewheat and white flour with a sprinkling of seeds. I made my sponge early in the morning, gave it 6 hours and then made the dough in the afternoon and left it to rise for a further 6 hours and by 10pm I had a fresh loaf. I must say I’m very impressed with the crust which is made by putting the dough in a oven proof dish with a lid to bake. The water evaporating from the bread creates steam and makes a very crunchy crust. Another plus with sourdough is the bread keeps really well. Even a week later toasted it still tastes great. More beer smelling tamagotchi tales to follow…

Ask first © 2010 R Khooks, Rachel Khoo. All rights reserved.

Check out Clotilde’s well documented basic sourdough recipe for further information.

Tags: healthy, homemade, natural starter, retreat, sourdough

What do you get when you cross a beetroot, a carrot and some ginger? A BEETROTINGER! Sorry that’s quite bad but when I saw this month’s in the bag challenge I wasn’t quite sure what to make of beetroot, carrot and celery. Maybe some sort of bloody maryesque cocktail but that defeats the purpose of doing a detox…After lots of hum and ar-ring. I decided to forget the celery and replace it with some ginger which is very good for detox aswell. And to be quite honest a cake is not very detox at all. So I suggest eating some celery to balance it out Celery is actually one of the few negative calorie foods which means that it takes the body more energy to digest than what the body consumes.

Beetrotinger cake

125g finely grated carrots
125g finely grated raw beetroot
10g finely grated fresh ginger
100g brown sugar
125g ground hazelnuts
50g flour
3 tsp baking powder
100g melted butter
2 eggs

Preheat the oven 180°c. Grease a tin 15 x 15 cm. Mix flour, hazelnuts, baking powder together add the grated carrot, beetroot and ginger. Mix again and then crack the eggs and add the butter. Combine all the ingredients. Spoon into the tin and smooth out. Bake for 20-25minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Tags: beetroot and carrot cake, healthy, in the bag

Nothing beats a big bowl of steaming porridge first thing in the morning. Made in minutes, it keeps you full for hours (hey! I should go into advertising with these kind of slogans ) Plus there are all those nutritional benefits. A perfect comfort food I say. No wonder the 3 bears and Goldilocks like a bowl. Keep reading…

Tags: Breakfast, comfort food, healthy, porridge

Last weekend I tasted the most delicious carrot soup I’ve ever had at my friend’s Grandma’s house. She told me it was a recipe from JoËl Robuchon. I decided to attempt on recreating it myself for a dinner. The spiced cumin bread soldiers are my touch. Soldiers is an English term for strips of bread or you could use the French term “mouillettes”. You usually dip them in soft boiled eggs.

This soup went down a treat. Low in calories and high in vitamin C this dish is perfect for any diet Keep reading…

Tags: carrots, healthy, Joel Robuchon, soup

Happy New Year everyone! Ok, I know I’m “fashionably late”. But getting into the swing of things after the holiday period (or better said after eating enough food to feed the Walton family) is a bit difficult. I’m already suffering from gym aches and pains. So I thought I’ld start 2008 with on a slightly lighter note. If you’re watching your figure, like me at the moment, you can omit the chocolate. Otherwise ideally I would serve this (slightly warmed) with a generous helping of vanilla or chocolate ice cream.

Keep reading…

Tags: healthy, Oranges, spices