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.

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.

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.

Quite a few people seem to have had a traumatising porridge experience. It’s either been too lumpy, too watery (I’m definetly a “no water” porridge person) or with a burnt taste. But to be honest that shouldn’t be the case. There’s no science in making porridge, really (unless you’re Heston Blumenthal). Just keep stirring while you’re cooking and that way you’re avoid any “possible” lumps or burning.

I like to soak my oats in milk the night before. That way they’re a lot more plumper and you get a creamy result. There are many different types oats. In a nutshell the finer the oats, the quicker they’re cook and the smoother the result.

Meeta @ “What’s for lunch honey” is organising a “comfort food” event. Check it out for other homely recipes.

Creamy almond porridge with apple capaccio
serves 1

2 handfuls of oats
600ml almond milk (I used sweetened but you can use unsweetened and add sugar to taste)
1 apple
Golden syrup (optional)

Soak the oats overnight in half the almond milk. In the morning pour the rest of the milk into the pot and heat gently until the mixture starts to bubble and becomes thick and creamy. Stir constantly while heating the porridge. Use a mandolin or a knife to finely slice the apple. Garnish with the apple capaccio and drizzle with golden syrup.

Et voilà, a bowl of porridge which would make both the mama, papa, baby bear and Goldilocks happy =)

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

Carrot soup with spiced cumin soldiers
Soup recipe adapted from JoËl Robuchon

2 kg carrots, peeled and chopped into rounds
2 cloves of garlic crushed
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 cube of chicken/vegetable stock
1 teaspoon of cumin
salt & pepper
boiling water
6 oranges juiced
2 tbsp of sugar (optional)

Fry the garlic in the olive oil until golden. Add the carrots. Stir for a couple of minutes. Add the stock cube and enough water to cover the carrots. Cook until the carrots are soft. Meanwhile reduce the orange juice by a third, if you’re oranges are very acidic add some sugar (this is what I had to do). Once the carrots are soft, puree until smooth. Add the orange juice, cumin and season to taste. If you prefer your soup to be less thick add more water. Serve with spiced cumin soldiers.

Spiced cumin soldiers

6 slices of bread
125g soft butter
1 bunch of parsley
1 teaspoon of cumin

Toast the bread. Meanwhile chop half the bunch of parsley finely. Combine with butter and cumin. Spread on the toast and cut into strips. Use the rest of the parsley to garnish the 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.

Spiced marinated oranges

150g sugar
150ml water
Juice of 1 orange
2 oranges
2 sticks of cinnamon
2 star anise
3 pods of green cardamom, crushed
1 tsp of ginger
1 tsp of cinnamon
Dark chocolate shavings for decoration

Zest the two oranges. Place the zest with all the rest of the ingredients except the orange flesh and chocolate into a pot. Simmer over a gentle hint until the sugar has dissolved. Peel the skin off the orange, ensure you remove all the white skin aswell. Cut into slices (remove any pips). Combine the oranges with the sugar syrup and leave to chill overnight. Serve either with some chocolate shavings or warm gently and serve with some vanilla or chocolate ice cream.