Of Dough and Sourdough

VERY BASIC CAWL RECIPE ===================== Cawl is a Welsh vegetable soup. This isn't a definitive recipe, because that's like saying there's a definitive recipe for Bolognese, gumbo, haggis or any other dish that lives in the hearts of the people of a particular nation or culture.

This, however, is my recipe, which was also my Mum's recipe, and her mum's recipe, going back in my family as far as anyone can remember (it's the only recipe that my family shared with me because (a) they didn't want me to learn any 'manual' skills because they were worried I wouldn't socially climb the way they wanted me to, and (b) because my mother didn't eat my food or teach me any cooking after the day we quarrelled about the way to cook Bolognese sauce when I was 14.)

INGREDIENTS =========== 1 leek 3 carrots 2 parsnips 1 largish turnip/swede Lots of parsley. No, more parsley than that. No. MORE.

METHOD =======

1) Wash, peel and dice your veg.

2) Put them in your cooking vessel.

3) Add water. This is more of an art than a science, but I add about 500ml for every person served.

4) Cook for a while. If you're on a stove top, simmer it for about 3 hours, as if you were making stock. If you've got a pressure cooker, like my wanky middle class Ninja Foodi, then stick it on to pressure cook for 20 mins.

5) once everything has simmered or pressure cooked, add a knob of butter (how much? Sorry, this isn't a science. It depends entirely on how much you like butter) and some salt, to taste.

6) Serve with bread and butter.

VARIATIONS ==========

There are many variations of cawl, so long as you're a heretic and not properly Welsh. For those who are either, (a) not Welsh, or (b) numb to the lamenting of the spirits of their ancestors, you can add potatoes, new fangled vegetables of various types, or even cornflour to thicken the stock. The best way, however, to make cawl, is to shun ANYTHING from before the discovery of America, other than necessary cooking implements.

Lamb is a perfectly reasonable addition, and does not sacrifice your Welshness. There is some debate in my household on how to add it, and so it gets left out to save arguments. My (correct) opinion is that you should trim the fat off and then boil it with the rest of the cawl.

My family's (incorrect) opinion is that you should boil the lamb separately and then ruthlessly dispose of ANY stock that might accidentally transmit flavour. You may then add the bland, chewy lumps to your cawl.

You, could, I suppose, add other meats to cawl, if you were either not Welsh, or content to be visited by the weeping night-time phantoms of your despairing forebears. I hear a man in Port Talbot once added chicken to cawl, but they found him dead in the morning, his hair turned white as snow.

SOURDOUGH — THE BIG GUY ========================

Okay, so the frozen dough might have worked, it might not have worked. I don't have the time or energy to bother redoing it, so this week I'm going back to my old method of making a huuuuge loaf of bread and then freezing half.

Here are the proportions I've worked out for an 80% hydration sourdough loaf.

The Recipe =========

LEVIN 170g starter 415g Flour 550g Water 8g Salt

DOUGH 100% of Levin from day before 500g Flour 250g Water 40g Honey (no anti-fungal agents) 9g Salt 3tsp Caraway Seeds Mixed Seeds 2tsp Dove Farms Organic Yeast 80g Butter

METHOD

LEVAIN (Tonight) 1) Mix the starter, rye flour, water and salt together to make smooth mixture 2) Cover and place in the oven (with the bulb turned on but not the heat) overnight to rise.

DOUGH (Tomorrow Evening) 1) Mix flour, salt, and caraway seeds together. 2) Rub in the butter until the mixture has a breadcrumb like structure 3) Add pumpkin seeds and mix 4) Dissolve the honey in tepid water (what does tepid mean? Not sure, but I try to get the water to blood temperature) 5) Add the levain, yeast and honey-water mix until I have the smoothest dough I can 6) Knead the dough for ten mins. Try to use flour this time because oil results in the bread not sticking to itself. Remember to wear an apron so that I can wear these trousers again tomorrow. 7) Take away half of the dough and freeze it 8) Let the unfrozen dough rest for... an hour? Two hours? I'll know once I see it. 9) Knock the bread back, knead it again, then leave it to rise again for 30ish mins. 10) After 25 mins (yes, if you were going through the recipe step by step, it means you now need to master time travel, sorry) preheat the Ninja Foodie to 200 C 11) Add 200g water, pop in silicon basket and wire rack with baking paper to lower the hopefully not too sloppy dough in. 12) Bake in the Ninja Foodie for about 35 mins. 13) Eat the hopefully awesome sourdough boule.

Sourdough — Bake Half, Freeze Half =============================

Okay, so my new Ninja Foodie means that I've been making smaller loaves, which means my wife is worried it'll be too much of a pain for me to bake every week.

Since we're both determined to keep eating sourdough (which is hilarious, considering that we were thrown into a paroxysm of bliss with fairly ordinary brown bread when I started making it this time last year.)

So, here's the recipe I'm going to try, along with the freezing techniques presented on Breadtopia by Melissa Johnson:

https://breadtopia.com/freezing-sourdough-bread-dough/

The Recipe =========

LEVIN 180g starter 285g Flour 330g Water 6g Salt

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DOUGH 100% of Levin from day before 375g Flour 180g Water 36g Honey (no anti-fungal agents) 7g Salt 2tsp Caraway Seeds 2tsp Dove Farms Organic Yeast 50g Butter

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METHOD

LEVAIN (Tonight) 1) Mix the starter, rye flour, water and salt together to make smoothe mixture 2) Cover and place in the oven (with the bulb turned on but not the heat) overnight to rise.

DOUGH (Tomorrow Evening) 1) Mix flour, salt, and caraway seeds together. 2) Rub in the butter until the mixture has a breadcrumb like structure 3) Add pumpkin seeds and mix 4) Dissolve the honey in tepid water (what does tepid mean? Not sure, but I try to get the water to blood temperature) 5) Add the levain, yeast and honey-water mix until I have the smoothest dough I can 6) Knead the dough for ten mins. Try to use flour this time because oil results in the bread not sticking to itself. Remember to wear an apron so that I can wear these trousers again tomorrow. 7) Take away half of the dough and freeze it 8) Let the unfrozen dough rest for... an hour? Two hours? I'll know once I see it. 9) Knock the bread back, knead it again, then leave it to rise again for 30ish mins. 10) After 25 mins (yes, if you were going through the recipe step by step, it means you now need to master time travel, sorry) preheat the Ninja Foodie to 200 C 11) Add 200g water, pop in silicon basket and wire rack with baking paper to lower the hopefully not too sloppy dough in. 12) Bake in the Ninja Foodie for about 35 mins. 13) Eat the hopefully awesome sourdough boule.

COOKING FROZEN DOUGH 1) Remove dough from freezer in the morning. 2) Leave it in a bowl or banneton to defrost and prove while I go to work. 3) Preheat the Ninja to roughly 200C 4) Pop the silicon basket in 5) Pour in 200ml cold water 6) Add the wire rack with baking paper, and the not too sloppy (hopefully) dough. 7) Cook for 35-40 mins @ 200C, depending on how defrosted the dough is.

Today's Sourdough Recipe ====================

LEVAIN * 100g Starter * 200g Rye Flour * 150ml water * 2 tsp salt

BREAD DOUGH * 250g... probably wholemeal flour? Maybe just pure rye flour? Maybe a hybrid mix? I haven't decided yet * 1 tsp Dove Farms dry yeast * 2 tsp Caraway Seeds * 2 tbsp organic honey (no anti-fungal agents) * 2 tsp salt * 200ml water * 50g pumpkin seeds, if I have any left * 40-50g butter

METHOD =======

LEVAIN (Tonight) 1) Mix the starter, rye flour, water and salt together to make smoothe mixture 2) Cover and place in the oven (with the bulb turned on but not the heat) overnight to rise.

DOUGH (Tomorrow Morning) 1) Mix flour, salt, and caraway seeds together. 2) Rub in the butter until the mixture has a breadcrumb like structure 3) Add pumpkin seeds and mix 4) Dissolve the honey in tepid water (what does tepid mean? Not sure, but I try to get the water to blood temperature) 5) Add the levain, yeast and honey-water mix until I have the smoothest dough I can 6) Knead the dough for ten mins. Try to use flour this time because oil results in the bread not sticking to itself. Remember to wear an apron so that I can wear these trousers again tomorrow. 7) Let the bread rest for... an hour? Two hours? I'll know once I see it. 8) Knock the bread back, knead it again, then leave it to rise again for 30ish mins. 9) After 25 mins (yes, if you were going through the recipe step by step, it means you now need to master time travel, sorry) preheat the Ninja Foodie to 200 C 10) Oil the cooking pot of the Ninja Foodie without burning myself, and pop the hopefully not too sloppy dough in. 11) Bake in the Ninja Foodie for about 45 mins. 12) Eat the hopefully awesome sourdough boule.

Sourdough Crackers ================

This is a recipe that I found as a way of using up sourdough starter, since you end up needing 60-100g for a loaf of bread, but you feed the damned thing every day.

This a very simple recipe that I got from a Japanese friend of my wife's — we were looking for easy sourdough starter recipes to avoid throwing our discard away (although it does wonderful things for compost, believe it or not.)

Ingredients ========= 227g Sourdough starter (unfed) 113g Whole Wheat Flour 1 tsp salt 57g butter, room temp 2 tbsp dried herbs (your choice) Oil (for brushing)

Method ====== 1) Mix together the sourdough starter, flour, salt, butter and herbs with a fork to make a smoothe, not sticky, and cohesive dough.

2) Divide it in half (or don't, if you have a big enough oven trey) and put it in the fridge, wrapped in cling film. Leave it there for 30-60 mins, until the dough has firmed up.

3) Preheat the oven to 175°C

4) Meanwhile, cover a baking trey in baking paper and flour it. Place your dough onto the paper covered trey. Then, take a rolling pin and roll your dough until it's as thin and flat as you can get it while still having it fit on the trey.

5) Cut it into the size of square that is most convenient for you. I use a pizza roller, or a sharp knife.

6) Prick your crackers with a fork to stop them inflating too much

6a) Do this a second time if you are using two baking treys

7) Bake the crackers for about 25-30 mins, until they're brown around the edges.

8) Eat.