Sourdough.

I’ve been making my own bread for nearly 3 years now, and dare I say it, I’m not too bad at it. But one thing has eluded me, Sourdough, the name strikes fear into my psyche, I’ve tried several times to get a starter going, but never had any success.

I’ve got a good long spell of time off (Using up my holiday before the end of the leave year) and I’m armed with what looks like a much simpler method, so here we go. I'll keep you informed.

But first, George is coming home! Good news, but she’s not telling us when (If your reading this George, mum is going mental with the excitement) it’s only been 5 months since she went away last time, but three years in total. I can’t wait to see her.

I took the dogs out yesterday and found some daffodils just about out, the world down here has a green tinge, as if spring is poised to burst forth.

Meanwhile back on the food front, although I’m a disciple of Richard Bertinet, I have been baking bread from the recipes of the Herbert Brothers, (Channel 4) and found their book half price in a well known bookshop last week.

They have a different ratio of ingredients to Richard, and I am impressed with the results. Here's a white loaf using 2g of yeast (instead of the 7-10g I normally use) and risen overnight in the fridge. I didn’t rise quite as much as I was expecting, but the taste is quite superb.

After overnight Proving

I can recommend the book to any aspiring baker.

I have First Early Potatoes to plant soon, they are sprouting nicely, also some early carrots to go in, I’m going to leave it until after Imbolc and then get started.

I obtained a piece of local Beef before Xmas, it’s been sitting in my freezer waiting its turn and I decided to roast it today. To save washing up, I put the potatoes, parsnips and some sliced onion around the joint after it had had an hour in the oven; they soaked up all the meat juices whilst it finished cooking. As you can see, neither of us are big fans of rare beef, but I managed to keep it moist and juicy.

Part Roasted

Bed Of Veg

While it was resting,

I poured off the liquid into my veg stock for gravy, and returned the veg to the oven to brown. It was a rather good lunch.

Also I bottled the Vin D’Orange that I started about a month ago, it tasted so good that I went out and brought the makings for another batch. Yvonne said that it tasted like liquid sunshine; I can’t beat that for a description.

Ready to Drink

Second Batch

Talking of Yvonne, she has done some Oestara cards, and some little flower note cards. I thought you might like a look, as ever I think that the quality is superb.