Sanjeev Kohli sits in

Starting a Rye Sourdough from Scratch<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Day 1

25g wholemeal rye flour (often sold as ‘dark’ rye flour)

50ml warm water (35°C)

75g totalMix to a slurry, cover loosely with a polythene bag and leave in a warm place (around

27°C is perfect but don’t worry if you can’t achieve that).

After roughly 24 hours, refresh as follows:

Day 2

75g starter from Day 1

25g wholemeal rye flour

50ml warm water (35°C)

150g total

Mix until all the ingredients are combined, cover loosely with a polythene bag and leave in

a warm place.

After 24 hours, refresh as follows:

Day 3

150g starter from Day 2

25g wholemeal rye flour

50ml warm water (35°C)

225g total

Mix until all the ingredients are combined, as on Day 2.

After 24 hours, refresh as follows:

Day 4

225g starter from Day 3

25g wholemeal rye flour

25ml warm water (35°C)

275g total

Day 5

275g starter from Day 4

50g wholemeal rye flour

25ml warm water (35°C)

350g total ‘original sourdough’ or ‘starter’

After 24 hours you should have a sourdough which smells fruity and slightly acidic. This 5-day process only needs to be done once. From here on, the process of making bread is self-replicating: you refresh your sourdough starter, let it ferment overnight, use most of it to make bread with and keep a little back in the fridge to start the process again.

Using a Sourdough to Make Rye Bread

Stage 1 Making a ‘Production Sourdough’ (a process known as ‘refreshment’)

60g* original sourdough (i.e. the starter you have just made or an old one from the

fridge)

180g wholemeal (‘dark’) rye flour

360ml warm water (35°C)

600g total ‘production sourdough’

Mix to a sloppy dough and leave in a warm place for 12-24 hours. Then use this sourdough to make the final dough of your choice.

* If you are making the exact quantities in this recipe, you will now have about 290 g of your original sourdough left. This goes into a sealed pot in the fridge to wait for the next time you are making bread.

Stage 2 Making the Final Dough - Plain Rye Bread

This is one of the easiest breads to make, once you have created a viable sourdough. Although in Russia, the standard 'black' bread (which is actually a grey colour) usually contains 10-30% wheat flour, using all rye flour is quite legitimate. It has the advantage of making this a bread suitable for people who wish to avoid both bakers' yeast and wheat.

To make two medium-sized loaves (best in fairly ‘small’ straight-sided loaf tins) or one large one:

530g refreshed ‘production sourdough’ from Stage 1 (put the remaining 70 g or so in your sourdough pot in the fridge)

400g ‘light’ rye flour (or dark rye flour, as you prefer)

6g sea salt

240ml warm water (35°C)

1176g total ‘final dough’

Mix everything up into what will seem like an impossibly sticky mess. Using wet hands and a wet scraper, scoop the dough out of the bowl onto a wet worktop. Divide it into two pieces. Then pick each up in turn with your wet hands and briefly shape it into a smooth lump before slurping it gently into a greased tin. Cover loosely and put in a warm place to prove until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

Bake in a hot oven (230°C dropping to 200°C after ten minutes) to develop a good crust. Expect it to take about 40 minutes to bake through. Leave it for at least a day before cutting - if you can.

Starting a Rice Sourdough<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Day 1

30g Brown Rice Flour

40g Water (30°C)

70g Total weight

Mix to a paste, cover loosely with a polythene bag and leave in a fairly warm place (around

30°C is ideal). After one day, stir well and refresh as follows:

Day 2

30g Brown Rice Flour

40g Water (30°C)

70g Starter from Day 1

140g Total weight

Stir well and cover as before. After one day, refresh again:

Day 3

30g Brown Rice Flour

40g Water (30°C)

140g Starter from Day 2

210g Total weight

You should notice some bubbles and the sourdough should have risen up and then fallen back a

bit. Add the fresh flour and water, stir well and cover as before. After one more day, refresh

again:

Day 4

45g Brown Rice Flour

50g Water

210g Starter from Day 3

305g Total sourdough starter

After 24 hours you should have a sourdough which smells nicely acidic and shows clear evidence of bubbling (i.e. gas production by the natural yeasts). The ‘creation’ phase is now complete. From now on, use your ‘starter’ to make a ‘production sourdough’ (see below) and then bread in a simple system with the quantities shown.

Rice, Brazil Nut & Linseed Bread

This bread avoids bakers’ yeast and gets its interesting texture and high nutritional quality from linseeds (rich in Omega-3 and -6 essential fatty acids) and Brazil nuts (the best natural source of selenium). There is evidence that slow sourdough fermentations make micro-nutrients more available to the human body than fast, high-yeast ones. So, if this bread seems to take an age to rise, it may well be worth waiting for. Carob Bean Gum (sometimes called Locust Bean Gum or Meal) is a flour produced from the seeds of the Honey Locust tree (Ceratonia siliqua). Like Guar Gum and Acacia Gum (also known as Gum Arabic), it is a natural plant-derived product which has the ability to absorb many times its own weight in water and to produce a slightly rubbery texture. It is useful in small quantities in some gluten-free recipes since it helps hold otherwise crumbly ingredients together. If you cannot get hold of it, replace its weight with extra egg, or just do without it.

Soaked Linseeds

The day before making Rice, Brazil Nut & Linseed Bread, soak some linseeds as follows. If you forget, do them on the day with hot water.

25g Linseeds

50g Water (cold)

75g Total

Rinse the seeds in fresh water, drain, then add them to the specified amount of water. Cover and leave at ambient temperature to soak overnight. By the morning the seeds will resemble frog spawn.

Production Sourdough

Make a ‘production’ sourdough 2-3 hours before making the bread, using warm water.

75g Sourdough Starter (from above)

70g Brown Rice Flour

85g Water (35°C)

Total Rice Production Sourdough 230 g

Mix everything together, cover and leave in a warm place (as near to 30°C as you can manage). The sourdough is ready when it has risen appreciably. If it has come up and collapsed on itself, it does not matter, but there is no need to leave it until this has happened before proceeding to make the final dough.

Rice, Brazil Nut & Linseed Dough

Makes one small loaf

150g Rice Production Sourdough (from above)

20g Corn (Maize) Flour

10g Buckwheat Flour

75g Brown Rice Flour

20g Manioc (Tapioca) Flour

10g Carob Bean Gum

10g Cider Vinegar

50g Brazil Nuts (chopped)

50g Egg (one egg)

5g Sea Salt

35g Water (30°C)

75g Soaked Linseed Mixture (from above)

Total 510 g

Mix all the ingredients together into a very soft dough, not quite as wet as the yeasted bread dough above. Using wet hands, pick up all the dough in one piece and smooth it as if you were a potter preparing clay for the wheel. Shape it into a loaf and drop into a greased or non-stick small loaf tin. The mixture should come about two-thirds of the way up the sides of the tin before proof. Cover and prove in a warm place. Proof may take up to five hours, depending on the vigour of the sourdough and the temperature of the kitchen. When the loaf is fully proved, very carefully brush the top with sunflower or olive oil. This will give an attractive brown top to the loaf. Bake in a fairly hot oven (210°C) for about 30 minutes. The loaf is done when it begins to shrink away from the sides of the tin. If you have doubts, insert a skewer into the middle. If it comes out clean, the middle of the loaf is done.

Ingredients:

1 jug of meat juices from the meat you have cooked in a glass jug<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

1tbsp flour

Salt & pepper to taste

1pt of good quality stock

Wine/beer/cider or water to De-Glaze

Method:

1/ Using the pan or tray you cooked the meat in, put it on the stove.

2/ Using the de-glaze of choice pour into the tray and rub a wooden spoon over the pan to get all the tasty bits that are stuck to the tray/pan

3/ Then add the meat fat that has risen to the top of the juices

4/ Stir this into the pan then add flour until a thick paste

5/ Slowly add the stock and rest of the juices. Simmer until thick and cook out the flour for 5-6 mins.

6/ Meanwhile your meat has had a chance to rest...now serve!