With local wheat and a grinder how can you lose?

It has been quite an adventure trying to find wheat on this island. The local organic store brought in bags but very expensive. We had thought non-organic would be cheaper but there just isn't a supplier that I could find in Canada, so organic it is. I even tried the feed stores to see if they could get food-grade wheat, but that ended no where, until one of them told me of a farmer in Metchosin who grows wheat! Calling Tom Henry was a great thing. Not only did he have wheat for sale but his brother in law lives in Duncan and would deliver it.

Tuesday this week, my lovely 20kg of hard red wheat arrived in its thick plastic bucket. Now Tom says that its protein content is only around 11% which is less than prairie hard red....I will have to do some research to see what to expect from that.

So then the only task left was to order the whispermill so that we can grind our berries into flour. Found a Canadian supplier who had free shipping and the new toy should be here next week. I can hardly wait. I just remember Joanne's fresh ground wheat buns, how light and delicious they were!

Our WonderMill arrived shortly after the wheat and we have been grinding wheat to feed my sourdough starter and this weekend we are planning a baking marathon. I can just taste the bread now.

Chris

When life gives lemons make......preserved lemons

Ok so the saying says "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade". But what about in winter, when lemons from down south are plentiful and it is just too darn cold to drink a glass of lemonade? Well, today I tried making Moroccan Preserved Lemons. I just couldn't watch my lovely fat lemons go nasty because I couldn't use them up fast enough.

So leafing through a few cookbooks, I found a recipe for Morocaan preserved lemons in the Frugal Gourment's Immigrant Ancestors. Recipe is dead simple: take several lemons and quarter them leaving them attached. Take 1/4 c pickling salt, rubbing some into the flesh of the lemons. Place the lemons in a quart jar and cover with lemon juice and the rest of the salt. Put on the counter for 14 days turning over daily. Refrigerate and use.

Now, I have never tried this before so am planning to make a lemon chicken dish when the lemon preserves are ready. Will let you all know how it works out. Sorry the picture isn't very good...but will have more as we go along.

Chris

November Rains

This week I have been mourning the passing of a very dear friend and colleague from Ovarian Cancer. She and I shared a great many interests, food and cooking being one of them. Seeming to sense my despair, the weather here has been torrential, rainfalls and wind storms, leading to flooding in some areas.

In order to combat the doom and gloom I am feeling, I set about to create a few living beings in my kitchen. First I tackled, yet again, a sourdough starter. I have done a few of these in the past but yielded only an insipid slurry of wheat and water. This time, taking a hint from some other blogs on wild yeast and breadmaking, I started out with wheat berries from my sister-in-law (I am still trying to connect with a local Vancouver Island producer of wheat so I can have my own wheat berries). I ground about a cup of berries in the blender with two cups of water until the berries were completely smashes and a sweet, yeasty smelling slurrey was the result. I decided to attempt the sourdough started without sugar this time, relying instead on the inherent yeast on the covering of the wheat to get this party started. I poured the slurrey into a nice glass jar with synch lid, covered the opening with a cotton square held securely by an elastic rescued off some broccoli stalks. It now sits perking away (hopefully) on the mantle of the fireplace where it is nice and warm.

Conventional wild yeast thinking convinces me to allow a couple of weeks minimum at this warm temperature to allow fermentation to begin. We shall see. In the meantime I am salivating over the recipes at "Beginning with Bread" http://beginningwithbread.wordpress.com/

Two other projects are on the go in the kitchen this month. One is my second attempt at homemade sauerkraut. Using my bean pot this time, I have shredded a large white cabbage, liberally salted it and added a little water (not necessary if your cabbage is very moist but mine seemed awfully dry). Instead of weighting it down with a plate and a stone to push out the air, I am using a ziploc bag filled with water. This method can fill any weird space and exerts enough pressure downwards to force out any air pockets. Tested it yesterday morning and a nice sauerness is beginning. I had to add a bit more salt water as the mix was very dry.

I then covered the inside of the pot with a layer of plastic wrap, put on the lid and then covered it with more plastic wrap....trying to keep out any germs that might spoil the party.

Finally, since I had a primary fermenter sitting around doing nothing, I mixed up a new batch of merlot. This time, and for something different, I added about 75g of dried Elderberries. Two weeks in the primary then off to the carboy for long term aging.

All in all, I am at peace now. My home is alive with positive energy and the promise of good food soon. My testament to Janet is good living and I know she would approve.

Chris