Sourdough Starters

Sourdough starters come in many different varieties. This is one of those things that everyone has their own preferred method of doing. Absolutely the best way to get a good starter is to have a friend who has one give you a bit of theirs. A spoonful is all you need, mix it up with equal parts flour and water and add a dash of any variety of sugar, honey, or molasses. The yeasts and bacteria in the spoonful you were given will multiply and begin fermentation and soon your bowl of flour and water will be a slightly acidic starter.

If you do not know anyone who keeps a starter then you have a couple of options. First, you can order one online, you will end up with a very good starter that you can keep going for years and get much enjoyment out of just trying Google shopping yields many different options. Buying will get you a start of yeasts and bacteria from different locations which will give your starter a unique flavor. As it ages it will take on local yeasts and bacteria and its flavor will change, but if you really want a starter that has a certain flavor ( for example like San Fransisco sourdough) the only way you will get that is to purchase a starter packet.

However if you are interested in trying to make you own to see what your kind of sourdough flavors your local environment provides then there are a couple of different ways to do that. The basic choices are: a potato starter, a milk starter, a basic starter, or a starter you prime with commercial yeast.

When you make a potato starter you boil potatoes and use the potato water (sometimes the potato skins or the potato's themselves) to help to attract the yeasts. Potato water is quite starchy and a good medium for wild yeasts to grow in. An example recipe would be:

1 1/4 cups potato water (from boiling potatoes)
1 cup flour (The flour is food for the yeast and any type will work. I usually add 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white to my starter, however, oat flour or barley flour would work as well as wheat)
1 to 2 tsp sugar or honey (I usually add honey, especially raw honey may have its own yeast cultures present and will improve your stater)
1 tsp salt

Mix these ingredients well.

As stated some people add mashed potatoes or potato skins instead of just the water. I prefer not to do potato starters because in my experience they are more picky about going bad on you. And you have to be much more careful with keeping them at the correct temp, and using and feeding regularly.

Another way to do a starter is to replace the potato water with milk or add milk or normal water and half a cup of yogurt. This encourages more bacteria (remember this is a lacto-fermentation process) and will make you starter more like a San Fransisco starter, though likely not quite that sour. This method makes a delicious starter, however, I have the same problem as with the potato starter, it seems to go off more easily. If your are planning on using your starter at least once a week either of these methods will make a delicious starter for you. I am a cook busy with many other things and usually my starter gets used once every other week, though sometimes not for a full month. So it has to be resilient.

What I normally do is a basic starter, or a starter primed with yeast. For a basic starter, follow the recipe above but use normal water instead of potato water, make certain to use honey (raw honey is the best), if you want to make certain the fermentation process is going to start just add 1/4 tsp. commercial yeast. Your starter will still collect wild yeasts but you will be certain that you won't have to make a second attempt at making a starter, sometimes the wild yeast colonizes and everything takes right off but the starter medium can go bad if this process does not start quickly enough. A small amount of commercial yeast could be added to any of the talked about starters, and if you wanted to get really creative you could do a 1/2 potato water, 1/2 milk, with a bit of yogurt and commercial yeast starter. You get the idea. This recipe can be scaled up or down easily so you can make as much or as little as you like. I would recommend having at least 1 1/2 cups of starter on hand for cooking.

After you have decided on what starter you want to make and mixed everything up, put these ingredients in a jar with a lid that has some room to breath (poking holes in the lid works) or another container with a breathable lid. My mother had a special container custom made for my starter by a potter she knew, however, anything that is not metal will work to as a container. I used a plastic mixing bowl with a loose fitting lid for years. Do not use metal for your container, or as a utensil to stir your starter (stainless steel to stir seems to be OK, but there can be reactions between the acidity of the starter and other metals which can damage both your metal and the flavor of your starter). The starter will expand to at least 2 times its size as it starts fermentation so make certain there is plenty of space for this or else you will have an escaped sourdough starter all over your counter. Between 3 days and one week your starter will have begun to get sour and is ready to be used for the first time. If at this time you can't use it or don't have time, stir it up, and put it in the fridge.

When your starter is getting going I would suggest taking it out once a week or so adding just a bit (1/4 cup or less) flour and water and a dash of sugar or drop of honey and letting it sit on the counter for a day. This will keep the process going as the yeasts go dormant in the fridge. If you have a well established starter, it can stay in the fridge for a month or more. It will likely separate and you will have some dark looking water on top and the flour on the bottom. You can just stir it up from here, add equal parts flour, water, and a bit of sugar or honey, and leave it alone for an hour or so before using. However, if the dark looking water grosses you out, just pour it off the top, add more water, sugar, flour etc. and let it sit for an hour or so before using. Starting to get the idea?

Most recipes call for at least 1/2 a cup of starter, if you are making something that calls for more starter than you have, just add 1/2 flour and 1/2 water to your starter and let it sit for a bit. Voila, more starter. When you done cooking, make sure you add a bit more flour and water to your starter to get it back to the right quantity (feeding), let it sit on the counter for a bit, and then store in the fridge until needed.

Next, Sourdough Pancakes!

All About Sourdough

So, what is sourdough?

Sourdough is cultured, or fermented flour product that and can be made in a number of ways and used for a variety of purposes. Most people are aware of sourdough bread and have tasted different versions ranging from chewy and astringent San Fransisco Sourdough, to the tamer commercial varieties that can be purchased at most grocery stores. What many people may not realize is that before Louis Pasteur's germ theory and the discovery of cultured yeasts, sourdough was bread. Almost all bread was made through a process of lacto-fermentation where the local yeasts and local lactobacillus act upon the starches in the flour, ferment, create CO2, and rise the bread.

Real Sourdough takes on the essence of the place it is in. A Sourdough starter attracts the local yeasts and bacteria and all of these have their own distinct tastes. Like beer, different yeasts produce different flavors and you get different yeasts from different places. You can order sourdough starters from San Fransisco, or Alaska, to start with those particular flavors. But as your starter ages(they can be kept going for hundreds of years), it will collect the local yeasts and bacteria as well, and its flavor profile will change. Breads in many places are still made mainly from natural cultures, they do not all have that flavor those of the San Fransisco school would consider 'sourdough', however, they are quite distinct from modern cultured yeast breads.

So why is there sourdough still in San Fransisco? The root can be traced to the California Gold Rush of 1848, Pasteur's work on fermentation was not completed until the 1860's and these miners in their mountain miners camps used a starter the collected the wild California yeasts and bacilli and created San Fransisco Sourdough.

The next generation of these miners in turn carried the sourdough tradition to Alaska where the word 'Sourdough' still can either mean a miner or a starter. In Alaska people will still talk of 'the old Sourdoughs' and they are not speaking of flour products. Today, you can purchase sourdough starters from either San Fransisco or Alaska which date back to the Goldrush days. That's the thing about sourdough, you don't throw it away when your done. You take a bit out from your starter pot, 'feed' your pot, and then save it. I know a lady in Alaska who claims the origin of her sourdough starter from one carried over the Klondike pass (think White Fang) in 1898. The stories goes that the miners carried them in their vests next to their bodies to keep the yeasts warm and happy so the Sourdoughs could have sourdough (bread, pancakes, doughnuts, etc.) when they made camp. My current starter is a starter I made in Indiana that received an addition from a starter a friend made in Minnesota. I've had it going for about 2 years now.

Now, as mentioned a couple of times, sourdough is not just for bread. One of my favorite, and most common uses for my sourdough starter is pancakes. Alaskans have all sorts of crazy sourdough concoctions from doughnuts to chocolate cakes. If your interested in exploring the great variety of uses for sourdough I'd recommend Alaskan Sourdough by Ruth Allman. I've tried the sourdough chocolate cakes and some other oddities but generally I stick to the sourdough classics, bread products, pancakes, and waffles.

Now, making sourdough products is time intensive. Well, the time you invest is not that substantial, you have to wait to let the yeast do its work. The longer you keep your sourdough starter going the better it tastes, the longer you let your sourdough sponge work on your bread the yummier it gets. So why bother? For me there are several reasons: its a family tradition (my Grandpa Russ was quite the sourdough baker--more about this in some other post), I was born in Alaska so its a local cultural tradition, and, most importantly, sourdough is delicious.

If the delicious is not enough to persuade you than you might be interested in some of the health benefits. I've been told about the health benefits my whole life so I was a bit surprised I they were not mythical when I started to look them up. When you consume sourdough you are consuming a product that has already been broken down through lactofermentation. Lactofermentation makes vitamins more digestible (just type 'benefits of lactofermentation' into Google). Additional claims I have heard and found at least somewhat substantiated are that sourdough is higher in protein, has a lower glycemic index and causes less of a blood sugar spike, and like a bottle conditioned beer is very high in B vitamins--speifically B6. What I know is that when I have a Sunday morning breakfast of sourdough pancakes it holds me through much better-- and I feel better-- than if I ate a breakfast of traditional pancakes. And, if your starter is ready, it's easier than Bisquick!

Next, starters.

Bouillabaise, Simplified

Recipe Source: Bouillabaisse, Simplified

Recipe Type: Stew, pesce-vegetarian (fish)

Bouillabaisse is the traditional fisherman's stew from the southern french region of Provence. The best bouillabaisse in the world--or, depending on the strictness of your bouillabaisse doctrine, the only real bouillabaisse-- comes from Marseilles. In fact true fanatics will only allow that real bouillabaisse is served from a certain restaurant that lines the harbor in Marseilles. Of course, depending on who you are talking to, the name of that restaurant will change.

I spent about a year in the Provence region and went to Marseilles a few times. I didn't buy into the bouillabaisse culture; it's only fish stew. I had eaten fish stew many times before. I never ate this dish when I was in Marseilles. I never stopped at one of those little restaurants lining the harbor. Little cafe/restaurants that are an odd combination of a complete tourist trap and a restaurant serving a committed local market.

However, I did have Bouillabaisse when I was in Provence. I had it in Arles in a little restaurant right across from the Roman arena. I was with my dad and, wise traveler that he is, he is devoted to trying regional specialties. So, I ordered the Bouillabaisse. And it was amazing. One of those food experiences where the smells, the tastes, and the textures of the dish so completely overload your ability to process pleasure that you can do nothing but vocalize 'mmmmm'. I became a Bouillabaisse convert.

I never made it back to Marseilles after my experience in Arles. In fact, I had never had Bouillabaisse again. However, that one experience convinced me that this was something I had to make.

Making a good Bouillabaisse is quite a challenge, even if you live on the ocean and can go to a lively fish market to buy the leavings at the end of the day-- traditional Bouillabaisse is made from what ever is leftover. Living in the Midwest, finding the fish for my stew presented a challenge. Finally, I stumbled upon the recipe for Bouillabaisse, Simplified which directs the cook to simply buy two or three different kinds of fish and then set about making a modern version of a classic french fisherman's stew.

Luckily for me, I had clam juice already frozen in my freezer from a clam chowder adventure. I found tiger prawns on managers special at Kroger, and bought some halibut pieces from Trader Joe's. After these purchases, the remaining challenges consisted of finding a fennel bulb (in Indiana I find Meijer a good bet for strange vegetables) and making the rouille, which is essential to any good Boullibaisse.

The Boullibaisse recipe is as follows and is modified from the above link.



2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic (or more), peeled and smashed (or pressed)
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 pinch saffron, soaked in 2 tablespoons orange juice for 10 minutes1 strip orange zest
1 (14-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, in juice
3 cups seafood stock (sold at most fish markets) or clam juice
3 cups white wine
Some or all of the following seafood (ask your fish seller for enough to serve 4 to 6 people): halibut, cod, tilapia, or snapper (in large chunks); shell-on large shrimp or lump crabmeat; clams or mussels
1 bunch Italian parsley, chopped

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, onion, and fennel and saute until just brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the saffron (if using), orange zest, tomatoes, and stock or clam juice. Bring to a boil and cook until the vegetables are tender and the liquid is reduced by half, about 20 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add the fish (but not shellfish). Cook for about 2 minutes. Add any clams, mussels, and shrimp. Simmer until the shells just begin to open, about 4 minutes more. Add any crabmeat. Cook until all shells have opened, the shrimp is pink and curled, and the fish flakes easily, about 2 minutes. Serve from the pot, sprinkled with the parsley and topped with crusty bread and a dollop of rouille.

The essential ingredients for flavor are the fennel, the saffron, and orange. Fennel is not a vegetable that most Americans are accustomed to working with, and it does not chop like an onion. Make certain you remove the woody part at the bottom of the bulb that all of the fronds connect too, and then chop away. Saffron is not something that is in most kitchens due to its price, I bought 1g from Penzey's Spices and used the tiniest amount to complete this recipe. I modified this recipe by halving the clam juice and adding some white wine to replace the liquid, and at least doubling the garlic.

This stew was served with rouille, which likely deserves its own blog post. rouille is a mayonnaise like sauce that comes from the region of Provence and is often served with fish, and always served with Bouillabaisse. Rouille apparently is excellent with bruschetta, which is great because this recipe makes more than enough to serve along side the Bouillabaisse.

2 red bell peppers
6 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 fresh jalapeño chile, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Lay bell peppers on their sides on racks of gas burners and turn flame on high. (Or put on rack of broiler pan about 2 inches from heat.) Roast, turning with tongs, until skins are blackened, 8 to 12 minutes. Transfer peppers to a bowl, then cover and let steam 20 minutes. Remove skin and seeds from peppers and tear flesh into large pieces. Mash garlic to a paste with salt using a mortar and pestle (or mince and mash with a large knife). Purée bell peppers, garlic paste, jalapeño, and bread crumbs in a food processor. With motor running, slowly add oil, then lemon juice and pepper, blending until very smooth (it will look like an orange-pink mayonnaise).

This sauce is amazing. On our Bouillabaisse evening I worked on the stew while Dennis made the rouille. Flavor-wise, roasting the red peppers is essential. We did have a fresh garden jalapeno on hand, but any hot chili would work for this. I have a bag of dried cayenne peppers right now that my dad grew in his garden and we added those as well as we like our food spicy. The rouille can absolutely be made ahead to go with the Bouillabaisse. It is so tasty that you may decide it is simply something that needs to be kept around. Its good for eating with bread and olive oil, and I am sure it has many under appreciated culinary uses.


So how was our dinner?

Amazing. I had the same experience that I had in Arles where every bite of Bouillabaisse burst in the mouth with the most phenomenal combination of flavors. My fish stew tasted like the sea, like the sun, and like my year spent in Provence. The rouille made the dish. All either Dennis or I could say was 'mmmmmm'.

I wasn't in Arles, across from the Roman Arena, with the atmosphere of Provence--and amazing olive oil. But, I managed to recreate a slice of that in my kitchen. With a nice bottle of wine and some homemade crusty bread, the Bouillabaisse and rouille it was a Friday night success. We could not have done better if we had gone out.

About this blog

So I cook. I cook a lot. Often it isn't just me cooking, my boyfriend helps and cooks a lot himself (he is always in charge of frying tofu as I don't have the patience for it).

As a couple, cooking is one of our main hobbies and we entertain ourselves most Friday nights by making a new and exciting meal. Usually a meal that at least sounds complicated enough that people roll there eyes when I say its easy. This blog is mainly meant to chronicle those Friday night meals but I will also be highlighting some repeat dishes we love to cook, as well as my baking and pasta making days. We also recently had our first brewing day, and I am considering trying to make cheese. Who knows what exciting kitchen adventures lie in the future.

I will consider this a chronicle of our adventures in omnivory. We are meat eaters, but by no means do we always eat meat. Recipes will come from the broad expanse of world cuisines and be vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore. This blog will chronicle my cooking adventures from butterflied lamb to vegan spicy peanut pasta.

I'm also going to be exploring the area of food photography (though I am limited by equipment right now) and I plan to post pictures of all of my dishes and plates. Also proof that yes, I actually made this dish.

I am an aspiring cook, I've always loved spending time in the kitchen. Comments and suggestions are more than welcome. I'm planning on enjoying myself writing this blog and I hope you enjoy yourself reading it.