The Sourdough Adventure, Part II

As instructed, every day, I've been taking some goo out of the bowl and replacing it with fresh flour and water. The first few times, I only took out about a half cup, because there didn't seem to be much more than a whole cup in there. I guess it settles or something as it ferments? Anyway, then I'd add a half cup of warm water and a half cup of flour and stir it all up again.

Last night, it was much more bubbly and frothy than before, so much so that I said to myself that this is what they must've been talking about. I'll keep watching it. And reporting...

And, thanks to the many people who have commented and emailed with their suggestions, advice, and recipes! I've been learning a lot!

The Sourdough Adventure, Part I

Yesterday, I was surfin' the 'net, and I found some good (and funny!) instructions on how to make sourdough. I've been wanting to do some sourdough bread for quite a while, so I decided to give it a try.

So, the first thing I did was to find a container, as he instructed. I mixed in 1 cup of warm water, and 1 cup of flour. Also, at his suggestion, I "seeded it" with a dash of yeast. not much, actually, but it seems to have had an impact.

So, yesterday, a day after starting the starter, I went to "feed" it. I scooped out 1 cup of the gunk (and believe me, it was gunky), and mixed in a half cup of warm water, and a half cup of flour. The instructions say to do this every day for a week. The instructions also say that when it's bubbly and frothy, it's done, and it can be refrigerated.

Well, it looks pretty bubbly and frothy to me already. Maybe I shouldn't have seeded it...

Well, I can't use it until the weekend anyway, so I'll just keep doing the feeding thing, and let you know how it goes. Maybe it'll grow and grow until it becomes sentient and devours my kitchen and takes over the WORLD, muahahahahahahaha!

World-wide Dutch Ovening

I just got this link from the Dutch Oven Cooking Yahoogroup. Great group, by the way.

It shows the website of the JDOS, the Japanese Dutch Oven Society. Who knew there even was one? So often, when we think of cooking in the dutch ovens, we think of the American west, but it truly is beyond our borders. There were pictures at the site from their annual cookoff. At least I guess it’s annual, I can’t read Japanese, but that’s sort of the implication. What I found fascinating about it was that with the exception of their faces, those pictures could have been shot at any dutch oven gathering or cookoff here in America. The same smiles, the same eager cooks, even some of the same recipes as we have here.

And, of course, the same dutch ovens!

In my mind, it just goes to support my theory that if we truly wanted world peace, we’d just get everyone in the world to sit down to dinner. No agendas, no summits, no arguments, just food.

And actually, asian food is one cuisine that I've not really explored much yet in my dutch oven, other than my foray into India. I'd really love to hear if anyone out there has done any asian dishes, and what those recipes were!

In the meantime, I’d encourage you to click into the site and check out the pictures. Get to know dutch oven cooks all over the world!