Last week I wrote about making home made bread. Home-made bread is so convenient and cheap to make, plus you'll always know what ingredients went into it. Another benefit to making bread the no-knead method is that the flours and grains used in it have time to soak. So what is the big deal with soaking grains? There is some evidence that soaking grains is better for digestion, neutralizes phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, and improves nutrient bio-availability. Over the years, as people have learned that refined flours are not good for their health, they started switching to whole grains. But many of them found that as they did so they have encountered more digestive issues, and are still not getting the required nutrition they thought that they would from eating whole-grains in their diet. Some, mistakenly infer from that that they must be intolerant to grains all together and start avoiding them in their diets. But many fail to understand that not only what you eat, but also how you prepare it, that has an impact on how that food is utilized by the body. For example, some new research suggests that steaming certain vegetables makes them more beneficial to our health. Milk is also better for you when fermented as the fermentation helps to break down tough milk proteins and provides our guts with beneficial bacteria. Some foods need to be "processed" to be easier on our digestive tracts.I have been researching whole foods for a while. I like my foods to be as close to nature as possible. I want the food that I feed my family to be nutritious, healthy, and taste great. Apparently I am not the only one on a mission to rediscover the passion for real food. There are many people out there are are becoming more and more conscious of benefits of eating healthy foods as opposed to refined, over-processed, nutritionally-void foods. Some people do it because they want to just be healthier, some do it for weight loss, some others are doing it because they are trying to avoid having an illness or already have one, some others are parents that are discovering how very important a good nutrition is to the health and well-being of their kids.
A little while back I have discovered a great cookbook that incorporates traditional methods for preparing foods. The book is called Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Mary G. Enig and Sally Fallon. You can guess my excitement when I discovered that our local library stocked this book and I was able to take it for a "test drive". I dislike buying books without first knowing if they will be useful to me, but this book has proven more than useful. One of the topics that it touches on is the fact that whole grains must be prepared in certain way for them to be a healthy food. Because of the presence of phytic acid in whole grains (and beans, and nuts,and legumes) they need to be prepared by soaking, sprouting, or fermenting them first. The basic way is to soak grains, and requires just a little extra time. My bread recipe uses this form of preparation and is very simple. Another way is sprouting grains. This can be much more labor intensive, especially if you are going to dehydrate your sprouted grains and mill them into flour before making your bread. The good news is that there are commercially available "sprouted grain flours" and they are very convenient. Just be advised that they are much more expensive (I use them in preparing things like cookies that can't be soaked in liquid overnight). Last way to prepare them is to ferment them or "sour" them. If you ever had a slice of sourdough bread then you had fermented grains.
To make my bread recipe into a "soured" bread is very easy. All you have to do is add 1/4 cup of sourdough starter instead of the yeast and leave the bread for at least 16 hours to "sour". But where to get a sourdough starter? Right from your own kitchen. That's right, sourdough started is very easy to make. It will keep indefinitely as long as you feed it regularly and take good cake of it. So how you make it? OK, now for the exciting part ....
Making your own sourdough starter
Ingredients:
initially:- 1/2 cup filtered water
- 1/2 cup organic unbleached (white) flour*
- large glass wide mouth container (avoid using metal with any fermented foods)
- wooden spoon for mixing
everyday for four days:
- 1/3 cup of filtered water
- 1/2 cup of organic unbleached flour
Instruction.
In a clean, sterilized glass container mix 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour using a wooden spoon. Mix so that the two are well incorporated. Place a clean tea towel or a piece of cheesecloth, or a piece of paper towel over the opening and secure it with an elastic. The sourdough needs to "breathe" so do not cover it with tight fitting lid.
Place the sourdough started in a warm place in your kitchen for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, uncover the container and add 1/3 cup of water and 1/2 cup of flour. Mix with a wooden spoon and cover back up. Leave on the counter for another 24 hours.
On the sixth day your starter should smell "sour", kind of like buttermilk. It should have lots of bubbles and if you try to scoop it with a wooden spoon, it will look stretchy. Your sourdough starter is now ready to be used. If you are planing on making bread with it daily then you can just feed it daily and leave it on your counter.
If you are not using it as often you, you can just keep it covered in the fridge and "feed" it once a week with 1/3 cup of water and 1/2 cup of flour.
Now you can use it in making bread, other sourdough recipes.
* Any flour can be used to make the sourdough starter but while flour is fool-proof and will be easier for beginner sourdough maker. Since you are only adding 1/4 cup of sourdough starter to 4 cups of flour in your bread mix, the amount of white flour in your finished bread in minimal.
Now all you have to do is enjoy your slice of sourdough bread with some organic cultured butter!
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