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chapter two: broth

broth.

mirepoix, bouquet garni and other french culinary terms to make you sound intellectual in front of your mates.

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vegetable broth.

every broth starts with a mix of 2 parts onion, one part carrot & one part celery, otherwise known as a mirepoix. one large onion or two smaller onions, skin on, cut into quarters. peel the carrot and quarter. give your celery a good wash and roughly chop once or twice. this, along with a bouquet garni will form the base of flavour for your broth. classically, a bouquet garni is thyme and parsley stalks, wrapped and tied in a bay leaf. generally, i just fuck them into the pot (parsley with leaves intact) with 13 black peppercorns, a few juniper berries half a bulb of garlic and whatever other hardy, woody herbs I have around (think rosemary and sage over coriander or dill, lighter green herbs will disappear if added early on in the process, they are much better picked fresh and added at the end).

there are really no rules after that. just don’t go too far. keep it simple. i like to add leek, and fennel if i have some. pink peppercorns can give a nice kick, or star anise and szechuan for a more eastern flavour profile. avoid using ground spices as they give a grainy finish.

place all of your ingredients into a pot and add just enough cold water to cover the vegetables. make sure to take note of the amount of water you use as this will be important later on. put a lid on the pot and bring the water to a simmer (a few bubbles here and there), do not boil. roll a spliff and listen to black sabbath, relax for 20 minutes.

crack open some white wine, take a swig, then work out 10% of the amount of cold water it took to cover the vegetables and add that amount of wine. so, for example, 2l of water = 200ml of wine. you can use red if you want, but white will help keep that golden translucence you have been striving to achieve throughout this culinary voyage (i took more than a swig). cover and simmer for another 15 minutes. strain the liquid into your designated storage vessel. at this stage, i like to to eat the leftover vegetables straight out of the pot with a sprinkle of sea salt while standing over my kitchen sink with a can of cheap lager.

season your stock to taste with sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper. use it in sauces, soups or to deepen the flavour of other stocks. or simply eat it with a slice of fresh sourdough, generously lathered in butter, listening to prince in your underwear.

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bread&broth.

chapter one: bread.

sourdough bread.

bread is one of the most ancient foods in history. creating bread from a culture of wild yeast has been done for thousands of years, but it lost its touch to commercially produced bread, full of preservatives and lacking many of the nutrients and flavours that made bread so damn good.

so that is why we are here. to take it back to basics. we will guide you through cultivating your own sourdough starter and maintaining it at home, to baking different loaves and various other goddamn delicious shit.

get up, grab a bag of flour, pick your favourite spoon, crack open a bottle of merlot and get that bread $.

your own starter: day one

sourdough bread, day one.

an active culture of wild yeast, which under your control can produce serious baked goods.

you need:

• (1) a glass jar, kilner brand preferably. when working with fermentation, good quality is essential.

• (2) water, a spoon/spatula, kitchen scales, a pen and paper, and flour.

• (3) weigh your jar without the lid.

• (4) write down the weight of the jar in a notebook, tell it to siri, or text it to your ma, it will make your life easier to know it.

• (5) flour. important. you cannot use bleached flour to create a sourdough culture, some bacteria will need to come from the grain itself, get yourself some wholewheat, rye, strong bread flour or unbleached white flour to kickstart things, different flours can be phased out later.

>weigh out 50g of your flour, and add it to your jar. *write this in notebook

• (6) weigh 75g of warm water, if you want to nerd out try and warm your water to around 29 degrees, but it’s not necessary at this stage for you at home. * write in notebook

• (7) pour the 75g of warm water into the jar of flour.

• (8) mix vigorously, preferably with a rubber spatula, a spoon will work if you are careful, I use this spoon because it’s sick af. mixing vigorously helps aerate your starter and get things moving

. • (9) a good jar comes into play here. you need a loose fitting lid, as the fermentation process will release gas which may pop, and you don’t want to be cleaning that up hangin on a Sunday morning.

• (10) screw or close the lid loosely, and place somewhere at room temperature, not too warm, for 24 hours. many factors such as bubbles, smell, alcohol and observing how your culture reacts is all coming soon, this is a simple introduction to get things going for you at home. tomorrow we will explore the first ‘feeding’ of your starter, stay tuned. slide into our dm’s with any deeper questions about this, or life in general.