Hi All,
I don't get by as much as I would like to these days, but I when I run across an interesting recipe I always like to share it with the good folks here at roadfood.
For the last few months I have been experimenting with various sourdough starters.
My goal is to find one that works really, really well that does not require STORE BOUGHT yeast. I want to literally do my starter from scratch.
Well not too long ago I ran across one that seemed quite unusual that required red (organic) grapes.
Here is the recipe for those of you who may be interested.
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Sourdough Starter Recipe #72036
This is a recipe from the Moro cookbook. Moro is a famous Spanish restaurant in London.
The Starter
1 bunch organic red grapes
17 2/3oz unbleached strong white bread flour
4.5 Cups water
The Food
3 5/8oz unbleached strong white bread flour
2/3 Cup water
Wash the grapes and wrap them in a muslin or fine cheese cloth.
Loosely tie the open end with a string or elastic band and lightly crush the grapes inside with a rolling pin.
Combine the flour and water in a large plastic, ceramic or stainless-steel bowl.
It is best if you can find one with a lid.
Squeeze some of the juice from the grapes into the flour and water mixture, before completely burying the little bag inside the mixture.
Cover with the lid or a plate and leave for 10 days to two weeks at room temperature, around 20 C or 68 F.
The grapes should start to ferment and the bag should balloon slightly with the gases being given off by the grapes.
Pull the bag out of the mixture and squeeze any juice back into the white mixture.
Throw away the grapes and the bag.
Stir the starter, which should now be slightly pink and have a sour, grapey smell.
Now you should pour away about a third of the initial starter mixture and stir in one batch of its food.
In the beginning, you will have to feed your starter twice a day (best done at regular intervals) for two weeks.
Just before you feed the starter, make sure you also throw away 200ml of the basic mixture.
This might seem like a waste but if you don't you will have far too much starter!
After two weeks, your starter should really be alive and kicking.
Taste a bit and it should have a slight fizz to it.
If the starter doesn't taste fizzy, keep feeding it until it does.
A slightly lower room termperature can slow things up a bit.
When it tastes fizzy you are ready to start making bread.
To keep your starter going (it is a living thing, after all) you should only need to feed it once a week and leave it in the fridge, unless you are making bread more than once a week.
If you are not making bread very often, you can leave feedings for two weeks.
Make sure you keep it in the fridge, which slows the starter down.
If it is kept at room temperature, it will need to be fed every day.
Between making bread, give the starter at least a day to recover.
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For anyone who wants the orginial link to where I found this on the internet it is listed below:
http://www.recipezaar.com/72036 *********************************
Now I noticed the recipe specified "organic grapes" and I wholeheartily agree that it should be. But where I am just below the Mason-Dixon line, I don't have a whole lot of markets I can get to that would carry "organic" anything. And I really wanted to do this starter, since the others were less than successful.
So I went to one of the very small, more local grocers that is located near me and even though the grapes were from California I went ahead and got them, thinking to myself I hope this works.
So I get home this past Saturday morning from the grocery store, get out my BIG Martha Stewart square glass jar with faux metallic lid on it that I bought a KMart for $4....and I went to mixing the starter up.
I used the rolling pin like it suggested but I found I could smash them better with my fingers. The rolling pin helped but to really get them mushy I used my fingers and held them over the jar and let the juice fall into the flour and water mix.
Initially I laid the cheesecloth bag on a piece of wax paper to catch the juice that had come out using the rolling pin and poured that into the jar as well.
Anyway, here is the great part.
That was Saturday mid-day. I had fastened the lid onto the jar loosely so it could vent.
By Sunday it had successfully separated into liquid on the top and the flour settled on the bottom.
By Monday morning (yesterday) the whole process reversed and the flour had moved to the top and the liquid was in the middle and a small layer of flour on the bottom. It was outstanding what I saw so quickly! In just 48 hours or so.
I checked it this morning and it is still in the same position. The flour that rose to the top is also mixed with the fermentation and is probably 4 to 5 inches thick on top. It looks GREAT! I can imagine how it will be in 2 weeks.
But I was so impressed with the immediate results that I knew there were a few people on this board who had been struggling with starters as I had. So I wanted to share this recipe with them as well.
Here's to great sourdough starters!!!
