Converting to 'Speltotto' - ditching 'the white stuff'

Hello everyone,

This is just a very quick post about 'Speltotto' - a word that I believe was invented by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstal (HFW as he's called in our house). It is a 'risotto' made by using pearled spelt. I have been wanting this make this for A-GES.... And now I have! Last night. And it was absolutely delicious! The kids loved it too - not unimportant. Think we have been converted...

I personally stopped making (white) rice risotto a while ago because I started to feel completely 'blocked' inside afterwards. Sometimes for days. In other words, my insides/digestive system no longer agreed with this white business. I always cook brown (basmati) rice for any other rice dishes and we eat rye, wholemeal or spelt bread - sourdough too. Question is of course, have I unlearned my body to eat 'the white stuff'.......? I don't know. But what I do know is that I prefer to listen to what my body tells me - which is to not block the system please ;). And since spelt is much easier to digest for us human beings, I really wanted to give that a try.

Here's a bit more from WIKI on spelt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelt

So. Pearled spelt. Asked my husband to bring some Sharpham Park spelt from the UK a while ago (you can read about them here: www.sharphampark.com). And last night I finally decided to be brave enough to open the pack and try it out...

I read the recipe on the pack and I also read the HFW recipe. Because they were actually quite similar to how I used to make my rice risotto, I decided to mix it all up and come up with the following (a success):

This served the kids & moi and we had enough left over for the kids' lunch boxes today. I'd say this makes 4 portions for normal eaters - with a salad on the side it would be enough. If in doubt because you've got big eaters in the house, use 400g spelt and a little more stock for 4.

Ingredients
a slug of olive oil
a knob of butter
300g pearled spelt
a slug of white wine or dry vermouth
1 liter chicken (or veg) stock
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 small leek, finely sliced
few hands full of fresh spinach, washed and cut if large leaves
1 cup frozen peas
-----basically add any green veg you like -----------
a handful of freshly grated parmesan, plus extra for on top
2 tbsp mascarpone or cream cheese
flatleaf parsley, chopped
salt & freshly ground black pepper


Cooking method
Heat olive oil & butter in a large saucepan on medium heat. Add diced onion and garlic and sweat until translucent. Add the spelt, stir well and make sure you coat all the kernels - like you would with risotto rice. Add the white wine or dry vermouth and reduce. 
Now start adding the stock, ladle by ladle. Let it reduce before adding the next one, and the next one, etc. etc. Make sure you keep the heat to medium. The spelt should start to soak up all the liquid and soften/cook. Mine took about 25-30 mins. Add salt & freshly ground pepper and taste. 
Then add the veggies. I added the peas first (in their frozen state), then the spinach, then the leek (both uncooked). Keep stirring well and continuously throughout the entire process. It might get a bit wetter again from the veggies so again let it reduce. At the end I added a good handful grated parmesan (as I always did with my rice risottos), the mascarpone (for a more calorific version - it brings out a lot of the flavours is my excuse!) and the chopped parsley. Taste again and if happy: serve on hot plates (nothing worse than a dish like this arriving on a cold plate (in fact it would be a CRIME ;)!) and sprinkle over some extra parmesan and black pepper.

ENJOY!! We did.

Would love to hear how you get on and what other varieties you have come up with!

Bon appétit!!

Love,
Bee X

Challenge 3: A Lovely Bit Of Crumpet....!

Hi there all you foodies and other interested folk,

It's time for challenge number 3: CRUMPETS!

Who doesn't love 'a good bit of crumpet'? Innuendo aside, I think most of us do! My family and friends always used to take stacks of crumpets back home when visiting us in the UK. These days we eat them for breakfast on all our Birthdays. And a bit more often than that...
This had to be on the list of my 2013 Personal Baking Challenges. Having only ever bought them (Marks & Sparks are the best I think, then the Waitrose buttermilk ones) I was keen to finally make them myself.

Then, somewhere along the way, there was Peter Cook from Prices the Baker's in Ludlow who was raving about making 'real crumpets' with a sourdough starter (although a little fresh yeast is added too). He offered to send me his recipe which I very gratefully received and used as the starting point for this challenge.


To be able to make the sourdough based crumpets, I had to create a white sourdough starter. So far I only had 'The Beast' (my 20 month old rye sourdough starter).
My first attempt failed. I called her 'Snow White' and that was clearly a very bad idea..... The prince didn't come along to kiss her and wake her from her 'eternal' sleep.......and that was the end of her ;). But I don't give up easily so on I went. Second attempt. Using part of the 20 month old 'Beast' to get the ferment going. Why didn't I think of that before......?! Thanks Lauren!! That worked a treat. 'Lady Galadriel' was off on a flying start and a new white sourdough starter was born. I kept that going for at least two weeks before I used it for the crumpets.

To 'compare' (if that is possible with two such different recipes) I decided to make a yeast version as well as Peter's sourdough one and chose good old Mrs Beeton's recipe for that - which I found out is remarkably similar to Delia's...

Last Saturday was the big day and for Peter's recipe I had to start activities the evening before. I mixed together:

400g  Premium Number 1 Flour (12% proteine) - I used strong bread flour
10g    Salt
5g      Sugar
10g    Veg oil
200g  White Sourdough Starter
5g      Fresh Yeast
200g  Milk
200g Water

Once mixed well, I covered it - I always use the hotel shower caps which my husband loyally brings with him every week ;) - and put it in the fridge overnight. Bubbles had already started to appear when I took it out of the fridge and after leaving it for another 3-4 hours at room temperature in the morning it looked like this:

I then dissolved 10g of bicarb in 110g of water and vigorously stirred this into the batter using the strong rugby arm of my husband :-)! He likes to get involved. The batter became quite a bit thinner which worried me at first but it later appeared that there was absolutely nothing to worry about! Leave it stand for another 25 minutes to let the bicarb do its work before you then cook on a griddle in greased rings.

I used this waiting time to put together Mrs Beeton's batter.

As a 'griddle' I used my large Le Creuset Braiser. The crumpet rings I bought from www.bakerybits.co.uk - they come in a set of three.

I oiled the braiser (and kept oiling it as I kept going) and the rings well as I was a bit apprehensive about it sticking to the rings or the pan (how wrong I was - they came out so easily). So off I went.... first three crumpets in:

Waiting........

 First holes appearing.....

Holes everywhere.......rings off......

........turn (after ca. 10 mins).........

..........FISRT CRUMPETS READY AND LOOKING AMAZING!!!

Big applause for Peter Cook's recipe! Colour, texture, 'ease of baking' and most of all 'presence of lots 'n lots of holes' all got 10 out of 10! On to a bit of tasting of course...... Proper butter & home made jam:

.........verdict: YUMMIE!

The only thing I'd say about the taste is that you can taste the bicarb a little bit - not always a nice flavour... I emailed with Peter about this and reducing the bicarb of course means running the risk of losing the much wanted holes. I might experiment with it next time and see whether 8g instead of 10g of bicarb has a significant effect on the appearance of holes or not. Another thing I might try is half bicarb, half cream of tartar - tip from Vanessa Kimbell.

Anyway: a very clear success! Definitely!

On to Mrs Beeton's crumpets.

Needless to say that the batter is of course much quicker to make. Just quick action yeast to get things going initially and then the bicarb at the end. Huge bubbles appeared and the batter was thicker and somewhat gloopy.... As a result it was less easy to handle when it came to putting it into the crumpet rings. Not a good start Mrs Beeton! In the braiser, things were comparable. The rings came off very easily. The holes appeared in the same time - perhaps a little earlier. But when done, they were crispier on the outside (not really what you want crispy - especially not if you'd like to keep them and toast them at a later stage), doughy on the inside and generally just the wrong texture/structure. Not like 'real' crumpets as I've known them for the past 15 years.

A few of hers:

So! I will make Peter's crumpets any time (and the whole family would love me to!) but I might experiment to reduce the bicarb flavour. Will keep you posted!

I hope that this has inspired and encouraged you to get going and make your own crumpets, because believe me.......the ones in the shop are nothing like it.....! Not to mention all the additives and preservatives you are consuming when eating those. I am aware that you'd need a white sourdough starter. But perhaps this is a good excuse to get a small one going in a Kilner jar. You can then bake a whole range of healthy goodies :).

Next up in the 2013 Personal Baking Challenge List might be Ciabatta......! Not an easy dough to handle I know (very wet and sticky) but I am determined to crack it. Other fantastic 'realbread' friends from the UK will feature for sure. You know who you are :-)!

I hope to keep inspiring you. Get crumpetting :-)!

Love,

X Bee