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Just cooking a few steaks… Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I just keep it simple with All Trump and KA Whole Wheat. No complaints on these two CA61CBD9-AF37-4C3D-A881-482DB95933F8.heic

Looks more like you're flambéing them! LOL

Somebody has to so they don't wander off LOL

I have another book I overlooked: The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens by Alan Scott and Daniel Wing. Alan Scott was Laurel Robertson's friend and mentor to Jennifer Lapidus (Southern Ground). Desem bread is featured, and technical discussions rival those by Suas in Advanced Bread and Pastry (whose commercial orientation skips Desem). Of these, I want to work through every recipe I can from Southern Ground. Shown is North Carolina Sourdough, to try the '85' flour from her mill. Technically this was a pitch that turned into a passed ball, for so many reasons, but it tastes so good that we want to make it again right away, to see if we can figure it out. My new aspiration is to figure out Richard Bertinet's slap and fold technique for kneading bread. I need more gluten structure with less effort. It's harder than it looks, which is evident in the videos where someone else picks up the same dough, and can't skit across it like a waterbug.

Another book I got into last night is Bread Book by Chad Robertson (of Tartine Bakery). No mention of Desem, but very deep discussions of how understand the effects of various controls on levain, salt... There are way too many books attempting to make bread "easy"; he's established enough to just say all his thoughts without concern as to whether we can keep up. They're Michel Suas level, but while Advanced Bread and Pastry by Suas is professional training and needs to fairly represent the consensus, Robertson is free to have an opinionated artistic vision. One example takeaway: Of course many of us are comfortable and successful maintaining a sourdough starter, and that assertion says more about our positive outlook on life than whether there's room to improve. I'm getting that someone handed me a recorder and I'm using it as a drumstick, while the Chad Robertsons of the world are playing standup bass. They're smelling and/or tasting their starter at every juncture, and rather than blindly imposing a schedule on their starter, they're tweaking hydration, temperature, and seed ratio (how much starter to carry over) so the starter ripeness peaks on their desired feeding schedule. Imagine instead we were ripening goat cheese, and dropping chunks into milk for the next generation. Overripe cheese will nevertheless inoculate the milk, and one can hope to catch the process sooner next time. But we're creating evolutionary pressure that favors flavors we don't want. This is the difference between dog breeding and leaving one's dogs intact. You get dogs either way, but...

@tekobo - Proof of sourdough crumpets!

@tony b this stainless steel comes up clean very easily in the dishwasher and also with a short soak in soapy water. PBW is worth the soaking time and cost when it comes to getting grill grates nice and clean but I don't find that I need it for things like rotisserie forks.

I usually cook paella inside, but when I’ve got some time it is so much nicer on the KK. It was a beautiful autumn evening here, and kids were sorted- so it was the perfect time to cook tonight’s paella on the KK with some post oak for smoke. Originally paella was cooked on a pan over fire, so it feels right. Simple one tonight with chorizo, chicken, Roma tomatoes and green beans/ flavoured with saffron, paprika, stock and rosemary from our garden. Spicy pimenton in the adult one. I also love cooking the whole thing outside as you set up your ‘mise en place’ and then just relax. I’m smokey as all hell though, so need a shower. Nevertheless it was so so good- worth the extra effort.