On day 5 I discarded most of the gloop, saving about three good sized tablesspoons, and added 100g of rye and 100g of water.

Day 6 I fed with 50g of each.

Day 7, I took 300g of the starter, and used it in this recipe, using an extra strong white bread flour for the (wet) dough.

I followed Laura's instructions for lining bowls with semolina strewn teatowels. My two doughballs rose nicely. I baked one the same night (tonight), and put the other in the fridge to bake tomorrow.

Pretty pleased with how the first loaf turned out, despite having to scrape the dough off the teatowel in one place - which affected the rise in the oven. The crust is good, the crumb looks even, and sourdough bubbles are even. Tastes great too.

Also Fester has a new home in a Kilner jar.

More adventures next week.

Dressing
3 tablespoons olive oil
juice of a lemon
1 clove garlic, chopped roughly
2 heaped tablespoons ground almonds
1/2 block silken tofu
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

1. Toss the apple in the lemon juice, in a large mixing bowl, to stop it going brown.
2. Toast the nuts in a dry frying pan, gently, until they change colour. Be very careful not to burn, as they go bitter very quickly.
3. Mix the onion, cabbage and carrot together with the lemony apple.
4. Add the poppy seeds and mix thoroughly.
5. Blend the dressing ingredients together until a smooth mayonnaise like consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning - you may need more lemon or olive oil.
6. When the walnuts have cooled, chop them roughly, and add to the salad.
7. Toss well in the dressing until everything is coated.
8. This will keep for a couple of days in the fridge, and is delicious with veggie sausages.

I followed the feeding instructions to the letter.

This morning I found a recipe from The Fabulous Baker Brothers, and used that as the basis for my loaf. I used 350g of very strong white canadian bread flour with 150g of rye flour and 300g of my rye culture. i was left with a couple of tablespoons which I have started off again using slightly different quantities.

I followed the instructions exactly, but slashed my dough between 1st and second proving, instead of just before baking. I also covered the 2lb loaf tin which I used for my second proving in oiled cling film, which stuck. When I peeled it off for baking, I lost the rise, the dough fell as I lifted the film off. I will use a damp tea towel and flour the loaf top next time.

A half hour bake in a hot oven was enough to cook my bread, which resulted in a good crust, even bubbles and a lighter loaf than I anticipated given how much the dough had fallen. The taste is delicious, a good crusty crust and nice springy texture. I am pleased despite not getting as much rise as I would ideally like.

A couple of notes for those who are used to baking bread, but haven't used a sourdough culture before, the dough was a lot wetter than I am used to. For me this was fine, as it didn't stick to my granite worktop when I kneaded it. And I would not be tempted to do a 100% rye, as with a rye culture that would be a very dense loaf indeed.

Next recipe I will try is from a Scandinavian cookbook I have, which requires no kneading.

1. Heat oil in a saucepan, and gently fry onion until soft and transparent.
2. Add garlic, chilli, ginger and fry a little longer.
3. Add the thick coconut milk from the top of the can and fry gently for 2 minutes.
4. Add the sweet potato and carrot, the rest of the coconut milk and 3/4 pint of water with the bouillon powder.
5. Bring to the boil and reduce heat.
6. Simmer until the vegetables are tender.
7. Remove from heat and blitz until smooth.
8. Add sweetcorn, lime juice and tamari to taste. You are after a nice balance of sweet, salty, spicy and sour. None should dominate.
9. Serve.

Dressing
1 clove garlic
juice of 1 large lemon
3 tablespoons rapeseed oil
125g ground almonds
250g soft silken tofu
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
salt and pepper

1. Toss the rye bread cubes in rapeseed oil, and put on a baking tray in a hot oven for 10-15 minutes, until crisp. Drain and leave to cool.
2. Chop the lettuce into bite sized chunks.
3. Chop the smoked tofu into pieces.
4. Put all the dressing ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Taste and and more lemon if required - it should be tangy.
5. Toss the lettuce in some of the dressing until well coated. Arrange in a serving dish.
6. Toss the smoked tofu pieces in a little more of the dressing, and arrange in the centre or the lettuce. Add the croutons round the outside. Garnish with lemon wedges to serve.
7. Serves two. The dressing keeps well in a jar in the fridge for a few days, so you can use it on other salads.... or as a bechamel sauce replacement in a vegan parmigianna, lasagne or moussaka.

It's a bowl full of comforting goodness that will have you slurping the noodles down and gulping the broth whilst it is still warm.

To serve one:

Prepare the vegetables and the garnish first.
Vegetables
2/3 button mushrooms, finely sliced
a small handful of fine french beans, sliced into 1/2 inch lengths
a small handful tenderstem broccoli, sliced into 1/2 inch lengths

You can add as many veggies as you like - e.g. grated carrot, finely sliced red pepper, halved cherry tomatoes, dried seaweed is a nice addition too.

Garnish
Small handful bean sprouts
2 spring onions, finely sliced
few leaves fresh coriander
2/3 wedges of lime

Put these on a pretty plate to serve beside the noodles.

The broth
1/2 pint water
1 teaspoon brown rice miso (this gives a dark savoury broth, it is just as delicious, but different with red, or even sweet yellow miso)
3 tablespoons soy sauce (use dark for a dark miso and light for a lighter miso)
2 tablespoons mirin
1 red chilli, finely sliced
1 teaspoon finely julienned or grated fresh ginger
pinch dried red chilli flakes

1. Put all of this in a small saucepan and bring gently to the boil.


2. Simmer for a minute.


3. Remove from heat and add prepared vegetables plus cooked tofu/chicken/prawns


4. Follow preparation instructions for udon noodles. Place 1 portion udon in a large bowl.


5. Pour the broth carefully into the bowl, making sure you miss none of the vegetables.


6. Leave for a minute or so for the noodles to soak up some flavour.


7. Serve with accompanying garnish, some chopsticks and a big spoon.


8. Don't stint on the garnishes - and keep tasting and adding more to taste.


9. Your chin will get messy. Enjoy it, and then drink the warm broth.....

Delicious.

Mine gave me numb lips. Take the seeds out of your fresh chilli, and leave out the dried chilli flakes if you want to avoid that.

Edited to add: a big handful of leafy greens are a fantastic addition too. Baby spinach, pak or bok choi, watercress - whatever you like really.

1 16oz tin butter beans, with about 2 tablespoons of the liquid
2 fat cloves of garlic (use 1 if you don't like it pokey), finely chopped
1 tablespoon good olive oil (mine was Cretan today)
4 teaspoons sherry vinegar (you can use white wine vinegar too)
sea salt and black pepper
1 handful greek basil (any basil really, I just happened to have tiny leaved Greek basil today), chopped (about a tablespoon once chopped)

1. Briefly blitz all the ingredients together except the basil.


2. You don't want it too smooth. Add more oil if it looks a bit dry.


3. Adjust seasoning to taste.


4. Stir in chopped basil.


5. Serve.

I improvised around a basic tabbouleh idea thus:

1 courgette, diced finely
1 carrot, diced finely
5 spring onions, sliced finely
10 cherry tomatoes, diced finely
a bunch of curly parsley, finely chopped (about 3 tablespoons worth when chopped)
a bunch of mint, finely chopped (about 3 tablespoons worth when chopped)
a small bunch of greek basil, finely chopped (about a tablespoon when chopped)
1 medium sized red chilli, finely sliced (I left the seeds in as I like mine spicy)
1 pomegranate, seeded (I use the cut in half and bash with a spoon method)
2 tablespoons linseeds
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds

juice and finely grated rind of 2 lemons
6 tablespoons olive oil
harissa paste (about 2 teaspoons)
salt and pepper
drizzle of maple syrup (about a teaspoon)

couscous (I used a chunky palestinian variety)

1. Cook the couscous.


2. While that's doing it's thing, mix the lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper, harissa paste and maple syrup into a dressing. I just shake it together in a jar. Taste and adjust. It needs to be fairly pokey.


3. When the couscous is done, toss the dressing in and let it absorb into the couscous as it cools slightly.


4. Mix all the vegetables, herbs and seeds together.


5. In a large bowl combine the vegetable mix and the warm couscous together. Add more lemon juic and olive oil to loosen.


6. Serve.

This easily serves 2-3 people as a main course for tea.

I had mine with some tofu I'd pressed and marinaded with ginger, soy, spring onions and dark soy sauce, cooked and cooled. I also has a slice of homemade rye bread.

NB You need WAY more herbs than you think. More is more in this case. You wan the resulting mix to look fairly green with jewels of carrot courgette, tomato and pomegranate poking out. Lovely.

I got a copy of Pure Vegan and after reading a few recipes in there, thought I'd give a ground nut and tofu based crema a go to replace the bechamel. Here's my riffed version of their 'Eggplant Parma Style' recipe.

olive oil
1 aubergine thinly sliced lengthwise, salted and drained.

2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2lbs fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped
4 sundried tomatoes in olive oil, together with about a tablespoon of the oil
1 teaspoon blueberry balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
Good squirt of ketchup

Fresh greek basil
Dried greek oregano

1 pack firm silken tofu
4 oz ground almonds
1 clove garlic, crushed
Juice of 1 lemon
couple of tablespoons olive oil
1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Fry the slices of aubergine in olive oil a few at a time until golden. Set aside.
2. Gently saute the onions for about 5 minutes in a tablespoon of olive oil, until they go translucent. Add the garlic. Saute for another couple of minutes. Add both lots of tomatoes, sugar, vinegar and ketchup. Turn down heat and simmer for about half an hour. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Blitz until smooth.
3. Drain the tofu, break up in a bowl. Beat in almonds, garlic, yeast flakes, lemon juice and oil until smooth. Set aside.
4. Layer up the aubergine slices, tomato sauce and nut crema sprinkling basil and oregano liberally as the fancy takes you.
5. Start with tomato sauce, end with crema. I did 2 layers. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and olive oil.
6. Put into a 180C oven for about 20 minutes, until the top is golden and bubbling.
7. Serve with crusty bread, a crisp green salad and a nice cold glass of wine/beer.

I chose to give away copies of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist for several reasons.

Firstly, and most importantly it is an immensely readable book, which slips quietly into the subconscious of the reader and stays with them for long after pap novels disappear.

Secondly, I applaud Paulo Coelho's approach to those who use filesharing technologies to share his work. He feels that people wanting to share his work is a good thing, and indeed actively encourages it. He has noticed increases in paper sales rather than the opposite effect. His take on filesharing of his work is that it is a complementary activity to traditional publishing rather than in competition with it. Publishers take note ;) His blog is consistently interesting.

Thirdly, it's short. I like short books. I have a bit of a butterfly brain, and short books serve my concentration patterns perfectly. Short, sweet, with impact.

Lastly, it's not perfect. And imperfections make us human.

My 24 copies were given away as follows:

I live in a building with 5 flats in it. I placed one book outside the flat of each of my neighbours.

I gave one to my colleague on the bus, and one to the bus driver on the way to work. I popped into the corner shop opposite my office and gave one to the assistant there, then went upstairs to the deli/sandwich shop and gave one to the lady who makes such generously stuffed sarnies for us.

I gave one to another colleague when I got to the office.

9 down 14 to go.

I plan to take the rest to my class at The Barre tonight, and the remaining books will be given away to random strangers in The Bridge Hotel from 6.30pm onwards. I shall keep one for the bus driver on my way home.

I recently made Caller Herrin' too. Again exactly as per, because it too is perfect. I have a load more knitting pics to upload here, but will save them for another day :).

2 medium aubergines
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon light tahini
2 tablespoons soya cream
olive oil to loosen to desired consistency
salt and pepper

1. Wash and dry the aubergines.
2. Place over a naked flame, or under a very hot grill, and char until blackened all over. This takes longer than you might think, and you need to turn the aubergines regularly. After about ten minutes they will be nicely blackened all over and the flesh will be softer.
3. Put them into a bowl and cover with cling film.
4. Leave to cool.
5. Don't be tempted to move on until the aubergines are cool, as you need that steam to finish cooking them.
6. Once cool rub the skin off and chop the now soft flesh up.
7. Blend everything together adding olive oil until you get a nice consistency - this is a matter of taste. Keep tasting too so that you get something you really like. I sometimes add more lemon juice.
8. Serve with raw veggies and some nice home made bread to dip into it.
9. I guarantee it won't last long.

1/2 loaf wholemeal bread, thinly sliced and spread with vegan spread
12-15 dates, roughly chopped
1/2 pint almond milk
1/2 block silken tofu
5 tablespoons golden caster sugar
pinch of nutmeg
handful of flaked almonds

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
2. Grease a baking dish and arrange the bread in it.
3. Sprinkle over the dates.
4. Whisk together the almond milk, tofu, 4 tablespoons of sugar and nutmeg.
5. Pour over the bread and leave to soak for about 15 minutes.
6. Sprinkle with almonds then the remaining tablespoon of sugar.
7. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the almonds and sugar have formed a pale golden crust.
8. Leave to cool a few minutes.
9. Serve with fruit puree, vegan ice cream, or whatever takes your fancy.

3 spring onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
8oz cooked peas
1/4 of a lettuce, shredded
zest and juice of half a lemon
1/2 pint vegan stock
2/3 carton single soya cream
small handful of basil leaves (I like the small leaved greek basil)

1. Gently saute the onions and garlic until soft.
2. Add the peas, the stock, and the lemon zest.
3. Simmer for a couple of minutes.
4. Add the lettuce.
5. Simmer for a minute.
6. Remove from heat.
7. Blitz.
8. Add lemon juice and cream.
9. Blitz briefly.
10. Add shredded basil leaves.
11. Serve.

1 sheet puff pastry
2 tablespoons rapeseed oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 leek, finely sliced
150g mushrooms, finely chopped
200g roughly chopped vacuum packed chestnuts
2 fat cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 generous teaspoon freeze dried tarragon
zest of half a lemon
small pinch of nutmeg
very small pinch of chilli powder
salt and pepper
4 tablespoons soya cream

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Sweat onions and leek in oil until softened.
3. Add mushrooms and garlic.
4. Cook for a few minutes until the juices start to come out of the mushrooms, turn down heat and cook until almost dry.
5. Add chestnuts, tarragon, lemon zest, nutmeg, chilli, salt and pepper.
6. Stir.
7. Add cream.
8. Fill a pie dish with the filling.
9. Top with puff pastry, brush with soya cream.
10. Bake until golden brown and delicious looking (about 25-20 minutes should do it).
11. Cool slightly.
12. Eat.