Sourdough - First Attempts

A week or so ago a friend gave me a sourdough starter which apparently originated in Ireland and is of an ancient heritage. Well I kept it in my fridge as directed while I frantically googled for what to do with it. My friend had been a little vague, as it is his wife who is the baker in the family and she was in Spain at the time.

I found Sourdough Home fairly quickly which gave me a wealth of information about how to care for my sourdough starter, and a recipe (which I haven't tried yet). Then I found this recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Being quite a fan of Hugh I decided to give his recipe a go.

First of all it did involve quite a bit of leaving the dough to rise but he was very reassuring that it really didn't matter if you left it longer than the period stated. This was quite handy as it meant that I could get on with doing other things rather than feeling that I had to hang around at home waiting for my bread to do it's thing. 

The bread itself, when we finally got around to eating it, was absolutely delicious. It had exactly the kind of sweet nutty flavour I expected. However the first loaf we made flattened when we turned it our of our improvised proving basket. Mrs Uncruliar thought that that the dough had been too wet so for our second loaf we added more flour. Sadly we had exactly the same experience. Actually it seemed to me that the dough flopped onto the baking sheet so violently that it knocked most of the air out of it. For our next attempt I am planning on letting the bread prove on the baking sheet to see if that helps.

Marrow Chutney

A couple of weeks ago we were given several marrows so we decided to make some marrow chutney. We started with this recipe from Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall which calls for 1 1/2 lbs of marrow but I had 4 1/2 lbs to use so I started to triple up all the ingredients. I had plenty of onions which I had gleaned from a harvested field nearby but I had to buy some apples and tomatoes so I ended up using a little less than the recipe called for.

As the picture shows it was a tight squeeze in the preserving pan. I kept the heat as low as I could and the lid on until eventually the vegetables started to mush down. The recipe said to bring to the boil and then simmer for an hour. With triple the ingredients it took a lot longer to reduce enough to bottle but eventually I ended up with just over 12 jars.

• Spice bag - 1 1/2 teaspoon each of cloves, black peppercorns and coriander seeds
• 4 1/2 lbs courgettes and marrow or pumpkin, peeled and diced into 1cm pieces
• 4 lbs over-ripe tomatoes, skinned and chopped 
• 4 lbs bruised or shrivelled apples  
• 1 1/2 lbs onions, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1l white wine or cider vinegar
• 600ml water
• 3 teaspoons dried chilli flakes
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 1/2 lbs dried fruits/raisins
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 lbs light brown sugar

The part jar tasted very good. The rest has gone into the pantry to mature for three months as per the recipe instructions.

Wednesday 23rd April - OA Journal

I ate my normal breakfast and then an Apple at 10 30. Then I went to the staffroom where one of my colleagues had brought in cakes as it was her birthday. I had a small piece of chocolate cake, which I enjoyed. The thought that I might in future have to abstain from such celebratory foods is one that I am very uncomfortable with. However, I have to admit that, even though other people were eating the cake in the same room at the same time, there was little sense of a shared experience.

At lunchtime I resolved not to eat any more of the cake, although I knew that there would still be some left. In fact there was even more as another colleagues had brought in brownies and shortbread to celebrate her wedding anniversary. After eating my lunch I indulged again.

Then it was staff meeting time after school and the heads husband had brought in hot cross buns. So I indulged again.

In each case I don't really know why I indulged. It wasn't secretive as I often am when bingeing at home. In fact it wasn't really bingeing in the sense that what I ate each time was not an unreasonable amount, nor was it bolted down. However, the amount that I ate over the course of the day was certainly self-destructive; especially considering the fact that I want to lose weight.

To cap it all I then bought and ate chocolate after my evening meal. Perhaps because I was already feeling ashamed of what I had eaten previously, as if it didn't make any difference what else I ate. And of course there was no-one else to see me eat at home. I wouldn't have eaten in front of anyone at home although that doesn't seem to bother me at work.

Monday 21st April - OA Journal

We woke up early at the youth hostel and went looking for breakfast. Nearby we found a rather posh looking cafe which turned out to do an extremely good cooked breakfast. One of the group, who was suffering the after effects of the night before, ordered eggs Benedict with spinach and only ate half of it. I was asked if I wanted to finish her meal. I really didn't need to but felt I was expected to.

When we got home, at lunchtime, I found some cold pizza in the fridge. After eating one and a half breakfasts I didn't really need to eat it although I did feel a bit peckish. I wonder if that was just because the clock said it was lunchtime. Probably because I knew this was compulsive eating I ate it secretly.

I ate couscous pizza with the rest of the family at dinner time.

Sunday 20th April - OA Journal

I was up early on Easter Sunday to put the little eggs out for the children's egg hunt. I ate a few of the eggs myself as I was putting them out. I didn't need chocolate although I knew I would have to wait a while for breakfast. I wasn't actually particularly hungry and certainly could have eaten something healthier anyway. Once again I was eating chocolate just because it was there and because there was no-one to see me eating it.

After the children had done their Easter egg hunt we had a cooked breakfast. Getting ready to go to London for the day became a little stressful and I ended up going back to the chocolate and eating it secretly.

Once we got to London we met up with friends and went to a very nice pub in Shepherds Bush - the Defector's Weld. We had a few beers and a late lunch. I chose sausage and mash which was very good.

From the pub we went to the youth hostel and then on to the Albert Hall to see Bellowhead, which was an excellent gig. After the gig we were a bit hungry, having only had two proper meals. All we could find was a bag of crisps in a pub.

Saturday 19th April OA Journal

I ate a normal breakfast before starting to work on sorting things out for a Pretty Grim dance out in the evening. Mid-morning I went for coffee at a friend's. Then back home for lunch.

As soon as I walked into the kitchen I saw some bread on the breadboard which one of the children had left. I started to cook some rice to go with left over chilli from the night before. While the rice was cooking I buttered the bread and ate it. I wasn't particularly hungry and could easily have waited for the rice to finish cooking before eating. I wasn't stressed or upset. I think I ate the bread just because it was there and there was no-one to see me eat it.

Later in the afternoon I was at another friend's. This time I was offered biscuits to go with my coffee. I ate three digestives and two pieces of shortbread simply because it was offered to me. In fact I felt that I was expected to eat them. After that I went home and ate dinner before going out to dance with PG. I had one beer while we were dancing. After I got home I felt hungry and ate a cereal bar. I couldn't decide whether this constituted compulsive eating.

Overeaters Anonymous

Around ten days ago a family friend brought up the topic of Overeaters Anonymous whilst we were sitting round one of our first campfires of the year. Although I was aware that there were many variations on the 12 Step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous I had never heard of Overeaters Anonymous. However, as she was explaining compulsive eating I realised that the condition could apply to me so I decided to find out more.

Some Googling soon led me to the OA GB website. I did a bit of reading here which confirmed my thought that OA might be for me. I downloaded the AA Big Book for Kindle and looked for OA meetings. Although there didn't seem to be any face to face meetings which I could get to there were loads of online meetings. Looking for more information about how to join one of these meetings led me to an email discussion list which I joined. I have also now attended a couple of online meetings.

Some of the people I have spoken to have recommended keeping a journal. I originally considered using Google drive , as I think I am more likely to keep an online journal than a physical one. However, then it occurred to me that using Blogger would let me tag my posts which then would facilitate searching later on which might be useful.