My life is slowly filling up with cultures. Those of you who read my blog regularly will know that over the past few weeks I’ve started making both Kombucha and Kefir.
All this “culturing” put me in the mood to start making bread again. By bread I mean making in from a sourdough starter – no yeast. It is something that I have done before, about 3 years ago, and I really enjoyed it. The bread tasted incredible too.
I mentioned that I’d like to start making bread again, and before I knew it I was almost challenged into starting it before the week was out. So, the clock was ticking and there was one big challenge to solve: buying the right type of flour in Japan.
In my travels I’ve observed that the flour available in a country is related to how it’s been used. The flour in England is different from Sweden, is different from Germany, is different from Japan. Plus here I have the language barrier to get over. Animals, natural, and cooking ingredients are some of the hardest new words to learn. This was solved, however, by a brilliant blog. It explained the different types of flour sold in Japan and how to say them. Armed with this knowledge I headed out to the shops.
Saturday morning was a busy one for the cultures. Every morning I collect the latest kefir milk and start off a new batch. This is so easy that it’s done in a few minutes and normally ends up used straight for breakfast. I save any leftover in the fridge for later. I’ve developed quite a taste for it and find it makes a delicious desert. Don’t tell my kids – they think I’m weird enough as it is already.
Meanwhile my next batch of Kombucha was ready for bottling. One 5 litre batch only just lasts us a week so it might be time to have two batches on the go at once. I certainly have enough scoby to divide up – is there anybody in Tokyo who wants some? The ginger and turmeric that I’d been worried about turned out okay. I’d been concerned that there’d be a powdery residue when we drank it – but it appears to have ??dissolved?? into the liquid.
After bottling I had to get a new batch going. This being my third time bottling and fourth brew meant that I’m beginning to get the hang of it (see why in my rule of three blog post here: How to have confidence to keep trying).
I’m doing the second fermentation of the Kombucha with two different flavour combinations: lemon and ginger, and apple and cinnamon. I’m experimenting with flavours as the children still don’t really like it. They don’t complain much, but I know they’d rather not drink it if they could. So I’ll keep experimenting until I find a flavour they like.
Waiting for the Kombucha
Apple and Cinnamon
Lemon and Ginger
As for the sourdough starter – this one is very much an experiment. I was only able to find white strong bread flour and normally you need wholewheat flour to get the starter going. Something gets removed during the filtering process, an enzyme or something, that is needed for the starter. Still, I’m up against the clock so here goes. Hopefully it just means that it’ll take longer to get going.
I came back to check on the starter about 5 hours later to find that it felt cold. We don’t use any heat at this time of the year so our apartment is on the cool side for a starter. This will definitely slow the process down further- if not stop it all together. Getting creativity I’ve:
- Given it a hot bath
- Sat it on top of the running dish washer
(after this it did feel warm)
I’ll check on it when I get home from work tonight and if it’s still cold then I might have to resort to wrapping it up in a towel with a hot water bottle. Yes, I know, it does sound ridiculous but I don’t have an airing cupboard. I’m not turning the heating on for the four plus days that this will take to develop into an established starter. That, it me, sounds more ridiculous.