food to share: quick crostini

There is nothing as challenging as having a few fussy friends around to feed. Each one of them have their own food preference but also each one not with  something they are not eating.

 I find that having many different things that they can pick save you and them from the embarassment of leaving a whole untouched starter.

I am also in the mood for some colorful food, craving the spring I suppose!

I made my sourdough bread (my favourite recipe being again here) but I have got a good tip for the londoners, end especially the north London one (am I narrowing down my niche too much here?). You can buy your bread at euphorium bakery after 8PM buy one get one free (normally the price is quite high), mhh what a very English idea... However this means you can get bread in the evening and prepare a Sunday Lunch (I refuse to say brunch here), without having to bake, they do sourdough too.

You need to slice your bread in slices of about 1.5 cm then brush them with extra virgin olive oil, and put them in he oven at 200C° for 15 minutes or till golden.

My toppings:

• Marinated courgettes (sliced finely with a potato peeler), my marinate: 4 tbsp of eldelflower vinegar, 2 tbsp of olive oil, salt to taste, fresh marjoram
• Roasted and peeled peppers (bake till the skin gets dark, then place in a paper bag for few minutes and then peel of the skin once that they cool down), slice and mix  with green olives, capers and mint (and again a bit of olive oil)
• tofu cream, which is just a packet of silken tofu blend with a small bunch of dill and a finely chopped leek plus 2 tbs of good shoyu or Tamari soy sauce (I prepare this the night before and keep in the fridge)
• olive pate' which consist in blend kalamata olives and basil

Isn't just easy to please everyone?

Euphorium Bakery

202 Upper Street Islington

N1 IRQ

Sourdough bread

When you follow Macrobiotic, you mainly eat whole grains. Whole grains are more nutritious than cracked, milled, or flaked ones.
People that eat wholegrain hardly ever have cravings as their energy is released slower, 60% of my diet is based on brown rice, millet, wheat, amaranth, quinoa, as this is the food I feel is natural for me to eat and I can have it every meal without failing.
I eat bread sporadically and this is one of the several reasons why I like to live in the UK, in Italy there is just bread everywhere, and if it’s not bread is focaccia or pizza and either you decide you want to live an ascetic life and don’t go out anymore or you just cope with it : )
Having said this even I sometimes feel like making bread, but I just find the smell of commercial yeast such a put off…
So I made my own sourdough.
I love the fact that in Italian sourdough is called Pasta Madre that means “mother dough”, and indeed this is going to be the mother of your bread for (hopefully) long long time. The commercial sourdough bread is outrageously expansive and you can find it in natural food shops or in very few local bakeries but making in your house is a complete different experience.
The idea is: flour+water+warm temperature= bacteria = natural yeast = bread that is easy to digest.
How many people auto diagnosed themselves wheat intolerant? But are they really or is the yeast in those horrible commercial English bread loafs? (they even come in a plastic bag… yuck)
I have got no intention of writing my recipe for the sourdough as the Internet oozes with suggestions and very good step-by-step recipe.
Personally I am fascinated about this as I am about any fermented food. I just find the whole bacteria culture an amazing natural phenomenon, so I am a big fan of Miso, sauerkraut, umeboshi and beer ^____^

So this is the recipe that I follow from egullet, and now I have been using my starter twice, and it works wonderfully, my only suggestion is “love your starter”.



Dan Lepard is my baking hero.

Have fun and bake! (The weather is going to be miserable this Bank Holiday so you may as well turn the oven on!)