Taming The Beast
that took over my kitchen
There is a monster in my kitchen. It is my fault, of course, I have been feeding and caring for it like a little batch of sea monkeys. Or should I say, a big colony of sea monkeys. Alishanee insists I should name it.
Yes, this monster is my new sourdough starter. I had a happy little batch when we were living in the white house next door, but when we moved back onto the porch I gave up such lavish things. My awesome mother in law mailed me her original, signed 1978 “Alaska Sourdough” book by Ruth Allman when she learned of my endeavor.
It was a little intimidating, but rich and lovely. It was all hand written with little illustrations and stories of surviving in rustic Alaska on Sourdough and grit. The book’s version of sourdough starter was different than the one I found on the internet. It called for “potato water”, um okay. That didn’t sound appealing, but I liked the idea of being authentic so I gave it a go. It also didn’t suggest refrigerating it. I looked at some other sourdough sites and they confirmed that I should just leave it out and feed it regularly. Randy disapproved, but I insisted that this was the way the experts did it, so it must be done. So I fed it and made pancakes, and fed it and made muffins, and fed it and made cookies, and fed it. After awhile I became a little overrun with starter.
Well, a month later and I still hadn’t made sourdough bread, It all just seemed so time consuming and a bit daunting. How many hours or days do I have to plan ahead to get this baby going? What is up with the stretching and kneading? Do I add water to my oven? I thought of the “Breads” episode of Julia where Julia Childs’ husband and friend spend a sweaty flour covered week working out the trials of bread and ended up putting wet asbestos bricks in the oven to achieve the perfect crust. I finally decided to watch a few video tutorials on the subject.
Then I found, Ben Star, this genius not only gave good instructions, but also gave me permission to put my monster to sleep in the fridge and get on with my life. Sourdough for Lazy People, that is me. Sign me up. Now to get on with proper bread making.
Oh yeah, still not a cooking site.