Fugax88

After 270 days of reading and digesting Kiko Denzers Earth Ovens I have come to my senses. First it was the Earth oven...such inspiration he gives! No wonder metals were invented to make cooking easier. I am now the proud owner of "Thomas" the stainless Steel Tank oven. No mud. It is waterproof. Takes 10minutes and a bit of gas to reach 500F. It doesn't look like a dragon, more the Steam engine it is named after. For the smoke effect, a few woodchips in the basket during cooking and woodfired authenticity is recreated.

Many tens of days passed until I had the desire for a loaf of Sourdough Bread. My usual supplier of the shires finest sourdough advised me they no produced heaven in a loaf. Unable to trust pre fab sourdoughs with a 3 month expiry date, it was back to Kiko's book. After a read of his wife's method for sourdough, I decided yes, am a patient man, I can wait for 8 days for a small loaf of bread! Feed the starter, feed the starter. I passed the time trying to get to last position of a famous on-line rugby league tipping competition (same prize last or first I figure!).
Mrs Denzer was in a typically Aquarius mood whilst writing this, not wanting me to go to any fuss brewing the yeast. The beer smell in the kitchen was pretty good unless a hangover was in process. It was the familiar combined odours of regurgitated food and stomach acid after 5 days that pulled me out of my Nimbinish stupor and disposed of the starter in the shires landfill.

My new hero is Chef John. I am sure sensible is his 'middle' name. from this I have produced my first 'starter', and consequently my first loaf of Sourdough. Looked superb. Tasted great. With some fine tuning I am sure it will improve. I hope to have some SDPOTD when I get around to replenishing the batteries in my camera.