Stale sourdough strata

A stale sourdough strata is made to use up leftovers with added eggs and cheese, and then baked in the oven. Often there will be onions or leeks, and peppers too.

This variant is spiced up with ginger, garlic and a touch of curry-powder to make it more interesting; and to add valuable nutrients.

Sourdough unlike conventional commercial bread is well known for retaining its value after it has gone stale; it is often used with soups and stews too.

Ingredients

  • 3 slices stale sourdough bread
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup full-cream milk
  • 1 large leek or onion
  • 1 sweet coloured-pepper, sliced
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1cm fresh-ginger
  • 1/2 tsp each of various Indian spices; turmeric, cumin and coriander
  • 1/4 tsp curry powder
  • 1 TBSP hummus
  • 1 cup grated cheese

Go for it

  1. Fry the thinly-sliced leek or onion in butter and olive oil.
  2. Toss in the pepper, and then a minute later the garlic, ginger and turmeric; the cumin and curry powder.
  3. Keep stirring for a few minutes; set aside.
  4. Beat the eggs and milk.
  5. In a baking-dish spread out chunks of sourdough bread and cover with the leek and mixture of spices.
  6. Pour the  beaten egg-milk over the bread and leeks, and cover with the grated cheese.
  7. Chill overnight.
  8. Preheat the oven to 180oC and bake the stale sourdough strata for 45 minutes.
Bucketful of peppadews.

As always we recommend using what is seasonal and on hand. For example at the moment we have a glut of peppadews in the garden. Remove the seeds if you don't like it too piquant.

Freshly-roasted and ground spices are always better. Commercially they grow bitter quite quickly after the bottle is opened and exposed to air.

Smell the vapour coming off the cumin as it is roasted.

The fragrance of roasting cumin-seeds is like incense; you can get high with a little help from spices like these. Then grind them in a little coffee blender. Keep what's left in the fridge but use within a week or two at most.

Use lavish amounts of freshly-roasted cumin seeds in an authentic hummus dish; it takes only 5 minutes to make once you have the ingredients ready. It will provide some vegetable protein to go with the cheese and eggs.

Commercial bread raises my blood sugar so we have taken to baking sourdough using 100% flour in a small electric-oven; then I can indulge without guilt. But if you are diabetic I recommend testing half an hour after the meal; one little prick of the finger. Perhaps you should be on a very low carb food package.

Home testing for prediabetes is not rocket science.

Generally sourdough has a much lower glycemic-index, especially when baked with true wholemeal flour which has all the bran and germ.

Sourdough also deals with the gluten issue though you may have to prepare it the night before baking.

Prepared with the right ingredients this stale sourdough strata is highly nutritious, especially when baked with 100% wholemeal; that means having your own electric mill. It's not a schlep but another appliance to be stored; one that is used virtually every day in our green kitchen.

Those who are even prediabetic should still keep to a small slice to limit the glycemic load. That may be difficult; this stale sourdough strata calls for a second helping.

It's interesting that in all five Blue Zone countries they leave the table slightly hungry; it is a good habit to cultivate[1]. And they eat only bread fermented with sourdough.

Just the smell of freshly-baking bread makes it worthwhile. Once you're in the groove it takes only five minutes to prepare the dough, including milling your own flour.

Totally unrefined flour contains all the germ and bran of the grain; especially the vitamin E that naturally stops clots from forming and the lignans[2] that every woman needs desperately. They are oestrogen-like compounds that help prevent breast tumours.

It's totally false that sourdough bread made with 100% flour need be heavy.

Stale sourdough strata

Made from real sourdough bread this strata is a wonderfully tasty and nutritious dish.

100pc sourdough loaf sliced.

Stale sourdough strata is a simple dish of bread, eggs and cheese. Adding onions or leeks, peppers and your favourite spices turns it into a treat.

Protein

Researchers looking at the longevity diet confirm that in childhood and old age we need extra protein; however in the middle years we should be eating rather less. And that we absolutely must keep blood-glucose under control if it's our desire to live long in the land with our marbles and joints intact.

  1. Blue zones at TED talks
  2. Lignans. Web: https://tinyurl.com/2p8hhbpz

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Newsletter

Our newsletter is entitled "create a cyan zone" at your home, preserving both yourself, the family and friends, and Mother Earth for future generations. We promise not to spam you with daily emails promoting various products. You may get an occasional nudge to buy one of my books!

Here are the back issues.

  • Refined maize meal and stunting
  • Should agriculture and industry get priority for water and electricity?
  • Nature is calling
  • Mill your own flour
  • Bake your own sourdough bread
  • Microplastics from our water
  • Alternative types of water storage
  • Wear your clothes out
  • Comfort foods
  • Create a bee-friendly environment
  • Go to bed slightly hungry
  • Keep bees
  • Blue zone folk are religious
  • Reduce plastic waste
  • Family is important
  • What can go in compost?
  • Grow broad beans for longevity
  • Harvest and store sunshine
  • Blue zone exercise
  • Harvest and store your rainwater
  • Create a cyan zone at your home

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