Newsletter: 🍞 Get set for Sourdough September + congratulations Regula Ysewijn MBE! 🏅

Our favorite fig recipes

Spotlight on Sourdough

“Wild thing, you make my loaf spring,” the Real Bread Campaign

Sourdough September is an annual initiative from the Real Bread Campaign, who work year-round to encourage the making, buying and eating of real, good, bread, and in September give sourdough its important place in the sun.

The harvest and nurture of wild yeasts, their conversion into a ‘mother’ starter, and the use of that to make bread with a full and complex flavor, a satisfying texture and chew, is for many the epitome of bread-making alchemy.

We have a recipe collection to get you started on your sourdough baking journey, or give you some new recipes ideas if you already have a years-old ‘mother’ bubbling away quietly waiting for your next bake.

Explore these recipes for Getting Started with Sourdough – from an essential method for a Sourdough Starter, some ideas for your first loaf, such as this Spelt Sourdough for Beginners, and on to Sourdough Pretzels and beyond.

Once you have whetted your appetite, leaf through Slow Dough, Real Bread, by Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris J L Young. The book is full of trouble-shooting tips from a cook who truly knows his sourdough inside out, and has recipes for many different loaves to make with your starter.

There is even a recipe for Panzanella, that Italian-style salad that makes use of stale bread, so no precious crumb goes to waste. The book is also a fascinating and important read about the history of bread, and its development to its modern incarnations.

Bien Cuit: The Art of Bread, by Zachary Golper and Peter Kaminsky is another book to add to your must-explore list.

It includes the recipe for Brooklyn-based sourdough artisan Zachary’s 60-Hour Sourdough Loaf – one for the dedicated sourdough nerds.

If sourdough is a step too far, but you’d like to dip your toe into making your own bread, explore this collection of 12 Simple Breads for Beginners. And then have a browse of our Bread Bookshelf. Happy baking!

Browse our Bread bookshelf

Pictured above: Kørntüberbrot from Bien Cuit: The Art of Bread by Zachary Golper

Perfect pizza and a Vietnamese feast

We have two delicious books newly added to ckbk for you, Pizza by Williams Sonoma, brought to you fresh on its publication, and Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories and Vietnamese Recipes from the Heart.

If you love pizza, and who doesn’t, the brand-new pizza book from much-loved US kitchenware brand Williams Sonoma is a treat.

With comprehensive step by step instructions for all the basic recipes for dough, sauce and any extras, and then a tempting range of recipes to make with them, you need look no further for a one-stop pizza shop. Try Pesto, Cherry Tomato & Mozzarella Pizza, go large with a Deep Dish Double Meat Pizza, or experimental with this Brussels Sprouts & Bacon Pizza.

In contrast, Secrets of the Red Lantern by Pauline Nguyen, Luke Nguyen, and Mark Jensen, is more of a magical mystery tour than a manual. Part memoir – both poignant and difficult – part journey through a country, and the personal culinary heritage of a family.

The book is filled with photographs of its places and people. And the recipes, which form the precious backdrop to such a personal history.

They conjure rich and evocative flavors, and are well introduced and explained for you to recreate in your own kitchen.

Try Salt and Pepper Squid, Beef, Mushroom and Glass Noodle Salad, or Southern Vietnamese Fish Cakes.

Find 120+ recipes in Secrets of the Red Lantern

Accolades galore for Regula Ysewijn

We are delighted for author and food critic Regula Ysewijn who has been awarded an MBE for services to British food and culture in Belgium and the UK.

The award was announced as one of King Charles’ 2024 honorary awards for foreign nationals, and marks a second career high for Regula this year.

She recently won a James Beard Foundation Award for her book Dark Rye & Honey Cake. We are huge fans of Regula’s writing and recipes here at ckbk, and will be celebrating with a table groaning with her glorious bakes.

Well done Regula!

Our #ckbkclub cookbook of the month for September

Here is your monthly reminder that we have a Facebook group called #ckbkclub. A place to chat about what you’ve made from the cookbooks on ckbk, or ask for help in the Kitchen SOS chat.

Each month we choose a cookbook for the group to focus on, and we encourage members to cook from it, chat about it, and share any photos, tips or questions they have about the recipes.

For September we will be making the most of the end-of-season harvest, and cooking from The Art of Preserving by Lisa Atwood, Rebecca Courchesne and Rick Field – a gorgeously photographed and thoroughly practical guide to making the most of every ounce of produce your garden, or market, has to offer.

Don’t forget to share pictures of all you make, we can’t wait to see them!

Ingredient focus: figs

The fig tree is a descendant of a wild tree, and the fruit it produces has some extraordinary features. For example, each fig is not in fact one fruit, but almost 1,500 tiny fruits, which are often thought of as the seeds. In the warm climates where figs grow they are eaten fresh in season – try them sliced with fresh lime juice and a sprinkling of sugar to offset the lime’s acidity, for a delicious and simple fruit salad. In all other climates and for most of the year, they are more often consumed dried

Dried figs are a traditional staple in fruitcakes and bakes – hence the popular name for Christmas pudding was ‘figgy pudding’.

If you have an abundance of fresh figs, take a look at our collection of 12 Ways with Figs. While dried figs are very sweet, fresh figs are not overwhelmingly so, and work well in savory dishes. Try this Harissa-Spiced Fig, Merguez and Almond Salad or this Gorgonzola Fig Tart. Or make the most of the fig’s fruity sweetness with this Tapioca Pudding with Caramelised Figs.

6 of the best salami recipes

Salami, is not just for sandwiches, although they make a fine sandwich too. Here is a fine one, and five other ways to enjoy your favorite sliceable sausage.