Bankers Bread

As a kid (and quite frankly still today as an adult) I remember looking forward to the beginning of December with great anticipation as my Mom would begin to spend countless hours in the kitchen preparing traditional favourites from the motherland - trifle, shortbread, clootie dumpling and tablet to name a few. A sugar fix was never far away and my sweet tooth was always thankful.

When I first met my wife she told me she had a baby. "Not that kind of baby," she quickly clarified — but a sour dough culture that she taken with her after returning from a stage at Montreal’s famed restaurant Toqué. At that time she had been carrying this freeze dried sourdough starter with her for 3 years – which means that by the time she gifted it to me last month it was over 13 years old.

We are in midst of a very hot English summer (no, that ain’t a type-o!). It has been sunny and at least 28°C for the last two weeks and of course this means I am firing up the charcoal every night. I am on a bit of Argentinean grilling kick right now inspired by a recent addition to my wife’s cookbook collection called, “Seven Fires” by Francis Mallman. The photography and recipes are truly inspiring not only for cooking but my next holiday has to be to Argentina!

I often wonder why my mom never tires of me asking for her recipes.

Since my university days I have frequently called home with last-minute menu requests. She has the patience of a saint, especially because her recipes are not the easiest to locate. Her vast collection is stacked among boxes in an unfinished basement. Old books, recipe cards, scrap pieces of paper and news clippings – no dewey decimal system there. A while back, my mom committed to bringing some order to it, and even invested in an online organization system, but it never did get off the ground.