So I was reading Wikipedia and somehow I ended up on a page about sourdough, and how the main ingredient is a living culture (some of which can be decades old in the right hands). I figured it'd be quite cool to have something like that hanging around as a fridge pet so I decided to make some.
It's started by making a flour and water mix which is left to grow natural bacteria. You can kickstart the process with a natural booster - in this case a bunch of red grapes from the local Turkish newsagents on Mare Street.
Give them a quick wash to evict any grubs living in them, then (and this is where it gets weird) stuff them into a stocking so you can remove them from the dough easier later on.
Mix up some strong white bread flour and water - I'm starting to think I should have probably sifted the flour here so it didn't end up quite so lumpy.
I *definitely* should have sifted it *before* mixing.
Add the grape stocking. It doesn't look very promising right now, but I'm really hoping it will sort itself out over the next few days...
A couple of days later I came home to this. Those bacterias have been busy little mischief-makers. The question now is: what to do with it?
