Kimchi Sesame Sourdough Bannock

This recipe was inspired by a morning coffee break watching YouTube videos on sourdough bread making. This particular video was demonstrating how to feed your starter and what to do with the leftover starter that is also called the discard. The guy just poured it into a hot skillet, fried it up crispy on both sides, and ate it. My thought was, “interesting, but where is the seasoning and flavor going to come from?” 

So the next day after feeding Dawn (my starter), I took my leftover 200 g and I put together a version of the recipe below. It took a couple of tries as I was determined to get a flavor explosion and let’s face it, there are only two ingredients in sourdough starter to play with: flour and water. I served the final version of this recipe at my sourdough workshop and it was the most popular sourdough item on the buffet. 

Use this recipe simply as a guide and incorporate your own ingredients as you play and experiment more. I can only imagine all of the different directions you could go with flavor profiles and have no doubt I will be taste testing a few of my own versions on future workshop participants. 

Kimchi Sesame Sourdough Bannock

• 200 g sourdough starter that is 48 hours old. This is your discard starter from the day before that is 24 hours old. Put it in the fridge and leave an additional 24 hours until the next morning, making it 48 hours since it has had any flour added to it.
• 200 g kimchi – squeeze out as much moisture as you can. I use Edgar Farms Kimchi as it is a raw, naturally fermented kimchi made in small batches locally.
• 50 g green onion – sliced thin
• 50 g cilantro – chopped
• 1 clove garlic – minced
• 1 tsp. salt 
• 1 tsp. pepper
• ½ tsp. urfa biber chili flakes – this is a mild Israeli smoked chili that you can find at Silk Road Spice Merchant in Calgary or use your favorite mild flaked/powdered chili.
• Sesame seeds
• Oil for frying – use an oil that can withstand high heat. I use Parthena olive oil as it is a good quality uncut oil and can withstand 500 F.

Let the starter sit on the counter for a few hours so that it warms up and becomes active. It also makes it softer and easier to mix in the other ingredients. Preheat oven to 400 F. Prep all your ingredients and mix everything together in a bowl, making a thick batter.

Get your frying pan preheated on the stove top. I use cast iron because I think it makes the crust extra thick and crispy, but use what you have, making sure it is oven safe as we are going to finish this bannock in the oven.

You will need a good coating of oil in the pan as we are pan frying this baby. Scrap the dough into the hot pan, pushing the dough out to form about a 7”-8” round. Take a handful of sesame seeds and cover the uncooked top of the bannock while it’s cooking in the pan, pressing them into the dough as best you can. When the side of the bannock that is cooking gets crispy brown, flip the bannock over. Sesame seed crust is now facing down in the pan. 

Take the pan and place in your preheated oven for about 30 – 40 minutes or until the center is no longer doughy. Place bannock on a cutting board and cut into wedges. It’s delicious just like this or make the sauce below for dipping and it will blow your mind!

Citrus Sake Sauce

• 1 Tbsp. each sesame oil, fish sauce, lime juice, sake
• 4 Tbsp. coconut soya sauce or use regular soya sauce
• 15 g miso paste
• 1 tsp. pepper
• 1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
• 1 clove garlic – minced
• Freshly chopped cilantro

Put all ingredients in a 250 ml mason jar and shake.

~M