I’ve included the simple instructions from S.John Ross that followed to create mine. If you’re looking for more pictures check out Joy the Baker as she has a great collection of the life of her starter.

Select a container that your “pet” will live in. A wide-mouthed glass jar is best. I use a glass jar with a rubber and wireframe seal; you can find these for $2-$4 in any antique or junk shop. A small crock with a loose lid is also great; these can be bought in cheap sets for serving soup. You can also use a rubbermaid or tupperware container. I’ve begun starters using the plastic containers that take-out Chinese soup comes in, and then transferred them to jars later! A wide-mouthed mayonnaise or pickle jar will also do just fine. Metallic containers are a bad idea; some of them are reactive and can ruin your starter (for the same reason, avoid using metal utensils to stir your starter).

Blend a cup of warm water and a cup of flour, and pour it into the jar. That’s the whole recipe! I use plain, unbleached bread flour most of the time, but I’ve had good results with all-purpose and whole-wheat flour, too. If you want, you can add a little commercial yeast to a starter to “boost” it. If you do this, sourdough snobs will look down their nose at you – but who cares about snobs? I personally find that (at least here where I live) no yeast “boost” is necessary, and I can make “real” sourdough with no trouble. But if you are having trouble, go ahead and cheat. I won’t tell. Note that starter made with commercial yeast often produces a bread with less distinctive sour flavor than the real thing. (I didn’t use any yeast, but it took a day longer to show results as our house is a bit cold.)

Every 24 Hours, Feed the Starter. You should keep the starter in a warm place; 70-80 degrees Farenheit is perfect. This allows the yeast already present in the flour (and in the air) to grow rapidly. Temperatures hotter than 100 degrees or so will kill it. You can take comfort from the fact that almost nothing else will do so. The way you feed the starter is to (A) throw away half of it and then (B) add a half-cup of flour and a half-cup of water. Do this every 24 hours. Within three or four days (it can take longer, a week or more, and it can happen more quickly) you should start getting lots of bubbles throughought, and a pleasant sour or beery smell. The starter may start to puff up, too. This is good.

Here’s the gist: When your starter develops a bubbly froth, it is done. You have succeeded. If this sounds brain-dead simple, that’s because it is. People who didn’t believe the Earth was round did this for millenia.

Refrigerate the Starter. Keep the starter in your fridge, with a lid on it. Allow a little breathing space in the lid. If you’re using a mayo or pickle jar, punch a hole in the lid with a nail, that kind of thing. Once the starter is chilled, it needs to be fed only once a week. Realistically, you can get away with less; it’s important to remember that your starter is a colony of life-forms that are almost impossible to kill (except with extreme heat). Even starving them is difficult.

Preparation time

10m

Cooking time

5m

Difficulty

2

Serves

24

Preparation time

n/a

Cooking time

15m

Difficulty

2

Serves

1

We spent the first couple of days of our trip in Osaka (after a quick 3 hour train trip from Tokyo).  As always our days are filled with copious amounts of walking.  After we dropped our stuff off at the hotel, we stumbled upon a festival, still not exactly sure what it was about but it had tons of dogs (miniature poodles seem to be the breed of choice).  We then made our way south into the shopping district and learned what most of Osaka does on a holiday…SHOP!!!  The arcades go on forever, filled with coffee shops, Pachinko parlours and clothing of every variety…not to mention food.  The highlight of our first day had to be Genroku Sushi (which had its own song), a kaiten-zushi place where each plate was only 130 yen.  All of the normal sushi fare was present, but the star of the show had to be the crab leg nigiri…I had six plates on my own.  The second day we went to Osaka-jo and spent the afternoon in much the same way as the first, perusing the arcades and commenting on the fashion victims passing by our chosen coffee stop.    Lunch was delicious, we both had udon dishes at a great little restaurant just outside the main arcade.  We also made another stop at Genroku, for some more crab!

On Tuesday we spent the day in Kurashiki, just outside of Okayama.  Canals with drooping willows just touching the water, small quiet streets and historical buildings make for a great way to spend a few hours.  After 2 days in Osaka (land of hyper-reality) it was nice to take a stroll some place a little bit more mellow.   The historical area was beautiful, with some lovely little shops.  We were especially fond of the cat shop where we were serenaded with cats meowing to the tune of joy to the world – magical!  Later that afternoon we got back on the train, making a pit-stop in Kobe for supper.  We decided not to splash out on the beef…but we did go for some shabu-shabu.   We really enjoyed Kobe, it’s like the older more chilled out sister to Osaka.   Perhaps next time we’ll spend a couple of days there rather than staying in Osaka.

Today we spent most of the day on the train travelling to Beppu.  After exploring the town for a couple of hours we took advantage of one of the 3 onsen in our Ryokan.  Bliss.  Nothing quite like a steaming hot bath to loosen the muscles.  After our bath we found an amazing little gyoza restaurant, that’s all they serve.  Beer, tea, gyoza. mmmm.  There is only room for 7 people in the tiny space, 15 gyoza and only 600 yen per plate.  The little crispy bits are the best! I know i’ll be trying my hand at making some when we get home.

If you look back to the recently posted mushroom caviar recipe, you’ll see I suggested that it might taste nice as a spread for a roast beef sandwich. I tried it on Sunday…

600g beef – roast
1/2 Mushroom caviar recipe
Corriander
Mixed leaf lettuce
Parseley

Preparing your beef
Seal the beef by frying it lightly on all sides in a frying pan. After sealed place beef in the center of a roasting tray and then roast at 180C for 25mins (30 mins if you like it more well done than I do. As you can see by the photo…I think it should still be mooing.)
When it’s ready, remove it from the oven and place on a rack to cool.

Preparing the sandwich
Cut 4 thick slices of sourdough bread (I used french loaf and it completely fell apart – needed something more solid.) Smear 1 side of each slice with your mushroom caviar, top with the greens and add thickly sliced portions of beef. Add the top piece of bread. Voila!

Army Ants were small plastic figures, roughly two inches tall, of cartoony ants in a military motif. There were two factions: the Reds and the Blues. They were like Army Men but ants instead of men.

They also had a song (hence why I was reminded). Having trouble finding the lyrics though.