Rye bread

I had a dear Estonian friend named Toomas Lapp, and except for his regular visits to me and Helena, he was also a regular in my restaurant. Toomas knew that I loved a good rye bread, but complained bitterly about the quality of South African rye flour, it was incredibly bland and too light in colour. Bearing this in mind, Toomas promptly brought me some Estonian rye flour, about four different loaves of Estonian rye bread and an exquisite book on Estonian rye breads (which was unfortunately too authentic - it was all written in Estonian!).

From this point forward, I developed a passion for a dark, rich, and luxurious rye bread. Toomas passed away in June this year, I was heart-broken. With his kind and gentle soul he was to me what a demi god would be. My passion for a good rye bread is still with me and I will make a wonderful sour dough rye bread in the near future!

The name of the Estonian bread book is Koduleivaraamat and the author is Kaia-Kaire Hunt: I wonder if I could persuade her to come and teach us South Africans how a real rye bread is made...

A rustic introduction

Well, to be honest, I was about to jump into this 'blog'-thing head first until my well-studied and wise daughter insisted I introduce myself properly. So, here goes! My name is Charl Roux, and I live in the Tsitsikamma (which is a Khoi word for 'place of abundant water'), close to the sea. Pictured below is the view from my front door (as well as my bed - mmm!). My hands-on relationship with food started when I built my first clay oven a few years ago, serving fresh bread, meat, cheese(which I was produsing on the farm from my own goats), olives and other tapas from the farm. Next, I plan on building a clay oven and crafting breads, foods and desserts in the oven. Firstly, I will concentrate on perfecting comercial white and brown breads as well as a few artisan breads, such as rye, ciabatta, and potato sour dough. In this blog, which will document this ongoing journey, I will show you how to build an oven and share recipes as I test, try, serve and enjoy them. Hopefully, you will get to see a glimpse of my life, including my family, friends, surroundings and ideas as time passes.

When this is established, I want to start serving food straight out of the oven once a week - every Sunday - and as bookings pick up I will work towards firing the oven for two days a week. Eventually, I hope to turn it into a fully-functioning restaurant. I believe that time will mould my plans and - considering that I am quite flexible - I will grow with them. So, welcome to my journey - I hope you have as much fun as I know I am. Put on your seatbelts - it's going to be a bumpy, bumpy ride!