Fire-fractured carrot bread

Ingredients

Vegetable phase

• 500 g carrots
• 125 g yellow cabbage
• 1 small purple onion
• 40–60 g rocket/arugula
• 25–40 g feta
• 1½ teaspoons mustard seeds
• 1 lemon
• 20–30 mL wine vinegar
• 30–40 mL extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt

Bread phase

• 200 g active sourdough starter (προζύμι)
• 300 g whole-grain wheat flour
• 200 g durum wheat flour or fine semolina flour, plus more as needed
• 1–1½ teaspoons smoked salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• ¼–½ teaspoon chilli
• Water only if genuinely required

Movement

1. Peel the carrots, then keep peeling lengthwise into long thin ribbons. Mix with salt, lemon juice, vinegar, and olive oil; rest for approximately 50 minutes without discarding the liquid.
2. Slightly crush the mustard seeds without powdering them. Hydrate with just enough water and vinegar while the carrots rest.
3. Finely cut the yellow cabbage to about one quarter of the carrot weight, dice the purple onion very small, then mix both with the carrots, rocket, hydrated mustard seed, and a very small amount of crumbled feta.
4. Place the wet vegetable system in a fine heat-safe mesh basket. Keep it moving over a clean wood flame for about one minute—enough for warmth, smoke, tiny surface fractures, and some flame contact, but not enough to grill, char, dry, or cook it through.
5. Immediately mix the still-warm vegetables into the active starter in a wooden bowl. Do not add flour yet.
6. Keep the bowl beside the fire, or in a gently warm oven, for approximately 15 minutes. Let the vegetable–starter system settle without becoming hot enough to cook either part.
7. Combine the whole-grain wheat flour, durum flour, smoked salt, paprika, and chilli. Begin with approximately 500 g total flour and keep additional flour nearby.
8. Add the seasoned flour gradually to the vegetable–starter mixture. Add water only if the dough genuinely needs it. Stop when a coherent but still relatively soft, hydrated dough forms.
9. Cover and allow a first rise until the dough is visibly expanded and aerated; acidity, hydration, temperature, and starter activity decide the time.
10. Fold gently several times to strengthen the gluten without destroying every carrot ribbon; rest and allow a second rise.
11. Fold again, shape without aggressive degassing, and allow a final rise until visibly active and expanded: rise → fold → rise → fold → rise.
12. Bake in a thoroughly preheated covered vessel at approximately 230°C for 20–25 minutes. Uncover, reduce to 205–210°C, and continue for 25–35 minutes, protecting exposed vegetable material from burning.
13. Cool substantially before cutting so the wet vegetable, starch, and protein structure can finish setting.