It’s gotten to be a bit of a joke that all us middle-class types are learning how to make and use sourdough cultures. Alain did a post on it a while back.
I had a culture a long time ago, and I was never entirely happy with it. I thought I’d try again. I started about a week ago with dried apricots and ginger, just for the heck of it. The recipe I read recommended using dried fruit to get an initial batch of yeast, which appealed to me.
I’ve been feeding the starter gently for about a week and decided over the weekend that it was time to try it out. I used the surplus starter in pancakes, which were good but unspectacular.
The big project, though, was a loaf of bread. A couple of baguettes, actually, to suit the albondigas soup I wanted to make.
The initial response of the dough yesterday morning was sluggish – the problem I had had in the past, so I started being a little disappointed. But last night it got more enthusiastic. I formed it into loaves this morning and baked them.
Oh my! Great crust and good flavor! I’d like it a little more sour, but I am told that my starter will become more sour with time.
And here’s dinner:
ETA the recipe for Albondigas Soup
Albondigas Soup
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup rice
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- ½ tsp cumin
- ½ tsp oregano
- pepper
Mix the ingredients and form into meatballs about an inch in diameter.
Soup
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- ¼ cup chopped celery
- 1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 cups tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- 2 cups stock
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- chopped parsley
- salt and pepper
- summer squash
- kernels from 1 ear corn
Saute onion, carrots, celery, and garlic in the olive oil. Add tomatoes, stock, and seasonings, with additional stock or water as necessary. Bring to a boil. Add meatballs a few at a time. Let mixture simmer 15 minutes. Add cubed summer squash and more water or stock if necessary and simmer 15 minutes more. Add corn and simmer 5 minutes. Serve.
Open thread!
jeffreyw
Awesome looking soup! TaMara needs to get you for a contributor to her W4D blog.
NotMax
Yum.
Won’t turn up my schnozz at them but have never been a big fan of sourdough breads.
Elizabelle
Looks delish. Beautiful loaves.
glory b
Soooo, recipe?
Downpuppy
Oh fer chrissake. I can’t even tell who’s posting anymore! This goes along with the WFH messages I get, every day, dummer than the last
The bread does look delicious.
neldob
Yuuummm!!!!! I want to smell it. (hope that’s not gross.)
NotMax
Looks as if the rain will hold off until tonight so in about an hour going to venture out for the monthly grocery expedition.
No conception of what will or won’t be available. Shall have to adjust anticipated menus on the fly.
James E Powell
Can you share that? I’ve not heard of that.
oldster
Those are damned fine-looking baguettes, Cheryl!
BigJimSlade
The bread looks great!
I’ve made a couple of starters (years ago) and they always kinda taste/smell like paint. Anyone else ever run into that?
C Stars
Oh gosh, I freaking LOVE albondigas soup. It’s one of the things I break my vegan diet for. Will try this recipe next time we make it.
Cheryl Rofer
I have added the recipe for the soup in the post.
To use dried fruit as a source of yeast for sourdough starter, chop up some dried fruit and shake it with an about equal amount of water. Let it sit for a few hours, then drain off the water and mix with flour as in standard instructions for sourdough starter. Developing a starter is a bit tedious and takes maybe a week. I think Alain’s post has instructions.
AnonPhenom
@James E Powell:
Ditto.
debbie
I don’t bake bread, but I practically live on tomato and basil on toasted sourdough sandwiches all summer long. The roof of my mouth isn’t really happy about it, but I don’t care.
Kristine
Lovely bread. I have plenty of dried fruit–I should try this method as well as Alain’s starter.
This is article I read that discusses using dried fruit as a yeast source.
Kristine
@debbie: Bread that abrades the roof of your mouth is bread that is just crusty enough.
Peter
@James E Powell: Depending on where you live, and what’s in season, you can use other things. Organic is important, since they will not have been sprayed with anything toxic to yeast. Most fresh fruit is good, especially apples and grapes (fall fruit, I know); that haze you see on them is yeast. I make tepache regularly using pineapples; their skin is covered in it. This time of year in my neck of the woods, conifers are starting to wake up. Spruce tips are an excellent spring yeast source. I have found that the best way to do it is put whatever fruit or plant material you have into a jar and cover it with a solution of 8:1 water:raw honey. Let it sit for a few days until it starts to get fizzy, then strain it and use a bit of that water to mix with flour and create or feed your sourdough starter. Drink the rest! Naturally carbonated drinks like this are wonderful. Leave them longer, and they turn into kombucha-type things. Longer still and they all resolve into vinegar.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
Yay new soup recipe! and new bread recipe!
NotMax
Hint: if using dried apricots find the ones not preserved with sulfur dioxide, which can deactivate or impede the yeast.
Pete Mack
@JPL @Forkbeard @Immanentize
I had a recipe request for chili verde con puerco on Saturday, assuming Easter supper came out well. Turns out It is somewhat similar to a recipe in Nosrat, so unsurprisingly It was delicious:
Night before:
Season 4lb pork shoulder generously with salt, ground coriander, ground cumin, mashed garlic. (About 2t salt for 4lb) Put kitchen twine back on.
Instructions:
time 8.5 hours + overnight
Chop: 2 poblano, 2 pasilla, 2 dried New Mexico chiles, seeded and pithed. possibly include some pith from pasilla depending on taste. 3 cloves garlic.
Half: 1lb tomatillo
Chop and sweat (in skillet) til beginning to brown: 1 large onion, in neutral oil. Note: if you skip this you’re likely to get flabby, slimy onions
Brown pork on all sides.
Deglaze with: low-hops beer or vegetable brot
Put Vega in pressure cooker, nestle in pork. Add rest of beer, if using. Add enough veg broth to nearly cover the meat.
Add spices: 1t+ each coriander and cumin
Cook until pork is falling apart, 8 hours on low, and test for acidity. If too mild, add lime juice to taste, and cook 15 minutes more.
Cheryl Rofer
@Kristine: That’s how I did it, although I drained the water off the dried fruit, rather than mixing the fruit into the starter.
Ella in New Mexico
Oh my!! Que Bonito!!! Now I want Albondigas Soup and homemade bread! Especially since today it suddenly got so frigging cold and windy outside.
That bread is exactly the type that I literally used to to eat entire loaves of when I was a daily runner. Since I’m not going to the gym under these isolation orders, I’m a terrible slug. So if I make it I’m going to have my husband slice me one piece only and hide the rest
mali muso
Yum! I just successfully made my first loaf of sourdough bread off of my first homemade starter. I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out. But also a little overwhelmed by how much discard I had to deal with in the starter development phase. Hated to throw it away so ended up making lots of things like pancakes and waffles which were only edible by DH and I, the toddler not being a fan of the sour flavor.
Those are some lovely baguettes!!
Kristine
@mali muso: Wondering if I could make the pancakes and waffles in batches and freeze them. I wouldn’t like to waste any starter either.
Cheryl Rofer
@mali muso: Yes – I’ve had sourdough pancakes for two days now. I also hate to throw the starter away.
Danton
Can sourdough be frozen and still leaven when thawed?
Alain
Cheryl,
I’m sharing my sourdough pancake recipe soon and hope you’ll enjoy it when your new culture is sufficiently developed. I love a super-strong sour profile, similar to some “stinky cheeses” I adore.
Wednesday I’ll be posting a sourdough pizza dough recipe that is crazy good. It’s a multi-day-in-the-fridge, slow-rising dough. I bet it would be awesome at your altitude with a good four.
Kattails
Yum. I’ve got some corn chowder on the stove as I read this. Haven’t made sourdough in ages, used to use rye flour as a starter. I hate throwing away so much starter too. Might look into making an old dough starter or levain, because you can freeze the dough. I just can’t use that much.
Uncle Jeffy
The meatball recipe: should you use cooked rice? I try to use brown rice in all recipes, but not so sure it would work in this one.
Cheryl Rofer
@Uncle Jeffy: I use raw white rice. It cooks in the soup. If you want to use brown rice, you might try partially or fully cooked.
LesGS
Okay, bookmarking this!
Peter
@Danton: Yes. It can also be dehydrated (at low, <110˚F temp) and stored for long periods as a frozen powder.
karensky
Gorgeous bread and soup!
UncleDave
@BigJimSlade: yes, me too. Twice with green slime. I ordered dried Alaskan starter from Mistee in Anchorage thru Etsy. It’s great.
etsy.com/listing/185111657/mistees-famous-100-plus-year-old-alaskan