D.I.Y. Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food From Scratch (18 page)

You might never want to buy another sandwich again. By combining the two basic breads in this chapter, the condiments and spreads, homemade cheese, butter, and pickles, and, occasionally, a few store-bought ingredients, you can create sandwich combinations for every mood, including moods you never anticipated. Here are some combinations that I like. You’ll come up with more on your own.

Half-Wheat Sourdough Bread

•
Ajvar
,
Easy Yogurt Cheese
, and
Pickled Kohlrabi and Turnips with Cardamom

•
Fig-Rosemary Jam
and
Mustard and Bourbon–Glazed Pork Roast

•
Grainy Prepared Mustard
,
Mustard and Bourbon–Glazed Pork Roast
, and
Garlicky Cucumber Pickle Relish

•
Texas-Style Barbecued Brisket with Spicy Barbecue Sauce

•
Roasted Peanut Butter
and
Simple Wild Sauerkraut
—try it! I’m serious!

•
Meyer Lemon and Parsley Aioli
and store-bought canned wild salmon

SOURDOUGH CORNMEAL-PUMPKIN SEED BREAD

•
Fresh Whole-Milk Soft Cheese
and
Persimmon Spice Butter

•
Fresh Whole-Milk Soft Cheese
and
Bread and Butter Pickles

•
Raw Almond Butter
and
Plum-Verbena Jam

•
Mustard and Bourbon–Glazed Pork Roast
and
Persimmon-Spice Butter
)

• BLT with
Meyer Lemon and Parsley Aioli

• Egg salad made with
Meyer Lemon Aioli
and
Garlicky Cucumber Pickle Relish

•
Texas-Style Barbecued Brisket
and
Ajvar

• Grilled Cheese and
Wild Salvadoran Curtido

I love the crunch of cornmeal and the nutty flavor of pumpkin seeds combined. Both work well in this sourdough loaf. This is lovely sandwich bread and is even better toasted. Enjoy it for breakfast with homemade
Cultured Butter
and local honey or
Plum-Verbena Jam
. The replacement of some of the wheat flour with cornmeal makes a relatively moist dough. For this reason, I recommend baking this bread in a one-pound loaf pan to contain it rather than freeform
.

TIME REQUIRED:
about 40 minutes active; 7 hours passive (excluding Sourdough Starter preparation)

YIELD:
one 1-pound loaf

11 ounces (about 1
cups) slightly warmer than lukewarm water (about 100 degrees F)

5 ounces (about
cup) recently fed and activated
Sourdough Starter

8 ounces (about 1¾ cups) unbleached bread flour

5 ounces (about ¾ cup) yellow cornmeal

2 ounces (a scant ½ cup) wheat flour

2 teaspoons kosher salt

cup (2 ounces) pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted

Follow the instructions for mixing, forming, and baking the
Half-Wheat Sourdough Bread
, mixing the cornmeal in with both flours and adding the pumpkin seeds when you add the dry ingredients to the water and starter.

These are wonderful, special-occasion pancakes that somehow manage to taste both decadent and healthful at the same time. Serve them drizzled with maple syrup or Plum-Verbena Jam and homemade Crème Fraîche.

TIME REQUIREMENT:
45 minutes active (excluding crème fraîche, butter, jam, and sourdough starter preparation)

YIELD:
about 24 three-inch pancakes; 4 to 6 servings

2 tablespoons
Cultured Butter
or store-bought butter

2 tablespoons lightly packed brown sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 apple, chopped into ¼-inch pieces (about 1½ cups)

1
cups room-temperature
Sourdough Starter
, fed the night before or at least 4 hours ahead (see the
feeding instructions
)

1¼ cups milk

2 large eggs, separated

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

cup buckwheat flour

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Salt

Vegetable oil for the pan

Crème Fraîche
for serving

Plum-Verbena Jam
or maple syrup for serving

In a small, heavy skillet over medium heat, warm the butter, add the brown sugar and cinnamon, and stir to melt. Add the apple and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, brown, and caramelized, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sourdough starter, milk, egg yolks, and vanilla. Add the flours, granulated sugar, a pinch of salt, and the cooled apples, leaving some aside for garnish, if desired, and mix with a wooden spoon to blend.

In a medium bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the egg whites until medium-firm peaks form. Fold them gently into the batter, distributing the egg whites evenly, without overmixing.

Heat a large, well-seasoned, cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat and, using a paper towel, rub a little oil on its surface to coat it lightly. Test the heat level by drizzling a few drops of batter into the skillet. They should sizzle and begin to brown on the edges immediately. When the skillet is ready, ladle in 2 to 3 ounces of batter for each pancake. You should be able to cook three or four pancakes at a time. Cook the pancakes until bubbles form along the edges and the edges dry, about 2 minutes. Flip them over and cook the other sides until brown. Keep the finished pancakes warm in a low (250-degree-F) oven while you complete the cooking process. Serve the pancakes with crème fraîche and Plum-Verbena Jam. Garnish with the reserved caramelized apple pieces.

Though I’m big on making do in the kitchen and avoiding single-use tools and equipment, pizza is the one food item for which I recommend investing in the proper specialized tools—in this case, both a wooden peel and a baking stone. Neither one is terribly expensive, and both are necessary to making crisp, thin-crusted pizza. It’s also important to remember that making great pizza is a craft, just like making great bread. The variables in your kitchen—oven calibration, climate, moisture in the air, type of flour, water, and how you work the dough—will all contribute to the outcome. So if your pizza isn’t perfect the first time out, try and try again. Your “mistakes” will still be delicious
.

TIME REQUIRED:
20 to 50 minutes active (depending on toppings); 3 to 5 hours passive (excluding sourdough starter preparation)

YIELD:
2 approximately 15-inch pizzas

1 cup room-temperature
Sourdough Starter
, fed that morning or at least 4 hours ahead (see the
feeding instructions
)

3 cups unbleached all-purpose or bread flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Cornmeal for dusting

Desired toppings (see
Guide to Pizzas Through the Seasons
)

Mix together ¾ cup warm water and the starter and stir to dissolve the starter. Add the flour, oil, and salt, and mix with a rubber spatula. Add more water as needed until the dough is pliable. Continue to mix. Dip your hands in water and knead the dough in the bowl for 5 minutes. The dough will be quite sticky, but if you keep dipping your hands in water, it will prevent the dough from sticking to your hands. Cover the bowl, put it in a warm place, and let it rise for 3 to 5 hours.