While the rest of the world may be striving to recreate Chad Robertson's cult status country bread, the breads that caught my attention when I first read through his Tartine Book No. 3 were his dense pan loaves, resembling my favorite German Volkornbrot. I adapted his toasted barley loaf recipe to my pantry supplies from Lonesome Whistle Farm and Camas Country Mill, using cooked emmer (instead of barley), flax seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and Red Fife wheat flour instead of spelt and einkorn.
Packed full with all this particulate matter, the dough felt like wet concrete, as the recipe describes. And although never destined to rise above the rims of the baking pan, it achieved the lofty goal of living up to my German bread memories. My starter and I will be moving on to attempt some airier levain breads, inspired by a recent visit from wheat breeder Stephen Jones, who runs what the New York Times describes as "a Wonka-esque wonderland for crusty, airy-crumbed experimentation," but I know I'll be returning to this seeded pan loaf recipe again for its dense delivery of flavor.
Seeded Emmer Pan Loaf
200 g emmer berries cooked in 400 g cold water
250 g Red Fife or other high protein whole grain flour
157 g buttermilk
10 g dark malt syrup
238 g water
155 g leaven (well fed bread starter, described here)
8 g fine sea salt
102 g flax seeds
52 g sesame seeds
45 g sunflower seeds
1. Two days before you will bake the bread, give your stater an extra feeding halfway through its 24 hour cycle to make it extra active. Also go ahead and cook your emmer berries, simmering and covered, for about 40 minutes, until they have absorbed all the liquid. If you like, you could toast the emmer berries on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes before cooking. Cool completely before using.
2. Start the dough the morning of the day before you will bake the bread. In a large bowl, combine the leaven with the buttermilk, malt syrup, and water, and mix by hand to incorporate. Add the flour and mix by hand until thoroughly combined, about 5 minutes. Let the dough rest, covered, in the bowl for 30 minutes (this is the autolysis step). Add the salt, cooked emmer, and seeds and continue mixing by hand until incorporated. The dough should have the feel of wet concrete.
3. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen fowl and let rise at warm room temperature for about 3 hours (this is the first proofing). Every 45 minutes or so, fold the dough to strengthen the gluten network, either with your hands as shown here, or if you are less ambitious, with a scraper as shown here.
4. Butter a loaf pan very well. Scoop the dough into the pan and smooth the top with wet hands. Let the dough rise in the pan, uncovered, at a warm room temperature. Cover the pan with a clean, dry kitchen towel and let rise overnight in the refrigerator (this is the second proofing).
5. The next day, preheat the oven to 425 degrees C. Use a pair of scissors to make shallow cuts in the top of the loaf to score and brush with water. Bake for about 1 hour and 20 minutes or until the internal temperature has reached 210 degrees F. Let the loaf cool on a wire rack for at least half a day before cutting. The bread keeps well for up to one week properly wrapped.
With day lights savings depriving us of our morning sunlight, and the drizzly days lingering, this is the time of year when you need some easy weeknight dinners in your back pocket. These tofu tacos fit the bill, especially if you cook up some grains and a pot of beans (like Rio zapes in mole sauce)
ahead of time. The sauce for these tacos comes from a shrimp recipe from Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday and is dead easy: blend together a 15 ounce can of fire roasted tomatoes with a couple of chipotle chiles in adobe sauce. A tip for storing a can's worth of these chiles: dot them on a piece of saran wrap draped across a cookie sheet, freeze, and then store in a freezer bag for future meals. If you've taken to stashing tofu in your freezer for banh mi, the same strategy would work here for creating extra firm tofu chunks. For toppings, fresh avocado is nice, but shredded cabbage and root vegetables or even refrigerator pickles will do the trick. And while you eat these, imagine yourself on a sunny tropical beach.
Chipotle Tofu Tacos
tofu filling
1 14 ounce package of tofu (if possible, slice and freeze, then thaw, for extra firm pieces)
3 cloves garlic
3 Tbsp canola oil
1 15 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
2 to 3 chipotle chiles in adobe sauce
salt to taste
taco fixings
tortillas
cooked grain, such as farro, or rice
cubed avocado
spinach leaves or chopped lettuce or cabbage
cilantro
shredded cheddar cheese or sour cream
lime wedges
1. Cut the tofu into 1 inch slabs. If you can prepare this ahead of time, freeze the tofu slabs and then thaw them to release extra liquid.
2. In a blender, combine the fire roasted tomatoes and chipotle chiles.
3. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat and, when hot, add 2 Tbsp oil. Now add the tofu slabs in a single layer. Allow them to sear undisturbed for about 3 minutes, then gently flip and sear on the second side. Sprinkle them with a pinch of salt. Meanwhile, mince the garlic. When the tofu is nicely golden on both sides, remove to a plate.
4. Add remaining 1 Tbsp oil to the pan and when warm, add the garlic. Stir for a minute until fragrant but not brown, and then pour in the tomato chipotle sauce from the blender jar and a generous pinch of salt. Stir and bring to a simmer. Cook for about five minutes or so, taste and add more salt if needed. Meanwhile, cut the tofu slabs into 1 inch cubes. Add the tofu cubes to the sauce, stir to coat, and continue to simmer while you prepare the tacos toppings and warm the tortillas.
5. Allow everyone to assemble their tacos to their personal taste following the general formula of starting with a warm tortilla, adding a scoop of grains, a generous helping of tofu, topping with avocado, greens, cilantro, and cheese or sour cream, a squeeze of lime, and serving with beans on the side. Enjoy.
Here's a convenient lunch idea, composed of leftovers from the previous post on pickled chard stems. Into a pint jar I packed farro, chopped carrots, pickled chard stems and almonds, and drizzled over some olive oil (the pickles brought along some vinegar to meld into a vinaigrette during the day). On top I gently layered some greens so that when I inverted the contents into a bowl at lunch, I had a lovely composed salad.
Grain Salad in a Jar
1 pint jar per person
2/3 cup cooked grain (farro, barley, quinoa)
1/3 cup chopped crunchy vegetables (carrots, peppers, cucumbers)
1/4 cup chopped pickled vegetables (chard stems, fennel bulb, etc.)
1/4 cup protein such as nuts, diced cheese, canned tuna in olive oil, hard boiled egg
1 Tbsp oil oil (or oil from tinned fish)
1/2 cup greens
In a pint mason jar layer grains, vegetables, pickles, and protein, and drizzle over olive oil. Layer on greens and close the jar. To serve, invert the jar into a bowl.
