Cooking Cheap

There are lots of recipes for this. Mine is from “The Mexican Kitchen” by Rod Santana, plus my adaptatons.

2 pounds pork shoulder cubed.
Hot water
5 Ancho peppers.
4 Garlic cloves
1/8 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp oregano
6 black peppercorns
1/3 cup vinegar
Oil or Lard

Cover the meat with water in a frying pan, add salt and bring to a boil, uncovered. Lower heat and allow the meat to cook until dry. Turn it frequently until browned. This should take about 45 minutes. Cool and shred the meat.

Seed and devein the peppers. Let them soak in water for 10 to 15 minutes. Place peppers, garlic, cumin, oregano, peppercorns and vinegar in a blender. Blend until smooth. The sauce will be a thick paste.

If there is no fat left from cooking the meat in the frying pan, add some oil or lard. Mix the meat and chili sauce in the skillet. Cook on low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently. The result will be a dry filling that is often used in burritos. Will fill 10-12 tortillas.

My Notes:
I used boneless country ribs (they come from the shoulder) and cut them in 1 inch chunks. I’m guessing 45 minutes is not enough to evaporate the water. I soak the peppers first and then devein and deseed them.

If you can keep from sampling the pork while you shred it, you’re a saint for no good reason. Delicious.

I used 4 large Ancho’s. They were the largest ancho’s I’ve ever seen. I added two dried Chipotles. It took a lot of water to turn that into a smooth paste. It is a pretty strong sauce because those peppers were so large. I also had to use a little water when mixing with the meat. A very rich filling. I could have used fewer Anchos.

Sopes are not easy to get right. I’ve gotten it right just often enough to keep trying different recipes. This recipe is from Rick Bayless’s book, Authentic Mexican. My Notes are in [ brackets]

2 1/4 cups masa harina mixed with scant 1 1/2 cup hot tap water.
2 tablespoons lard or vegetable shortening
1/3 cup flour plus 1 tablespoon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp baking powder

Mix the masa with the hot water and let stand for 20 to 30 minutes. Mix with the lard or shortening, flour, salt and baking powder, kneading until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. If neccessary, adjust the consistency with the dough with a little water. Divide the dough into 12 balls, place them on a plate and cover with plastic wrap.

[ It's hard enough to get the feel for dough consistency of tortillas. Add the fat, flour and baking powder and it's a guessing game for me. I only made a half recipe so the measurements get a little tricky. Even a half recipe is way more than I need.]

Heat a griddle or heavy skillet over medium. Cut a square of heavy plastic (like that used for freezer bags). Lay it out in front of you, flatten one of the ball onto it, then gently pat and press into and evening flat disk, 3/8 inch thick and 2 1/2 inches in diameter. With the fat tortilla still on the plastic, flip it over onto one hand, dough side down and and peel off the plastic.

Lay the tortilla on the flat the hot griddle or skillet and bake for about 2 minutes per side until lightly browned. it will still be soft and uncooked inside. Pat out and bake remaining balls.

With a thin, sharp knife, slice each tortilla in half like you would for an english muffin. With the cooked side down, pinch up a 1/4 inch high border around each disk, moulding the uncooked masa from the center. Cover the sopes with plastic wrap to keep then from drying out.

[ I ended up with 5 dough balls, 10 sopes when split. A couple weren't really thick enough and overcooked and one was too thick (and not cooked enough). You have to make enough of these to get the feel of the dough and the temperature and time on the griddle]

[you can put them in the fridge for several days at this point according to Bayless]

Heat 3/4 inch depth of vegetable oil to 360F. Fry the sope shells, 3 or 4 at a time, until lightly browned, about 45 seconds; they should be a little crunchy on the outside but still tender and moist within. Drain on paper towels and and keep warm in the oven.

[Then you fill them like tacos or tostadas with your fillings of choice. Where I live, it's meat (chicken, pork or beef), lettuce, cheese, random crunchy veggies like radishes and salsa. Sopes are eaten with a fork where I live.

These turned out OK and certainly better than no Sopes at all. The recipe is OK but the technique and temperature and feel is key.

[Two Days Later]
I fried the sopes that I had put in the fridge. Same skillet of oil too. They were tasty, not as good as the freshly made but certainly acceptable. I ate all them.

I’m running out of bread. I’m going to make a Ciabatta and shooting for 80% hydration. In this case I want a relatively flat and wide loaf, Full of holes. What happens may be something else. OK, it will be something else.

Here’s the plan:

[Day 1]
9:00PM – Mix 1 oz water, 1 oz bread flour, 5/8 oz cold starter from fridge. Put it in warm spot until doubled or more.

[Day 2]
2:30 AM Mix 3 oz water and 3 ounces bread flour with the above. Ferment on counter overnight. It feels thicker than 100% hydration starter. Got to go with what I got. Until doubled or more.

Many hours later the starter/levain/barm had nearly pushed to the top of the container. , I mixed the levain (roughly 8 oz, at 100% hydration) with 9 oz of flour and 7 oz of water. That was almost 2 C of flour and almost 1 Cup of water. It’s wet. Very wet. I let it sit for 20 minutes and did the first of 4 stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart. Then into a bowl for another couple of hours to rise. 4 hours in total, or a bit more.

Shaping was a bit of a challenge but not too difficult. I put the “loaf” on parchment paper on an inverted baking sheet. It was vaguely rectangular. I covered the pan in a plastic bag (aka garbage bag) and let rise for 2,.5 hours. As expected, it spreads more than it goes up. That’s what I wanted. it’s a very soft delicate thing with all that water in it. Into to the fridge.

[Day 3]
Out of the fridge, let it warm for an hour and into the oven. Turns out there was a lot of oven spring in that flat dough. Lot’s of big holes and tunnels and shiny gluten strands. I do believe I hit that target. Good flavor and chewy crust. There is one issue though. With all those holes, it’s hard to cut the bread into slices that stay together.  If this was in a baguette shape and size, you wouldn’t need to cut it. Just knaw on one end or break it in half to share. Rustic bread indeed.

Yes, I probably should have baked a minute or two more. I believe I’ve found the upper end of hydration percentages for me. I learned some other things too about handling really wet dough and the stretch and fold, no knead techique does work. I’m pretty happy. I achieved what I set out to do, (admittedly I was testing the limits). It was also a very tasty bread. Maybe my best tasting loaf to date. That does count for something. Excellent crust.

This should be interesting. This time I’m following Reinhart’s “Crust And Crumb” instructions, mostly. I’m using the newly opened bag of Stone-Buhr bread flour (12.5% they claim). I’m scaling down his recipe for my target size (around 1 1/2 pounds). It’s a different technique for me. I only thought I I’d tried them all.

There are practical reasons I’d like this to work and some irony nearby. Anyone remember when it only took me a day and half to declare victory with an overnight sponge? Then I went to Ortiz’s two day, triple ferment (Reinhart acknowledges this a viable and traditional method) Now I’m trying a three day three ferment. Damn books. Just when you think you know something, some light bulb writes a book.

[Day 1]
I mixed 3 oz of flour and 5 oz of active starter. No water and you knead like it was dough for a few minutes. His starter must be more liquid than mine. I added a little water and even then it’s still seems a little too firm. This is supposed to ferment for 6 to 8 hours at room temperature and then it goes into the fridge until the next day when you make the dough.

A new technique. I just have to try it. I haven’t deconstructed his measurements but he uses a large % of levain to Total Flour Weight and it doesn’t look to me likes he’s using enough water. I’ll have to adjust it by feel when I mix the dough tomorrow for another retard. Whether that ball of starter dough (his “firm starter”) really gets rolling in 8 hours, that will be interesting to discover.

I think I understand the premise. A lower hydration starter (this one is closer to 50% than my usual 100%) and the levain retard will encourage the sour. More accurately, with less water and room temperature and them the retard, the yeast won’t work as fast and the sour bugs get more time to feed. There’s no doubt the yeast and sour bugs will eat and that they will leaven bread. How long it takes for the first rise after mixing the dough, I can’t predict. Day 2 is where all the work happens: Mix, first rise, shape, second rise and second retard. Day 3 is to let it warm up and then bake.

[Day 1 Repeat]

You might expect this would be Day 2 and it would be if I hadn’t screwed up. I forgot to put the “firm starter” in the fridge before I went to bed. I spent a bit of time debating whether I should go ahead or start over.

I’d fed the starter yesterday. I managed to get that one in the fridge. Out it came to warm up and I took 5oz of it and added 3 oz of flour and a tiny bit of water. It didn’t take 6 to 8 hours to double. Four hours was enough but I let it go for five.

Five oz of starter almost depleted my starter jar so I fed it again and it was really happy in 4 hours. If this “firm starter” style of making sourdough is better, I might try growing a table spoon of starter in to the 5oz used in the “firm starter”. I could add another day (or a half day)!

I also know the answer to what the firm starter looks like after 12 hours on the counter. It looks and feels a lot like bread dough just before shaping. Essentially, that’s what it is. I would have expected it to break down after 12 hours. It hadn’t, most like because of the lower hydration or possibly because this batch of flour is a little stronger that my normal feed. Then again, as noted in the previous paragraphs, a happy starter has no trouble with a stronger flour. The idea of growing a table spoon or two of cold starter into 5 oz of starter would ensure an active starter for making the “firm starter”.

[Day 2]
Mixed the firm starter with 9 oz of bread flour 5 3/8 oz of water. Too dry, I added another ounce of water I let it rest for 20 minutes, kneaded (and added a few drops more water). Let rest for a half hour and did one stretch and fold and into a covered bowl for 4 hours.

Then I shaped the dough into a boule, It was a little tacky but it shaped very easily (no punchdown) and the seams held together when pinched. I placed it into the banneton, covered with the floured towel and a placed it in a plastic bag. That sat out on the counter for three hours and the poke test says it’s ready to bake but since I’m following the recipe, it’s another retard in the fridge until tomorrow. It’s a good looking dough. Well risen but no obvious big bubbles under the surface. It feels and looks more like a commercial yeast risen dough than my previous sourdoughs.

Whether it’s Reinhart’s technique & recipe or the (new to me) stronger bread flour, or I’m just getting better as a baker, I can’t say. I did add more water than called for and there was the stretch and fold that wasn’t in the recipe so I’ve added my experience and touch to the recipe.

As always, there’s still an opportunity to screw up but I’m hopeful. I always am. What I’ve learned this time: It’s possible I’ve been over proofing on the first rise (and maybe the second), I’ve been just quick enough to not seriously over proof too much so the bread looks and tastes just fine but the gluten was starting to break down inside. That would explain it. Or I could be all wrong.

[Day 3]

I let the dough sit in the fridge for 18 hours in the banneton and plastic bag before I baked it. That was too long, or more correctly, not airtight enough. The surface of the dough was too hard for the lame to cut quickly. 475F, pan of boiling water, spritz, and spritz again after 2 minutes, turn the oven down to 450F and pull it out when it looks and sounds done.

It’s a pretty loaf. Looks fine with decent oven spring after the clumsy slashing deflated it. This time you can really see where it was slashed so that’s an improvement. I haven’t cut it open but if it’s just OK, I probably won’t fool with getting the pictures posted.

It’s no surprise that Reinhart’s method works. I question the hydration % of his recipe. I don’t know how well I adjusted it, nor do I know if its more sour which is the reason he gives for doing it this way. More sour was not my goal for this bake. I wanted to try his “firm starter” method and I wanted to try my new brand of bread flour.

After tasting: It’s not more sour. It’s not worse either. Good bread, Nothing to hide from guests or visiting foodies. It’s little dense, not so much of the irregular crumb (holes and tunnels). Whether that’s from the initial hydration or the inability to oven spring because of tough outer dough. can’t say. Could be both, could be neither, probably both.

It’s good bread. I like it very much. Actually, it is very fine bread. I think I was correct earlier, I was overproofing my doughs in the first or second rise, not long enough to collapse the gluten into foam, but long enough to start that break down. I hope I’ve learned that.

4 ounces bread dry, diced
1 tablespoon butter
1 each egg
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
1 x salt and black pepper
1 tablespoon herbs chopped fresh (parsley, chervil, marjoram)
You will need a frying pan, a large and a small bowl, and a saucepan of water or soup. Fry the diced bread lightly in the fat in a frying pan.

Meanwhile, mix the egg and the milk in a small bowl. Tip the contents of the frying pan into a large bowl, and pour the egg and milk over all. Stir in the flour, and season with salt and pepper. Add the herbs, if using.

You may need more milk to make a soft dough. Allow it to stand for 1/2 an hour.

Dip your hand into cold water and roll the mixture into a dozen small balls. Put a pot of salted water on to boil, if there isn’t a simmering soup pot waiting. Drop little balls of dough into the boiling salted water or the soup. Poach them for 10 to 15 minutes, until they are light and firm and well risen.

Yield: 12 dumplings Time: 1 hour

Here’s the recipe I started from. Except I’m doubling it and I have no idea what I’m doing. I think it’s a little too wet.

The reason I’m doubling it is that I defrosted more bread than called for and I added a little more milk than called for and I’ll probably end up adding a little more flour than called for. I’m also going to make them a little smaller than called for. I’m guessing the original recipe make 12 golf ball size dumplings. I want gnocci size. This is a big production and takes a lot of time and in my case a bit of thinking and planning.

The dumplings swell during cooking so they aren’t gnocchi sized after all. They are pretty damn good, too. When in doubt, cook them longer than you might think, I experimented with 6 minutes and 10 minutes. Heat management on the pot is important. You want to poach them, the water just barely bubbling.

The brown spots on the dumplings are just some bread crust that I didn’t trim off. The “dough” could have used a bit more flour, a tablespoon or two more. The cream sauce iand the pork chop recipe follows. I chilled (froze) the left overs (easily three meals worth) and then bagged them for long term freezer storage. It’s going to be fun coming up with sauces and gravies for them.

Pork Chop and Mustard Onion Gravy
1 bone in pork chop, 1/2 lb.
Half a small onion diced fine
2 tsp “Spicy” Mustard
1 Tbl Olive oil
2 Tbl Flour
1/4 C beef stock (bullion)
1/4 C Half and Half
1/4 C Whole Milk
Dash of nutmeg
Salt and Pepper.
Lemon and Parsely to finish.

Brown both sides of the pork chop in the olive oil on medium heat (a minute or 2 per side) Remove chop to a plate and lower heat to low or med-low. Add onion and saute until translucent. Add flour and cook to a light roux. The amount of oil and flour depends on how much gravy you want. The amounts above are just my guess at what I did. Spread mustard on each side of the pork chop. Slowly add the stock to the roux, whisking constantly. Slowly add half and half and then milk ( and whisking) until a gravy has formed. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Return pork chop to the pan and simmer until pork chop is done (10 minutes?), adding milk and adjusting temperature as needed for a slow simmer.

[Cook's Notes]
It’s a white sauce or milk gravy, no big deal. The mustard didn’t contribute much, one could use more. Some thyme might be good. A dash or two of hot pepper sauce or cayenne pepper would be a worthy addition. One could fry up some finely chopped mushrooms with the onions.

The dumplings are a little ugly because I think the dough was a little too wet. There is a pleasant flavor from the sourdough bread that comes through. These are closer to gnocchi than powder milk dumplings. I froze the extra dumplings on a sheet pan and then wrapped serving size amounts in plastic wrap and put them back in the freezer.

[Days Later]
The dumplings out of the freezer are really very tasty. I let them defrost for a few hours, hit them with the microwave for a few seconds and cover them with some kind of gravy. A very good way to turn my home made bread mistakes into a starch side dish.