Whole Wheat Veneration and other tales of good food

Ahhh yes, the peace and serenity of a morning spent over the newspaper (real thing, not digital), a cup of Earl Grey, scratching my dog's butt to his little heart's content.  Yesterday was a totally fabulous one.  My dear friend Maya and I visited the North Berkeley farmers market, which is small but has everything you need.  I was surprised to see the vendors still had tomatoes and eggplant galore.  We're not in Oregon any more!  Special shout out to the ladies selling organic tree fruit: your Asian pears were out of this world, in fact I may just have to go eat one right now.  Alright, back. 

After visiting the farmers market and picking up some essentials (among them: collards, carrots, shishito peppers) I went over to The Local Butcher to visit my friends Aaron and Kel, whom I worked with in the old Jew Camp kitchen a few years back.  Aaron was back there hacking up pigs, while Kel's job is Master Sandwich Maker.  I also bought some pork butt from them (and a pork skin swizzle for my canine companion). 

The Local Butcher is a great shop with all the meat sourced within a hundred miles.  They have a fabulous selection of animals too: duck, rabbit, goat plus your compulsory pork, beef, lamb--and probably a couple others.  I'd like to note that the meats we are used to eating have fancy names not directly associated with what we call the animals when they are alive, yet the ones we are not used to eating are simply called by their animals names.  One exception to this rule is "chicken".

So, in the name of Do-It-Yourself and food I am going to finish up by writing about a wonderful bread recipe I tested out yesterday.

This bread is totally classic whole wheat bread, not even a hint of white flour to be found.  I used to be scared of making yeasted bread.  For some reason the idea of it "rising" seemed fraught with the possibility for error.  As I found out after I made my first loaf, not only is it relatively simple compared to a lot of other baking I've done...it's incomparably satisfying.

I did not take this picture

"Whole Wheat Veneration" Edward Espe Brown calls it.

You start out with a large metal bowl, 3 cups warm water, 3 cups whole wheat flour and 1/4 teaspoon of active dry yeast.  Adding the flour + yeast to the water, stir it about a hundred times, lifting your stirring utensil (I use a large wooden spoon) out of the batter as you go.  Hey guess what, you're done!--for now at least.  Let that "sponge" sit (covered) over night.

In the morning dissolve 1 1/2 Tablespoons of yeast in 1/2 cup warm *but not too warm* water.  The water should be about body temperature, hotter will harm the baby yeasters.  Mix it well, til the yeast is dissolved and add that to your spongey goodness.  Also add 2 scant teaspoons of salt. 

Now add 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour in 1/2 cup increments, stirring to incorporate as you go.  When all the flour is added you will have a sticky ball of wheat, yeast, salt & water.  Nice.  Flour a surface generously and your hands as well.  Pull that sticky ball of dough out of your bowl and knead it on the surface between 150 and 300 times.  The dough should be pliable and smooth.

Clean out the bowl you've been working with and give it an enthusiastic dash of oil.  Flop your dough down in there and let it rise 3-4 hours.  It needn't be at a particular temperature.

Now it's time to separate the dough into two loaves.  You can either bake it on a baking sheet with diagonal slits across the top or, like I did, in two well-oiled loaf pans.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (because this is America) and brush the tops of your loaves with water.  Wait an hour while the oven heats up for the bread to rise one final time.  Brush with water once more before shoving those puppies in the oven for 45-60 minutes.  Or until they are brown on top and bottom and look a whole lot like bread.