Settling in After a Move

It has been quite some time since I last wrote; over 2 months, as a matter of fact. After packing up a household of stuff, traveling cross country and now doing the whole thing in reverse, I've had little time to think of anything but getting things in enough order to function, if not yet at optimal levels.

I have cooked, but only simple, well-used recipes. No time for experimentation just yet, though today I finally decided to take a step in the right direction. Having been used to making all my bread for years and years and years, it has been hard to have to go back to store bought. I've been buying Oroweat brand breads, which taste okay, but I have been itching to get back to making our bread. 

When we prepared to move, I had to make a decision whether to try and take my old Sourdough Starter dough with me, or just toss it and start afresh. Since we were going to be traveling to a very hot part of the country, I felt it would be better not to put such stress on the poor starter, so I tossed it. Today, I got out one of Peter Reinhart's books, "Whole Grain Breads," to try out his Seed Culture, in preparation for a new batch of Starter. In this book, he talks of people having trouble getting a seed starter to get going, and many people complaining that their seed starter went bad. Apparently there is a bacteria called leuconostoc that does this, and using an acidic liquid seems to prevent this from happening. His recipe uses unsweetened pineapple juice, but he suggests that lemon juice or orange juice can work as well, or even ascorbic acid powder.

Making my first Seed Starter in 2014

When I made my first Seed Starter, back in May of 2014, from the first Peter Reinhart book I received, called "The Bread Baker's Apprentice," I followed his instructions and my starter proceeded perfectly as described, with no off odors or mold or anything at all untoward happening. Possibly, as I make bread all the time, the right kinds of yeasts and bacteria were present and I had no problems. Whatever it was, I maintained that starter batter these 5 ensuing years, with no problems. I am in a totally different part of the country now, with high heat as the norm, and I have no idea how all this will affect the whole process of starters and bread making, so I am starting all new. I will keep tabs on how it all goes. 

Foods I have made since moving in, mostly in the last 2 weeks, are spaghetti (using a jar of sauce), Sloppy Joes (using a can), simple cooked chicken, Uniquely Fine Chicken Salad, Rhubarb Pineapple Pie, Roasted Corn and Poblano Chowder, Rhubarb Cake (using coconut oil - at liquid state in these temperatures) with Whipped Buttercream Frosting, Chopped Radish Salad (Picado de Rabano, a Guatemalan salad that I love, though I generally do not care for radishes at all), and Creamy Corn Casserole. Here are some of the recipes, below.

Rhubarb Cake

Rhubarb Cake

Makes one 9 x 13-inch cake

1½ cups rhubarb, chopped into small pieces
½ cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup oil OR 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk

TOPPING:
6 tablespoons butter
1 cup coconut
⅔ cup brown sugar
¼ cup milk
½ cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or lightly spray with cooking spray an oven-safe 9 x 13-inch pan. Set aside.

Combine the rhubarb and the ½ cup sugar and set aside. In a mixing bowl combine the flour, the 1½ cups sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Separately whisk together the buttermilk, egg and oil or melted butter. Mix the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients until combined. Add in the reserved rhubarb mixture and fold to combine. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, prepare the topping. Combine all the topping ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring the ingredients to a boil, stirring, and boil for 3 minutes. Pour over the warm cake.

NOTES: This type of topping is often broiled once on the cake. If you choose this method, watch closely so as not to burn the topping. Another alternative is to prepare a streusel and sprinkle this over the unbaked cake. This yields a cake with topping already in place.

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Picado de Rabano or Chopped Radish Salad

Picado de Rabano or Chopped Radish Salad

Serves 2 to 4

12 radishes, trimmed
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 small onion
½ cup fresh mint, chopped fine
2 limes, juiced
Salt, to taste

Place onion and radishes in food processor and pulse just enough to chop relatively fine - do not over process. Place in a bowl and add all the other ingredients and mix well.

NOTES: If this dish is made with a similar amount (to the whole of the radish recipe) of chopped pork rinds chopped and added, it is called Chojin (pronounced cho-HEEN). If one adds an equal amount (to the whole amount of the radish recipe) finely chopped roast beef (I use cooked brisket), it is called Salpicon.

Chopped Radish Salad with Meat or Salpicon

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Creamy Corn Casserole

Creamy Corn Casserole

Serves 6 to 8

1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can cream-style corn
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 box "Jiffy" corn muffin mix

Combine all ingredients in a 13 x 9-inch casserole. No need to even grease the pan! Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 35 to 40 minutes or till golden.

NOTES: This recipe can be made gluten free by using a similar amount of gluten free corn muffin mix, such as Bob's Red Mill. 




My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Seed Starter Progress

I am still in the process of creating a "Seed Starter" from Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice", as I wrote of in the last two blog posts. If you are just now catching up here, I acquired a bunch of new (to me) cookbooks, a few of which are on serious bread baking, with a lot of the real science being taught alongside expert technique. One thing I had never done is make a seed starter.

A seed starter is putting together some flour and water and allowing it to set at room temperature and ferment using little wild yeasts that exist everywhere. This is the very beginning of making a sourdough starter. This process may be aided by the addition of a tiny amount of active yeast, and I had done this years ago. This time though, I am following the instructions in one of the books, using a time-honored method of allowing the wild yeasts found everywhere around us to do their own wonderful thing. It takes about 4 days to make the seed starter. I posted a photo of the first mixture and then the same mixture with the addition of the second day's flour and water feeding. The first day the book stated, there would be little or no activity yet; there was not! At 24 hours from when I mixed up the first day's starter, I mixed up  the second day feeding, combined the two and set this back into the jar. 

Starter mixture on Day 2, then the fermentation occurring later in the day and next day

By late that day, there was significant activity in the mixture, shown in the second of the series of photos above. The following morning, the starter was actively bubbling (photo 3 in the above series) and it had risen and fallen. The fact that the starter grew significantly and then fell is expected. There was not enough yeast and gluten built to hold the starter up just yet. On the morning of day three I discarded half of the starter. I made another batch of the flour and water feeding and combined it with the remaining seed starter. After just a few hours it had already risen by about a third of its original height (photo 1 in the series below). By this morning it had grown to fill the jar and the bubbling was very active (photos 2 and 3 in the series below).

Day 3 Starter: After 4 hours and after 24 hours, very active

Today is the beginning of Day 4, the final day of the seed culture. Today again I discarded half of the mixture. I again added the flour and water to feed the starter. It was advised that this last day's activity could be finished in as little as 4 hours and up to 24. Because my starter has been so very active, I anticipate the timing will be on the low side. The photos below show the starter at the level it began this morning, and then after only 2 hours. The new flour and water feeding has not yet been completely incorporated, but it is already bubbling merrily. My little wild yeasts are very happy, and so am I.

Day 4 starter just mixed, and after only 2 hours

Later today, if all goes as anticipated, I will be adding in a significantly larger amount of flour and water, allowing this to ferment at room temperature for 6 or so hours before finally having become what the book calls a "barm".  (This term was amended in later books by Peter Reinhart to be called Mother Starter, as "Barm" actually refers to another thing entirely - but for now . . .) This starter will be good for about 3 days, refrigerated before needing to be refreshed with more flour and water. I am planning to use one portion of this starter to make a caraway rye bread, and I will freeze the other portions so I can have this wonderfully fermented mixture ready within a day's notice.


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.