Monday Mix 10/30/23
Clearing the slate
Happy Mondays, everyone. I’ve spent the last few weeks in a mad dash attempting to clear my to do list of freelance projects so that I can focus more completely on the book (and this newsletter, of course). This includes making social media videos for Chef Steps pizzas, Armenian recipes and equipment reviews for Serious Eats, and a post on “hybrid” sourdoughs for Maurizio Leo’s The Perfect Loaf (a site I’m going to be contributing to regularly once I have the bandwidth). And I’ve been working on recipes for the book too, including the rye pictured above, for which I’ve gotten lots of excellent advice from some way more experienced rye bakers. That one is not quite perfect, but it’s my best one yet, and I think I know what I need to do to improve it (as is often the case, one answer here is proof longer).
Later this week I’ll be sharing that sourdough cheesy cracker recipe I mentioned last week for paid subscribers, and likely another post for everyone that I haven’t sorted out yet.
What’s been cooking in everyone else’s kitchens lately?
—Andrew
I finally revived my starter, after parking it for a few months because I don't need to bake much with my son in college. Well, one jar of starter was GONE, miserably so, but luckily I had a backup and fed it three times and we are on our way to bread!
I made olive sourdough (with a chickpea flour porridge, although can't say I tasted the difference lol) using the trusty no knead recipe -- I find it works much better with my schedule since it's mostly leaving the starter to do its work :)
Other than that, have been making fermented tea leaves and also my fermented chillis are just about ready...