Wild Yeast

If you’re going to be an idiot, it helps if you’re at least an early-rising idiot.

That way, when you get up at 6 AM and see that the world is being taken over by Daring Bakers bearing lavash crackers with all manner of vegan, gluten-free dips, spreads, and salsas, and you slap your forehead and realize that yes, it’s that day and you’re caught not only lavash-less but lavash-plan-less, well, you still might have time to pull something together before you get caught up in the rest of your day.

It helps to have a few other things on your side.

Like that your lovely hosts Natalie (Gluten A Go Go) and Shel (Musings From the Fishbowl) have crafted a challenge that is fun and delicious (and yeasted in the bargain!) without being too time-intensive.

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In the small town where I spend some (not nearly enough) time, there is a used bookstore. It is almost always open, but the owner has never been there whenever I’ve stopped in. He does, however, leave a price list posted next to the money jar:

• Ordinary Books: $1.00
• Good Books: $2.00
• Extraordinary books: $3.00
• Great Books: $5.00
• Spectacular Books: $10.00
• Unbelievably Great Books: $20.00

I always like to browse the cooking section, and occasionally, amid titles like “1001 5-Minute Meals” and “The 1983 Annual Campbell’s Tomato Soup Cookbook,” which bear faded covers that belie the near-perfect-condition pages that show just how much they were (not) loved, I discover a gem.

I had never heard of the little unassuming volume entitled Favorite Breads From Rose Lane Farm, nor of its author Ada Lou Roberts, but that didn’t stop me from fishing into my pocket for a $5 bill. It was in good (not perfect!) condition, and it’s generally a good bet that any 40+ year old bread book will turn out to qualify for Great Book status.

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I spent the first few decades of my life believing I did not care for rye bread. Clearly I had a bad experience somewhere in my childhood, and those early associations are nothing if not tenacious. It’s a bread that’s fairly easy to avoid in this country, if one is so inclined, and I was.

The breakthrough came when we made a version of this lovely simple rye bread in my first class at SFBI. At the end-of-the day tasting, not wanting to eschew it completely and risk exposing myself as a bread wimp, I opted for the smallest piece on the cutting board. Happily, I found myself won over by its rich, earthy flavor and chewy texture, and kicking myself for all those wasted years of rye abstinence.

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How I came to make this pudding is one of those bad news-good news kinds of deals:

• Bad news: Nasty run-in with bread knife.
• Good news: No stitches.
• Bad news: Several days confinement in metal splint extending across palm of hand.
• More bad news: Can’t examine patients with this thing, so no work for me.
• Good news: More time to bake.
• Bad news: Can’t shape bread either.
• Good news: Dessert.

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Is autumn already lapping at summer’s heels where you live? Where I live, crisp fall days can’t be counted on until Halloween, and September can hold some intensely warm days. That means chilled soups still have a place on the menu, and this one is not only refreshing and simple to make; it also gets bonus points for making delicious use of the leftover bread I always seem to have hanging around.

Ajo Blanco is a garlicky Spanish soup that gets its non-dairy creaminess from blanched almonds, and additional body from the bread. The traditional garnish is green grapes but Penelop Casas, in La Cocina de Mama: The Great Home Cooking of Spain, suggests green melon balls, which I found to be a lovely alternative.

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If I’ve been deafeningly silent about my earth oven lately, it’s because there has been literally nothing cooking with it. Six weeks after I finished building the thermal mud layer, it is still not completely dry. I attribute this to 1) a coastal climate that sees thick damp fog roll in almost every evening and hang around until, often, midmorning or later, and 2) the fact that my oven does not live with me (or more accurately, I do not live with it) full time, and I keep it covered when I am away to protect it from rain (rare this time of year, but potentially disastrous to an uncured oven if it were to strike).

My impatience aside, this slow drying has not been a terrible thing. My mason friend assures me this is the best way to minimize the cracks that Kiko Denzer says are virtually inevitable (but usually cosmetic), and it’s true that cracks haven’t been an issue. But good grief, I can’t hold my impatience at bay forever! And if I don’t get the second (insulating) layer on soon, before the rains get down to serious business in another month or two, I may really be sorry.

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See this week’s yeast spottings …