Sourdough Bread Bowl

    This is my favorite recipe using sourdough hands down. That's why I saved it for last in my sourdough count down. (There are recipes for sourdough pancakes and rolls, but I haven't made either in years.) It's so good Mom and I had it for New Year's Eve, her birthday, and mine. It was inspired by the Red Lobster appetizer, but only loosely. Like most of our made-up recipes the amounts are all estimates and you should feel free to add or subtract anything to suit your tastes. This is really just a rough idea of how to make it. We never make it the same way twice, but it's always delicious.   

  First make your sourdough, recipe here: http://batsbizarre.blogspot.com/2014/03/make-your-own-sourdough-bread.html, but after the second raise place one loaf in a round pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray instead of a loaf pan.

   While that is baking you can make your sauce.  

   Sauté chopped garlic, onions, and fresh mushrooms, if using, in a pan with butter for a minute or two. Add 1 cup cubed, peeled and deveined shrimp. Once the onions and garlic soften add about a tablespoon of flour and cook until the flour no longer tastes raw. Add enough milk to make a thin gravy, salt, pepper, a dash of hot sauce, kale, and or spinach. Stir. Test your seasonings and add your cheese,  Monterey Jack and processed cheese loaf together are great in this, add caned mushrooms, if using, one can of crabmeat, and squid. If you are adding fish now would be a good time. Cook until the cheese melts and your seafood is cooked; if the sauce gets too thick add some water or milk.

   Once the bread is done cut the loaf in half and hallow out the halves with a fork. Toast the innards you removed in a toaster oven or on broil for a second or two in the oven. (Watch it carefully if using the oven.) Spoon the sauce into the pie and enjoy. (If you make enough sauce you can fill both the top and the bottom and get two meals out of it.)        

              

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Make Your Own Sourdough Pizza

 
  Sourdough makes for a fantastic pizza crust; crisp enough for my thin crust loving mother yet bread like enough for me, who personally thinks thin crust tastes like a cardboard cracker. Plus if you make the full recipe you get enough dough for a pizza and a loaf of bread. All you have to do is follow the recipe for bread I shared last week until after you knead the dough then you roll it flat and put it on a cookie sheet covered with cornmeal. Then put on your tomato sauce and toppings on and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Find the recipe for bread here: http://batsbizarre.blogspot.com/2014/03/make-your-own-sourdough-bread.html

A good tomato sauce isn't very hard either. Simply combine about 3/4 of a can of tomato paste with about a half a cup of water -basicly enough to make it spradable- a sprinkling of oregano, basil, garlic powder, sugar, salt, and pepper, or whatever seasonings you prefer in a sauce pan over low heat for a few minutes so the flavors mesh. -We don't measuer much here, you just have to taste the sauce and make sure the seasonings are right.-

The topings are up to you. We like an everything kind of pizza. Anchoves, onions, spinach, peppers, olives, sausage, even kale. If we have any freash, we like to add exrta basil and sliced tomatos. You have to fry the breakfast sausage seperately before adding it and the onions and bell peppers taste better if you caramelize them first, but everything else can go on as is. Then cover everything with cheese, mom and I use Monterey Jack and a little Romano, but any readly melting cheese is good. Try putting some kale on top of the cheese too. It's crunchy and good!


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Make your own Sourdough Bread

   This is the recipe I use to make Sourdough Bread. Last time I forgot to slash the tops of the loafs and it fell in the oven. Not that it's been raising that well lately, I hope that the warm weather will help with that.
  When the bread gets to the half way point during the second raise you'll need to prop the towel up to keep it from sticking to the bread. I had that happen to me; it was terrible.

   It freezes well. Pop the bread into a freezer bag and you're good to go. I had the cut the heel off to fit it in the bag.
 
   Click here for the printer ready version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OsTFbYIgEztd53zKKzGTzwqT1nVfNlSlHqZwmjsVhcU/edit?usp=sharing
 

                                                Sourdough Bread


   1 package active dry yeast                         1 1/2 cups sourdough starter
  1cup warm water                                       5 cups flour (more or less)    
   2 Tablespoons                                           2 teaspoons salt


     In a large mixing bowl sprinkle yeast over warm water. Leave it to dissolve for five minutes.
Stir in sugar, sourdough starter, four cups flour, and salt. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and leave to raise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and mix in about one cup flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Knead until satiny, about five minutes. Shape the dough into two loaves and place in a loaf pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray or on a cookie sheet covered in corn meal for a flatter, round loaf. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let raise again for 1 1/2 hours. Slash the tops of the bread with a sharp knife so the loaf doesn't fall. Brush the tops with melted butter for a shiny finish. Bake at 400 for 40 to 50 minutes. Set on a rack to cool.


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Make Your Own Sourdough Starter

   I really like Sourdough Bread. But unlike most breads you're going to need a starter if you're going to make it at home. Sourdough starter is strange it's more of a liquid then I pictured when I first thought of making Sourdough and taking care of it is more like taking care of a living organism than anything else. Which is a little creepy when you think about it. Try not to think about it.

  Starter is basically yeast, water, and flour. Dissolve one package of dry yeast in 1 1/4 cup lukewarm water. (It should feel comfortable on your wrist. If it's too hot it will kill the yeast.) Stir in 1 cup of flour put the mixture in a plastic or glass crock, never store it in a metal container, cover the opening with cheese cloth, and store in a warm place. Every day for five days add a 1/2 cup of flour and a 1/2 of water. When it smells sour it's ready to use. You'll need to replenish it by adding the same amount of water and flour you used back to the starter every time you use it.
  
   If you store it on the counter you'll need to feed it or use it every two weeks or so, depending on the temperature. When the starter turns grey you should use it soon-ish. If you store it in the fridge you'll have at least a month.
  If you don't feel like using it you can feed it a 1/2 cup of flour and a 1/2 cup of water or a tablespoon or two of sugar. You can feed it lukewarm potato water, but when I did my starter turned pink. I had to throw it out. It might have been because I forget to use or feed it, but I'm superstition about potato water now.
   
      Somethings to remember about Sourdough starter: 
    - Throw it out if it turns pink. It's poison.

    -It needs to be feed or it will starve to death.

    -It needs to breathe.

    -Always use lukewarm water

    -Keep the container clean. Any bits of flour around the side will grow mold and may contaminate your starter. Plus it's gross. 

   It sounds like a bad science experiment, I know, but the bread tastes really good and it makes a great pizza dough, more on that later.
  
               Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!