Cinco Semana de Quarantino Jalapeno Cheesy Sourdough Cornbread and Chili

O, that we could learn to camouflage with brightness day in and day out like the spring moth in New Orleans. Or that we could be so fearless in the face of predators. See me; I’m right here, living wild.

May you eat as spicily as you live. This week’s work comes again from the Portland Bake This Day kitchen.

CHEESY SOURDOUGH JALAPENO CORNBREAD

Honoring Bread Pillar # 4: “Crust requires STEAM”.

We are celebrating the Week Cinco of quarantine, and Cinco de Mayo with a fitting dinner. On our table we will enjoy Chili with Variables and this amazing bread, full of cheese, chili and delectable spices! Add your favorite dark beer and the quarantine suddenly starts standing in the corner, instead the middle of the room.

Makes one large loaf.

This nontraditional cornbread uses sourdough for leaven and is baked in a covered baker, any shape will do, even a Dutch oven will do as long as the lid fits and for the first part of the bake, captures steam and creates a crunchy surface. If you like your bread soft, simply brush the top with beaten egg and bake uncovered.

Ingredients:

225 g active sourdough starter

240 g water

7 g salt

15 g honey

250 g bread flour

100g whole wheat flour

110 g cornmeal

1 cup fresh or frozen sweet corn

2 T grated sweet onion

1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and ribs removed, minced

110 g grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 teas cumin

1 teas ground ancho chili

1 egg and 1 T water for egg wash

Instructions:

Combine the starter, water, honey, flours and cornmeal to autolyze for 90 minutes.

Then add the salt, mix well and perform a stretch and fold every 30 minutes X 3.

Now, put the dough on your counter lightly sprinkled with rice flour.

GENTLY, stretch the dough, no kneading, to a 16” by 8” rectangle.

Brush the surface with the beaten egg mixture and top with grated cheese, jalapenos, corn and spices.

Roll up like a log and cut the log in half.    ——————–+———————-, this way.

Pinch the ends of each log closed and put the two logs  close together and parallel, finally twisting them together to make one loaf/log.

Put this twisted loaf top side down in a proofing basket lined with a towel and sprinkled with rice flour.

Cover with plastic wrap and rise until double.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees with your lidded baker inside.

When proofed, carefully invert your loaf on parchment, slice some steam vents and perform the parchment slide into the very hot baker.

Bake 30 minutes, covered with the tight fighting lid.

At 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake 10 minutes longer.

Check the internal bread temperature before removing from the oven, it should be 200 degrees.

Cool for 45 minutes on a baking rack and enjoy!

Chili with Variables

The perfect companion for your Jalapeno Cornbread is Chili with Variables.

The whole nation is home cooking and the fridge is full of leftover bits and bobs. You can make delicious chili from this recipe with many possible substitutions. The secret is the three-reduction technique. Don’t be afraid, raid the fridge for one or more of the variables in the ingredient categories.

Ingredients:

Meat- really anything, beef, pork, chicken,sausage, combo, ground or cubed, 1-2 pounds.

Heat- ground chili powder, red chili seeds, jalapeno, cumin

Liquid- pureed tomatoes, broth, beer, wine

Sweet- honey, molasses, corn

Fat- sour cream, butter,

Beans- black, red, beans

Veggies- at least a cup of chopped sweet onions and at least one cup of something else, peppers, squash, fresh tomatoes, chopped spinach, chard, etc

Herbs- Cilantro, parsley

Thickeners- cornmeal, tomato paste

Toppings- sour cream, cheeses, pepitas

Seasonings- salt, red or black peppers, fish sauce, soy sauce, garlic, anchovies

How to do it? This is a THREE REDUCTION Chili with an overnight stay in the fridge.

At least one day before you want to eat this-two is better.

1.           Brown the meet in a hot dutch oven, with olive/veggie oil with the onions.

2.           Deglaze this with 1/3 cup of red wine and cook almost dry.

3.           Deglaze again with 1/3 cup of fish sauce, again cook to almost dry…add garlic now for a 40 second saute.

4.           Add one large can pureed tomatoes.

5.           Fill that can with broth x 1.5. ( you can sub in a cup of beer, very nice)

6.           Simmer for one hour. Get out your immersion blender and blend to your liking, this helps with thickening and gets rid of ‘bird water soup syndrome’. I leave some chunks of onion and most of the meat intact, just trying to not have my chili look like a blob of chunks.

7.           Add beans( 3 14 oz cans, drained and rinsed),veggies, about 1/3 cup of cornmeal, and spices, (I add 2 T of chili powder, 1 T of cumin, at least a teaspoon of black pepper, 1 T of molasses or honey), also add ¼ cup of tomato paste.

8.           Reduce this again by about 20%.

9.           Finally, taste it.  I find I ALWAYS add a bit of sweet now, like another T of honey and an equal amount of my favorite vinegars. Add 2 T Butter, stir and cool. You might want it a bit thicker, or more tomatoey, adding paste or cornmeal, or spicier.

10.        Into the fridge for rest and flavor development.

11.        Reheat on the stove, not the microwave.  The microwave pulverizes proteins and makes them rubber.  Top with sour cream*, cheese, pepitas.

*Make sure you are getting real cultured cream like Daisy Brand. The rest are generally skim milk and thickeners, and the culture is excellent for your GI tract.

Believe it or not, this freezes beautifully in a zip lock, when cool. Find a field of wildflowers and settle in to be dazzled by the brightness of Spring. It’s a foreshadowing, I promise.