Feral Cooks

Good food shouldn't be tame

Simple Crusty Bread

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Yeah, everyone’s baking more durning the pandemic, and this New York Times Cooking recipe makes for an outstanding loaf of bread. The outside is crusty, while the inside is perfectly soft and flavorful. I’m not much of a baker, so I’ve never made a lot of bread without a bread-making machine—lame, I know. I would have been making this stuff for years if I’d seen the recipe (or looked for it before the pandemic hit).

This bread doesn’t require a lot of hands-on time, nor does it require kneading–a lazy bread-maker’s dream. And it’s perfect for grilled-cheese sandwiches!

Don’t let the lack of a pizza peel or a baking stone put you off. If you look up the recipe online, there are many comments showing what others have used instead. It’s really just common sense.

Avoid possibly spreading the virus if you’re asymptomatic and wear a mask when you’re out. It’s the right thing to do.

What you’ll need:

  • 1.5T (8g ) yeast
  • 1.5T (23g) kosher salt
  • 6.5 cups (775g ) unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting the dough
  • Cornmeal for dusting

What to do:

In a large bowl, mix the yeast and salt into 3 cups of 100-degree water. Stir in the flour, mixing it with a spoon until there are no dry patches. At this point, the dough will be quite loose and very sticky. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let the dough rise at room temperature for 2-5 hours.

After it is risen (see what I did there, Erik), you can bake it right away or refrigerate it, covered, for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on the dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn the dough in your hands to lightly stretch the surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. It will be very sticky, so the flour dusting is imperative. Put the dough on a pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal and let it rest for 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it. For me, it divided into 3 small loaves. 

Place a broiler pan or high-rimmed baking pan on the bottom of or the lowest rack in your oven. Place a baking stone on the middle rack and turn on the oven to 450 degrees. Let the stone heat at 450 degrees for 20 minutes before baking.

Now dust the dough with flour and slash the top with a sharp knife three times—you may want to oil it so it slices cleanly. Slide the unbaked loaf onto the stone.

Now for the part that makes that beautiful crusty exterior: pour a cup of hot water into the broiler pan/sheet pan and shut the oven quickly to trap all the steam. Bake until well browned—about 30 minutes. 

Cool completely or rip into it while it’s still hot.

Deviled Ham Salad

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Gah! With so many of us working from home because of the Covid-19 pandemic, or worse, being at home and out of work, lunch has taken on more importance. You can’t go to the work cafeteria, and fast food for lunch every day gets pretty expensive. So if you’re looking for something different for lunch because you’ve run out of ideas, here’s a great recipe for ham salad from Serious Eats.

I was such an idiot as a younger adult because I shunned ham salad and egg salad. Little did I know. I had an egg salad sandwich while living in Japan, and never turned back.

A batch of this is perfect for a few ham-salad sandwiches eaten at home with your family or sitting in front of the telly, watching all the grim pandemic news over your lunch break.

Hang in there. Things will improve somehow on the pandemic front. They have to.

What you’ll need: 

  • 8 oz smoked ham, coarsely chopped
  • 0.33 cups mayonnaise
  • 1T yellow mustard
  • 2t honey
  • 1.5t Worcestershire sauce
  • 0.5t ground black pepper
  • 0.25t garlic powder
  • 0.25t onion powder
  • 0.125t ground cloves
  • 0.125t cayenne pepper
  • 0.25 cups minced sweet gherkins, drained, plus 2 teaspoons liquid—sweet relish works, too
  • 2T minced red onion

What to do:

This is easy: put all the ingredients, except for the pickles and onion, and pulse them in a food processor until they form a paste. Stop and scrape the sides and the bottom, then pulse a couple of more times. 

Empty into a bowl and stir in the gherkins/relish and red onion. Try not to eat it all from the bowl. Instead, put on your favorite sandwich bread or buns and enjoy with a pickle and your favorite chips.

Vegan Dhal in the Time of Pandemics

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Have lentils in the house and no recipe for them? Try this quick and easy dhal. Chances are you have most of these ingredients in the house already, and if you don’t, just look online for substitutions for each ingredient that you don’t have.

Dhal is easy and quick to make, and it’s actually really filling.

This recipe is based on a posting from this blog. It’s vegan, of course, only if you omit the chopped bacon, which I consider to be essential.

Please continue to do your community a favor and maintain social distancing if you must go out. If not, you suck.

What you’ll need:

  • 3-6 pieces of bacon, cooked crisp and chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1T garam masala
  • 1t ground turmeric
  • 1t ground coriander
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced, or 1T garlic paste
  • 1-inch piece of ginger, grated, or 1t dried, ground ginger
  • 1 cup red lentils, rinsed—we had only green lentils
  • 2 cups vegetable stock—if you’re not vegan, any broth will do
  • 1 cup coconut milk or coconut cream
  • 1 carrot, peeled and cut into thin slices, then boiled for 10 minutes and drained

What to do:

Sauté the onion without oil in a large covered saucepan or frypan on medium-low heat until just soft—add a bit of water if the onion begins to stick. 

Stir in the spices, garlic and ginger and continue to sauté until fragrant. Add a little more water if needed. The mixture should be very fragrant at this point.

Mix in the stock, coconut milk and lentils, then bring to a low boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are soft. Now add the cooked carrot slices and simmer 10 more minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped bacon before serving with rice, flatbread or naan.