ny steak sandwich with green chile, sliced onion, cheese

Denver sourdough starter languishing in the refrigerator for months. The brown liquid that formed is stirred in and the mixture used to flavor the dough. This is not actual sourdough, this is dough made from commercial yeast flavored with this languished exhausted starter. Four tablespoons of this, 1/4 cup, and that turned out to be a little too much. It turned the character of the dough towards that of sourdough a little more than anticipated. The flour in the starter is used up, actually eaten, and cannot contribute gluten elasticity, but it can contribute flavor.

This sourdough starter is 100% whole wheat. The bread dough that I'm making is regular all purpose flour. The exhausted used wheat in this 1/4 cup changes the feel of the dough considerably. It is not active. It would take a few days of regular feeding for the starter to become active. The work of producing gas will depend on the commercial yeast that began with so meager amount and grew overnight much faster than this sourdough can. The starter will not assist much as leaven. Not without first being fully revived. This is like adding the flavor of yeast-death and enervated whole wheat flour to dough. And it works as a sourdough cheat.

The starter is fed whole wheat flour that was milled right here at home.

The water remaining from one full cup. 

1 cup flour not sifted, scooped directly and packed amounts to 5 ounces

1 cup of water is 8 ounces. 

This dough turned out to be too wet. Additional flour is included after the dough is stretched. This is not optimal because the flour is new and lacks the character of all the rest that has aged overnight nearly a full day.

Baked at high temperature inside a clay cloche. It is very good flavorful and heavy bread with distinctly unique character.

fried chicken breast scallopini, seared green beans

This is the island of Attu on the Aleutian chain, the last island close to Russia and a little beyond that to Japan.

I meant to say a small chicken breast sliced to make thin scallopini that will fry very quickly.

ground chuck with poblano

The poblano chiles were roasted together and must be used, this is half of the last one used as a blanket and not as a total wrapping. Beans with Swiss chard I could have around always. The rice is almost gone. The orange blob is a tablespoon a Cheese Whiz, a popular and uniquely American product along the lines of Marmet or Vegemite in other countries, or peanut butter, it is a whey-based goo amalgamated in industrial vats and rushed through production. The resulting cheese product has the favor and constituency of American cheese but much looser and it applies easily to a broad range of quickly prepared dishes like this where a slice of cheese will do. It blends better than artisan cheese. 

baked French fries

The potatoes are still connected at the other end. The nearly complete slices are intended to dehydrate the potato as much as possible while microwaving. They are the initial slices for French fries.

The slices are completed after microwaving, The quarters sliced further, seasoned and oiled.

Baked at high temperature until crisp.

chicken-chile relleno with bean sauce

The poblano chiles are roasted and must be used. Likewise chicken breasts are already prepared and must be used. 

Another type of chile relleno is prepared by another means. Instead of an omelet style, the egg is used to prepare a batter including masa harina (and water), the corn-substance in tamales and used to roll flat and fry quickly into corn tortillas and also to deep fry into crisp tortilla chips. Masa harina is powdered masa, cornmeal treated with an alkali, lime the chemical not the fruit, originally pot ash. It rids the hard outer corn kernel pericarp to be rinsed away and the remaining compromised kernel smashed to smithereens and turned into powder that mixes readily with water and when digested making nutrients more readily available. It is the nutritional secret to nixtamal (thus tamale), the secret that failed to travel north with American native populations and failed to travel back with the Spaniards. The secret that imparts flavor that transports in a flash with its scent straight back to the old world long before industrialization.

Campesino means 'peasant.'  Farm cheese, white cheese. It resists melting. I'd rather have something gooey.

Equal amount of water to masa harina for a batter. Herbs and spices to suit yourself. I used Mexican oregano, s/p with 1/8 teaspoon sugar. But no baking powder nor baking soda as a pancake batter would have.