Episode 2: Sourdough featuring Eliza Blue
Welcome to Rural Food Traditions, a podcast series of Rural Remix. We’re starting where many meals across diverse food traditions begin: with bread. Food is a uniter; and across culinary traditions, bread is a common thread. On this episode, host Teresa Collins talks with Eliza Blue about the art of sourdough bread. Eliza is a folk musician, writer, and rancher residing in one of the most remote counties in the contiguous United States, Perkins County, South Dakota. Listen to learn how we can co-evolve with bread and how bread connects us to our ancestors
Eliza Blue is a writer, folk musician, and rancher living on the short grass prairie of western Dakota. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, and NPR’s All Songs Considered. Her weekly column, Little Pasture on the Prairie, is carried by 19 different print publications, and she has written and produced seasonal audio ‘postcards’ from her ranch for South Dakota Public Broadcasting and Prairie Public Radio. Her first book, Accidental Rancher, was chosen as the Siouxland One Book 2023. Her second book will be released by the South Dakota Historical Society Press in June 2024.
Eliza currently hosts a show celebrating rural art and culture for PBS called ‘Wish You Were Here with Eliza Blue,’ and she is the director of the Kithship Collective, an organization devoted to innovative, ecosystem specific storytelling.
Sourdough Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup recently fed sourdough starter. (You can use sourdough discard, too, and get more of a flatbread-style crust)
- 1/2 cup water
- As much flour as you need to get to a slightly tacky/sticky consistency. Because some flours are "thirstier" than others, the type of flour you use will determine the amount of flour required to get to that consistency. The main thing is a dough that can be worked without sticking too much. You aren't going to knead and you will be using oil though, so it doesn't need to be as dry as a traditional bread dough either.
- a generous pinch of salt--more if you want extra flavor
- a tablespoon of sugar
Instructions
- Combine the ingredients in a bowl.
- Cover and let sit on the counter for 4-8 hours. (You can go longer, but it will get very sour!)
- Combine the ingredients in a bowl. Cover and let sit on the counter for 4-8 hours. (You can go longer, but it will get very sour!)
- Pour some olive oil onto your hands and lift dough out of the bowl and onto a piece of parchment paper. Spread the dough into whatever shape pizza crust you prefer. Add extra oil to your hands and the top of the crust as needed to keep it from sticking to your fingers.
- Add your toppings
- Baking: I set my oven to 475 degrees, put in my pizza stone, and then let the pizza stone warm for at least 45 minutes before I put the pizza (with the parchment paper) into the oven. I pull the pizza out when the cheese starts to brown and bubble. It usually takes less than 7 minutes.
Sourdough Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup -1 cup sourdough discard (or what you have leftover from last night's pizza dough, which is what I usually end up using...)
- 1/2 cup - 1 cup flour
- 2-4 (or even 5) eggs (I add a lot of eggs to my pancakes, especially in the spring when the hens are laying again. I like the extra protein, and my kids actually prefer the texture--they tend to be softer and more tender. Experiment and see what works for you!)
- 2-4 (or even 5) eggs (I add a lot of eggs to my pancakes, especially in the spring when the hens are laying again. I like the extra protein, and my kids actually prefer the texture--they tend to be softer and more tender. Experiment and see what works for you!)
- a pinch of salt
- tablespoon of maple syrup or honey
- a sprinkle of baking powder if you want extra fluffiness or if your sourdough starter hasn't been fed in a while.
Instructions
- Combine ingredients and fry on your griddle!
Rural Food Traditions is a production of Rural Remix. Original music was composed by Quincy Ponvert and Leo Posel. This series was written and produced by Teresa Collins and edited by Susannah Broun. Assistant producers are Tracy Staley and Anya Slepyan. The Executive Producer is Joel Cohen. Rural Remix is a co-production of the Daily Yonder and the Rural Assembly, projects of the Center for Rural Strategies.
