Search Results for: semolina

Sandwiches are a humble medium that can be put to artistic use. I need reminding of that since I’m forever falling into a sandwich rut. Turkey and swiss, tuna salad on rye, those are a couple of my go-to’s. But I’m shaken out of that stupor most Decembers when my Texas aunt and uncle send me one of these bad boys. They are goooood, and the leftovers make fabulous sandwiches. In fact they inspired my one and only contribution to the high sandwich arts, the creation pictured above: smoked turkey with goat cheese, spinach leaves and apricot ketchup on semolina bread.

Siena, Tuscany, one of Italy’s most beautiful Medieval cities, is considered the home of panforte. Apparently there are Sienese documents dating to the year 1205 that mention it. Evidently panforte was recognized as a form of currency in the city then, and was offered by the citizenry to a local monastery and nunnery as a sort of tax payment. A city that uses candy as money would be a dream come true for my daughters. Remind me to weave this place into their bedtime story tonight.

But one document does not a place of origin make. So at the risk of committing a blasphemy, I’d like to propose a little thought experiment. Imagine it’s the High Middle Ages and you’re living in northern Italy. Your name is Leofrick the Spotty and you work as a kitchen laborer on the estate of the local lord. Word has arrived by courier that your master will be returning from a crusade to Jerusalem this week, and your first thought is: let’s bake a cake for the fellow to eat, assuming some mace-weilding Seljuk didn’t knock all his teeth out at the Battle of Antioch the previous spring.

This past weekend we had an outbreak at chez Pastry. A neighbor family was leaving town for a year-long sabbatical, so a couple of weeks ago they brought over all their partly-used pantry foods. It was a bonanza of oils, vinegars, pastas and sauces. Woohoo! Unfortunately among the bounty was a sack of semolina that turned out to be full of flour beetles. By the time we noticed them they’d gotten into, well…just about everything. We needed to clean out the cabinets anyway.

Pantry pests happen to everyone at one time or another. You probably know the experience. You’re doing dishes one evening and you notice a couple of little moths with stripey wings flitting about. Who let these darn moths in here? “Honey,” you call to your spouse in the next room, “we’ve got to make sure we’re keeping the screen doors closed. Moths are getting in.” But of course no one is letting the moths in. You’re bringing them in — in live egg form, in your flour.

Reader Linda comments that she uses Cream of Wheat in her galaktoboureko filling. That’s perfect. It’s made of durum wheat, but a fairly fine grind, a much closer approximation to medium-ground Greek semolina than durum flour. Plus it’s a lot easier to get. Why didn’t I think of that? Thanks a million, reader Linda! I’ll make the change right away.

So this filling…it’s pretty much just like a pastry cream, then? Um, let’s say it’s in the same family, reader Hal. Like pastry cream it’s a stirred custard, not a still custard, even though it’s also baked. The process for making it is identical, however under the hood it’s both leaner and employs a more interesting combination of starches.