чорний хліб

Behold. Ukrainian Black Bread.

When I was a missionary in Ukraine, I fell in love with the food. Delicious, earthy, healthy food. One of my all time favorites was their black bread - round rye bread. I knew someone who worked in a factory where they made the bread (you could buy this delicious treat at nearly every corner). He told me how to do it, but the recipe seemed too simple to me. It seemed there was a secret he wasn't telling me. Well, when I got home, I made my family a Ukrainian dinner and tried out the rye bread. Not the same at all. I searched the internet and tried two different recipes, both were sadly disapointing. Not even close. Really, not even close.

Well, it's 6 years later and today, I finally made it. The secret: it's sourdough rye bread. Paul, who loves bread and loves me to cook bought me the bread bible: Tassajara bread book. Everything we tried has been heavenly. I decided to get brave and try my hand at sourdough bread. This was my first. It turned out beautifully. I made two big round loaves. They are perfect. I ate a quarter of one already.
I love it with sour cream. This bread is the perfect accompaniment to borscht.
And a little side post: Paul made smoothies. The kids can't drink them without the mustache and we thought that the smoothie probably tastes better with a 'stache, so we tried it. The kids had it right all along.