Mesquite Pan De Campo
Mesquite Pan De Campo is a version of the popular Rio Grande Valley bread, Pan De Campo, baked outdoors in the beautiful south Texas landscape. I make it with with mesquite powder (flour) to reclaim the mesquite traditions of our ancestors.
For millennia, our ancestors knew mesquite as the Tree of Life. Long before corn became a common food in Texas about 2,000 years ago, mesquite nourished the peoples of this land. Corn came north from Mesoamerica. Mesquite has always been home. It’s not just for cooking, imparting that delicious mesquite smoke to foods, but is a culinary heritage with many medicinal and nutritional uses and benefits.
In this recipe I add yeast (levadura) and the combination makes this a unique pan de campo. I first tmade this recipe when I baked it with Francisco Guerra, San Antonio chef and caterer, at a celebration of the Native American community, Tap Pilam at the Land Heritage Institute, a 1,200-acre site with archaeological evidence of continual habitation by our ancestors over 10,000 years. Here I’m celebrating the last slice with Andrew Zimmern and Ramón Vasquez, Director of the American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions (AITSCM).
With the yeast, it rises so that it is light on the inside and heavily crusty on the outside. I’ve adapted the recipe so you can cook it at home in your oven. The aroma and flavor are so comforting, this pan de campo will be gobbled up by your guests within minutes.The mesquite flavor lets your palate recall and celebrate the ancient and expansive outdoors of Texas.
Recipe for Mesquite Pan De Campo, Country Bread
This recipe is adapted from my cookbook: “Don’t Count The Tortillas: The Art of Texas Mexican Cooking”
Ingredients (makes 1 10-inch round loaf)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour for kneading
1⁄4 cup mesquite powder (flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 cup no transfats palm oil shortening or other vegetable shortening
1 cup warm water
1⁄4-ounce package of yeast, 2 1⁄4 teaspoons
Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 ̊F.
2. Add the yeast to the warm water and let it stand for 10 minutes to dissolve and start puffing up.
3. Sift together the flour, mesquite powder, and salt until thoroughly combined.
4. Add the shortening and mix together until the shortening is completely blended in. Add the yeast water slowly, mixing to form a soft, moist dough. Knead the dough for 6 minutes, adding flour as needed, and fashion it into a ball. Place it in a well-oiled bowl and let it rest covered with a damp cloth in a warm place for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until it has doubled in size.
5. Fashion the risen dough into a disk so that it fits snugly in the bottom of a Dutch oven. Cover it and let it rise in a warm place for another 30 minutes.
6. Keep the lid on and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and continue baking for another 25 minutes.
Serve the bread warm or at room temperature.