This is for Ann, who asked for a recipe for salaio, a coarse white
Portuguese bread. A Portuguese name is not given for the following bread
recipe, though there's a very similar recipe in _Breads of the World_ by
Mariana Honig (Berkley edition, 1979), and in that book it's called Broa.
But maybe this is close to what you're after. It's from _The Cook's
Encyclopedia of Bread_ by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter (Barnes and
Noble edition, 2000).
Portuguese Corn Bread
"While the Spanish make a corn bread with barley flour, the Portuguese use
white flour and cornmeal. This tempting version has a hard crust with a
moist, mouthwatering crumb. It slices beautifully and tastes wonderful
served simply with butter or olive oil, or with cheese."
3/4 ounce fresh yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
2 cups yellow cornmeal
4 cups white bread flour
2/3 cup lukewarm milk
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
polenta, for dusting
Makes 1 Large Loaf
1 Dust a baking sheet with a little cornmeal. Put the yeast in a large
bowl and gradually mix in the lukewarm water until smooth. Stir in half
the cornmeal and 1/2 cup of the flour and mix to a batter, with a wooden spoon.
2 Cover the bowl with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let the batter sit
undisturbed in a warm place for about 30 minutes or until bubbles start to
appear on the surface. Remove the plastic wrap.
3 Stir the milk into the batter, then stir in the olive oil. Gradually
mix in the remaining cornmeal, flour and salt to form a pliable dough.
4 Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10
minutes, until smooth and elastic.
5 Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and
let rise, in a warm place, for 1 1/2 - 2 hours or until doubled in bulk.
6 Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and punch down. Shape
into a round ball, flatten slightly and place on the prepared baking
sheet. Dust with polenta, cover with a large upturned bowl and let rise,
in a warm place, for about 1 hour or until doubled in size. Meanwhile,
preheat the oven to 450 F.
7 Bake for 10 minutes, spraying the inside of the oven with water 2 - 3
times. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 F and bake for another 20 - 25
minutes or until golden and hollow sounding when tapped on the
bottom. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
VARIATION Replace 50 percent of the yellow cornmeal with polenta for a
rougher textured, slight crunchier loaf.
****
Ms. Honig's version in _Breads of the World_ uses white cornmeal instead of
yellow and calls for grinding the cornmeal very fine in a blender and then
pouring boiling water over it. She also uses no milk and proofs her (dry)
yeast with a little sugar and 1/2 cup lukewarm water. Her recipe's
proportions are a little different from those of the recipe given above,
but the bread appears to be basically the same one.