The story of my relationship with Maya started in one spring when I needed to create something special with my own hands. Maya was born from flour and water and grown as my pet in a jar. And it's not an animal or a plant, is just a bacteria ... well please don't laugh, every one with his own pet. Indeed I am talking here about Maya who is a white sourdough that I use currently in my breads. I called her Maya because the name sounds exactly as the sourdough word translated in Romanian.
I remember when I started making bread with the bread machine at home people looked askance at me ... Who is making bread at home nowadays when it's so easy to buy from the corner shop? In a society of consumerism when all food come ready-made, who would bother and waste his time with these things? In case you haven't realized until now, I am that person. Not only that I have started to make my own bread in the bread machine at home some years ago but lately I've started doing sourdough leavened bread. Perhaps some people think that I have nothing else to do but I can say that the bread you make with your hands doesn't compare with the one brought from the corner store. You simply cannot compare the taste of the old country bread leavened with sourdough with the taste of paper that the commercial bread has. You cannot compare a bread made with only the three basic ingredients (flour, water and salt) by the commercial one made with tens of unhealthy ingredients  just to increase production and fill the pockets of business owners. And last but not least, nothing compares to the satisfaction that you get when you see how your dough is raising when fermenting or when you put it in the oven. For these reasons, Maya was born.

Every year when the summer starts, any Romanian goes out to eat a "mic". In a rough translation this means "small". And yes they are small meat balls. So, Romanians either they go out for a grill in their backyard or near a forest, or they just buy them in a park or restaurant. You find them everywhere and they are recognized as Romanian traditional food. And the truth is that they are delicious. You need to eat them with mustard. This combination works very well.
When I have moved from Romania I started to miss them. I found them again in the Romanian shops in Brussels, some were good, some were too spicy, some where not so tasty ... it was just luck. Later I moved a bit far from Brussels and I stopped buying them. The only available option was to make them myself. How difficult could that have been? I have tried several versions and finally I found the perfect recipe and here I share it with you.

Lately, I wanted to try a good rye bread. And because the rye flour is not like the wheat flour I was searching for a good recipe. So I grabbed the Hamelman's book and chose the first bread with rye. The original recipe was with caraway instead of sunflower seeds but as I didn't have caraway nor am I a big fan of it, I easily adapted recipe. And I do not regret, because I wanted to taste the flavor of rye without hiding it behind another strong flavor.

If you don't know what kamut is (also known as Khorasan as a region in Iran), this is an old cereal with exceptional nutritional qualities, that looks very similar with the wheat but has the grain at least double in size. More, the kamut is with 30% richer in proteins, with a higher % of vitamins (B and E), of fatty acids and minerals (magnesium and zinc), high in selenium which is powerful antioxidant and high content of fibers. It is easily digested and better tolerated by those with gluten sensitivity.
Its name comes from the Egyptian "Moet ka" which means soul earth.
The legend says that during the Second World War, an American pilot brought with him a handful of grains of this wheat found in the sarcophagus of the Egyptian king Thoth. He gave them to his father who was a farmer and he cultivated them. On the opposite side of those who believe in the legend, are other opinions that say it's just a marketing invention (which by the way, is also a trademark) and it is nothing else than a classic wheat genetically modified. If it is true or not, I let you chose. I bought a bag to test it and this is what came out. I can confirm that it seems more sweet than regular wheat.

If there are some leftovers in the pesto jar then let's do a pizza with it.

It's summer and there are fresh fruits everywhere. You can eat them like they are or what about a smoothie?

Coming back to the classical breads without sourdough , here it is a recipe with yeast and an additional sourdough only for taste and because I had some extra in my fridge. But this is not a classical recipe, it contains sage. The scent of the sage is felt also in the bread in a light way.

I was waiting for some time to see the basil grown and to make this delight in the most natural style.
Now it was its time.