Did you see the purple loaves of sourdough that were all over social media a few years ago? I missed them. In fact, I’m five years late to trying Karlo Evaristo’s heirloom blue corn masa sourdough bread, and I only discovered it by accident. Now, I can think of little else.
During a recent dinner at Le Hut Dinette, a new restaurant located in a Quonset hut in Santa Ana, my dinner companions ordered the sourdough bread. We wanted something to help sop up the peach vinegar and jalapeño oil in executive chef Ryan Garlitos’ excellent tomato salad.
What arrived at the table were slices of bread in a deep shade of violet. It was toasted on both sides, with umber splotches interrupting the purple, the entire surface shiny and shellacked with clarified butter…