BAAAAGELS!

ALRIGHTY THEN!

New York style bagels.
 
Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp yeast (or one packet, which is 2 1/4 tsp, but it works just fine. Trust me)
1 1/2 tbs sugar
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp salt




Take 1/2 cup of the warm water (I just measure out the half cup, then get the rest from the tap when I need it - no point in letting it cool). Make sure it's warm to the touch, not hot. If you want to be exact, use a thermometer. Too hot and you kill the yeast. Add the yeast and sugar. DO NOT STIR. Let sit for five minutes.


Combine the flour and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Make a well in the center.


Five minutes up yet? Get the other cup of warm water. Stir your yeast mixture GENTLY until the sugar dissolves. Pour into the well. Pour about half your warm water in with it, then mix until all the flour in incorporated, adding water as needed.


On a well-floured countertop, knead the dough until it is smooth and uniform (between five and ten minutes). It should be firm and moist, but not sticky. Lightly grease a medium mixing bowl (or, while you're kneading, make your kitchen monkey/slave/spouse clean the bowl you already used). I use a pan release spray, but you can do whatever you wish. Form the dough into a vague ball-ish shape and try to remember about how big it is. Put the dough into the bowl, turning to cover it in the oil you used (or, if you used release spray, just lightly spray the top of the ball).
Now, point of disagreement here.
I usually cover my rising dough with plastic wrap. I was taught to cover them with a damp cloth, but if your kitchen isn't the right temperature, I've noticed it can severly slow the rising process. If you're like me and you love your apartment verging on freezing, close the damn windows, turn off the A/C (if you have it - and I'm jealous if you do), turn on the heat (if it's winter or still below 50F) and let the dough rise.


When the dough ball (which is way too much fun to say) has doubled in size, punch it down. Doubling will take anywhere from an hour to three hours, depending on how warm your kitchen is and the temperature of the water you used. I've had bread dough take six and a half hours before. BE PATIENT, YOUNG GRASSHOPPER.
Cover the dough and let it rest for ten minutes. In the meantime, clean up the counter you kneaded the dough on and reflour if necessary.
By the way, ten minutes takes FOREVER. Find a couple awesome songs on youtube, dance like an idiot, and BAM! BACK TO BAKING! Oooorrr you could prep your toppings. I'm pretty fond of a simple cinnamon-sugar and garlic-onion bagels.


NOTE ON TOPPINGS:
If you want onions and you do not have any minced dehydrated or onion powder, start them simmering when you start the dough rising. This, of course, assumes that you don't need three hours for the dough to rise, but you can always let the onions cool between cooking and topping.


Divide the dough into roughly equal balls, twisting to break off the pieces. This size batch will give you eight medium bagels and 14-20 small bagels. Roll them on the floured countertop to flatten out the rougher edges, then poke a thumb (or pinky finger, depending on how large your bagels are) through the center. Stretch the hole until it is about 1/3 of the diameter of your bagel. Lay your bagels out on a lightly greased cookie sheet and cover with a damp paper towel. Let them rest for ANOTHER ten minutes. Dance some more, sing a ballad or two, preheat your oven to 425F (220C) and get some water boiling on the stove. I do mine in two or three smallish saucepans with two to three bagels per pan at a time, timed every twenty to thirty seconds. If you have a larger pan or lack the attention span to pay attention to three pots at once, add as many bagels as you are comfortable putting in all at once.
Using a slotted spoon, put the bagels in the water. They should float after a couple seconds. After one minute (two, if you want chewier bagels), turn them over and let them be for another minute (or two, again, for chewier bagels). Pull them out and put them back on the cookie sheet. If you have a kitchen monkey/slave/spouse, they can add toppings (dry toppings can be sprinkled on; wet toppings should be brushed with an egg wash, then dipped).

Put in the oven. For small bagels, 12-15 minutes. For medium, 18-20. The bagels should be a golden brown. 
Resist the urge to slice one in half, slather it with butter, and shove it in your face. Fail to resist the urge. Burn your finger, but nom anyway. Resist urge to eat the rest of the batch in one sitting.






If you try any other toppings, let me know how they turn out! If you live in my area and want to be a taste tester, let me know and I'll send bagels your way.

Tea muffins!

With an utter lack of snack foods in this apartment, I poked around the internet for things I could bake. This is how all culinary experiments start.

And thus, tea muffins were born.

So, here we go!
Tea Muffins
Makes 12 muffins + one thin cake if the muffin pan is filled rather sparingly... oooor you could just fill the muffins a bit more. Your call.

YOU WILL NEED:

1 bag of tea (I used Earl Grey, because I ADORE it)
1 3/4 cups flour (plus a tiny bit, according to the recipe I bastardized, but it's not dreadfully important)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar (brown, white, raw, doesn't matter. Mess around and see what you like best)
pinch of salt

2 eggs
1 1/3 cup buttermilk (or soured milk)
3 tbs vegetable oil (the original recipe called for olive oil. I'm scared.)


Preheat the oven to 360F (180C). Grease your pan(s).

Combine your dry ingredients. That's right. ALL OF 'EM. Mix 'em together with a fork. Doesn't need to be uniform.
Now. I use Stash teas almost exclusively. Their Earl Grey is pretty finely ground. If your tea isn't, break it up a bit before you toss it in with the dry ingredients.

Combine your wet ingredients. I'm sure you can figure this out.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Mix it 'til some lumps remain (as with all such baked goods).

Fill your muffin pan. If you have extra batter, pour the rest into a 8" round cake pan (or whatever else you have kickin' around).

Pop in the oven for 20 minutes. Add time as needed. They're done when a toothpick (haha, like anyone does this) inserted into the middle comes out clean. I touch-test mine. Tap the tops (not too hard, but not too light). It should spring back to shape.

Let cool.
Serve with honey and/or jam.


Things I would like to try:
Next time, I'm going to substitute honey for the sugar. It requires reducing the other liquids, though.
Other teas. I have an orange black tea that would be interesting, and I'd like to see what a solid chai spice black tea would do to this. Then, green tea, herbal teas (especially a raspberry tea I've had for a while), and whatever else I can dig out of the tea cupboard.

Small-serving marinated chicken

After struggling for the better part of thirty minutes to skin and bone (and otherwise clean) six pounds of chicken thigh meat, I decided I wanted to branch out and try a few new marinades.
The best part of these, though, is that they are portioned to serve one or two people, fit neatly into a bento, and aren't just boring old chicken. Each bag got two or three thighs.

I stuck with my standard sweet & sour (which has turned into a ginger-garlic-orange sauce), made up a lemon herb, then a very simple teriyaki.
For the other two, I got a little... out there.

Here you go, in BLUR-O-VISION!


From left to right:
Terikayki, S&S (ginger-garlic orange), lemon herb, tequila lime, and blackberry merlot

I shall report back to tell you how the boozey ones turn out.

Recipes to follow.

Cornbread!

1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup soured milk (or buttermilk)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375F (175C). Grease an 8" square pan.
If you're using soured milk, pour just under a cup of milk into your measuring cup. Add lemon juice/white vinegar to make the full cup. Let it sit until needed.
Melt the butter, if you haven't. I melted it in the microwave. It took about a minute, but I have a pretty low-power microwave. You can melt it on the stovetop, too (in which case, use the pan to mix all the ingredients; don't dirty up an extra bowl if you don't need to).
Stir the sugar into the melted butter. Add the eggs, mixing until well blended.
Add the baking soda to the soured milk/buttermilk, then stir it into the butter mixture.
Stir in the cornmeal, flour, and salt until generally well-blended and it's just a bit lumpy. Pour it into the pan.

The recipe I worked from said to bake it 30-40 minutes. Mine took around 25. Set it for 20, check it, and add time as needed. It's done when a toothpick/butter knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

I promptly drizzled it with honey and a bit of butter right out of the oven and ate it. Most satisfying midnight craving to date!


It should be noted that I don't like sweet cornbread. If you do, up the sugar. I like a bit of extra salt in mine, as well, but it can be completely omitted and still be tasty.

Ginger carrots

In my eternal quest for tasty things to pack in lunches, I improvised some ginger carrots. It's based on my sweet and sour chicken recipe, of all things, borrowing ideas from Just Bento's orange juice carrots (which are fantastic, once modified so it doesn't involve a pepper).

It's pretty straightforward, very tasty, and I'll report back how they are room temperature (as bentos are meant to be eaten at room temp) and how they reheat (Husband ignores it and heats his up in the microwave).

Paired up with some steamed broccoli and the almost-salty chicken tsukune, I honestly can't wait for lunch.

ALRIGHTY THEN. Note that I didn't actually measure a damn thing when I made these (as usual), so the numbers are just an estimate.

You will need:
Three medium carrots, sliced into sticks
2-3 tbs brown sugar
2-3 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs tomato ketchup
1/4 cup white or rice vinegar
ginger to taste
water
Variation: omit the vinegar and add 1/3 cup orange juice. Reduce brown sugar to 1 tbsp.

So. Slice your carrots, if you haven't already.
Huck 'em in a pan. Add all the ingredients, plus water until it just covers the carrots. Once again, I used ground ginger because it's what I invariably have on hand. This could be all sorts of fantastic with fresh, though. I like LOTS of ginger, but Max isn't particularly fond of it - if you haven't used it before, be stingy with it.
Turn the heat up to high and let it get to a nice, full-on boil. Let it boil for four or five minutes. It should stop smelling overpoweringly vinegar-y (not applicable if going the orange juice route).
Reduce heat to medium low. When it has reduced to a simmer, cover the pan. Simmer for a few more minutes, or until the carrots are appropriately tender.

I packed them into the lunches by pulling out the carrots with a fork, then pouring in some of the leftover sauce. Alternately, you could remove the carrots, return the pan with liquid to the burner, get it boiling, and add a cornstarch slurry to make a glaze for them.