Bagels for Monday

www.sourflour.org

Visit date: February 13

Founder Danny Gabriner's love of bread and bagels caused him to leave his day job over a year ago to start Sour Flour. Sunday's are dedicated to preparing bagel dough while Mondays are dedicated to boiling and baking the bagels at La Victoria Bakery (a kind of communal kitchen featuring pop-up bakeries on a pretty regular basis), then giving the bagels away for free!

As part of a wild yeast series at 18 Reasons, Danny held a class today about making bagels. We start with flour in front of us, add salt, starter, water, and finally form our bagel rounds to take home. We work in groups of three during the initial kneading process while Danny talks about hydration, temperature, starters, etc. The end result is to divide our dough into three chunks, one for each person in the group, then further divide the dough into 125g bagel rounds, about four per person.

Stage 1 – Create a well with the flour. Add salt, starter (water, yeast, bacteria), water.

Our ingredients are pre-measured for us before class and designed to have 53% hydration, meaning 100g of flour with 53g water. In bread terms, 53% hydration makes a pretty stiff dough, resulting in slower fermentation. We also use less starter because our bagels will have time to sit overnight before boiling and baking. "100% is fairly hydrated, but moving up to 150% will cause enzymes to break down the starch in the flour even faster, providing the simple sugars for the yeast and bacteria to eat. Any hydration will work, and depending on where you choose to fall in the spectrum, your starter will favor the production of different flavors."

salt and starter added

Stage 2 – Combine ingredients starting with the flour closest to the center so none of the water is lost. Pushing the wall away increases surface area and gradually lowers the flour wall. Once all the water is absorbed, knead the dough, working it as much as possible. It is better to overwork than underwork.

This is probably the hardest part of the class. Not only is our dough stiff to begin with at 53% hydration, the time constraint of the class means the dough doesn't get to rest and relax as long as it normally would. Luckily, we work in group of three and take turns.

Stage 3 – Form the dough into a ball and let rest five minutes. It should start to look smooth, but still have some ridges. The main thing is to knead the dough to rid of flour patches.

Stage 4 – Stretch the dough as thin as possible. Fold and form into a ball. Knead aggressively – fold in half, knead, quarter turn, fold in half, knead, quarter turn, etc.

Stage 5 – Let the dough rest ten minutes and repeat stage 4.

Some of our doughs have air pockets which is totally ok. Notice the difference in the texture of the dough after more kneading.

This is someone else's dough. Her dough is really smooth and soft, even starting to get some shine!
She had a smaller portion to work with, making kneading easier.

Stage 6 – Divide the dough into three portions, one for each person in the group. Further divide the dough into 125g portions.

Stage 7 – Pre-shape the dough: 1.) stretch out the 125g portions, 2.) roll dough like a fruit roll-up

Stage 8 – Form into bagels: 1.) roll each portion to extend length-wise, long enough to wrap around your hand, 2.) wrap loosely around your hand to form the round bagel, 3.) roll/pinch the 2 ends together to close the bagel round

At this point, the class is over and we can take our bagels home to boil and bake.

Stage 9 – Put bagels into the fridge, covered with a damp cloth so they don't dry out and form a skin. Prior to sleeping, remove bagels from fridge, leave out overnight, still covered. The cloth may need to be re-dampened.

Stage 10 – In the morning, pre-heat oven to 500 degrees. Meanwhile, boil a pot of water, using a wider pot for more surface area rather than a taller pot. Depending on the size of the pot, boil 2-3 bagels at a time. Each bagel will sink immediately before floating. Once floating, boil bagels for about two minutes per side.

Note: The time it takes for bagels to float depends on the amount of starter/yeast used, which is activated by the boiling water. Less starter means longer period of time before bagel floats, up to a minute or more. This also equates to a longer boiling time once bagels are floating.

Stage 11 – Drain bagels on cooling rack to remove excess water.

Stage 12 – Place boiled bagels on cookie sheet with cornmeal, which prevents bagels from sticking to the sheet. Other alternatives are pizza stone and parchment paper. If using pizza stone, pre-heat oven for a longer period of time because the stone absorbs heat.

Stage 13 – Bake bagels in oven at 500 degrees for about twenty minutes. The hot temperature is what gives bagels that crispy outside and soft chewy inside.

Stage 14 – Time to eat!

Dinner @ Home - Rice Cakes

Dinner: February 01

Rice cakes make my top 10 favorite things to eat. It's pretty much always in the shopping cart when I go grocery shopping at 99 Ranch. I usually mix it with sauteed ground pork and a vegetable of some kind (i.e. Chinese mustard greens, Chinese celery, Napa cabbage). Making this dish requires some multi-tasking.

1. Marinate one pound of a fattier ground pork with soy sauce, sesame oil, shao xing rice wine (I hear sherry wine is a good substitute), pepper – 30 minutes to overnight in the fridge. Feel free to add other spices like cumin, coriander, Chinese five spice, curry, etc.

2. Chop vegetable of choice into bite size pieces and thoroughly rinse. The portion should be enough so each bite has equal parts ground pork and veg. (Sometimes it's easier to rinse after the veggies have been chopped, only wash what you need.)

In this case, I use only the stalks of Chinese celery cut into 1-inch pieces. Chinese celery is thinner and has a smell almost like cilantro. 99 Ranch bags the celery (about 1.5 pounds) and is just enough (minus the leaves) with the pound of ground pork.

When using Chinese mustard greens, chiffonade the greens. Next, give a rough chop but leave some quarter-inch chunks of the stalk for added crunch. Place the chopped greens into a tupperware and mix with finely chopped fresh ginger and a generous portion of salt (2-3 heaping tablespoons) to draw out the water from the greens – 5 hours to overnight in the fridge. Again, 99 Ranch bags the mustard greens, but can be too much if chopped too finely. If this is the case, I prefer to use more pieces from the stalk because I like the crunch. Also, one bag of greens roughly equates to finely chopping a 3-inch piece of fresh ginger. When ready to use, squeeze out the excess water. The mixture may need to be rinsed depending on salt content.

2. Rice cakes usually come in a vacuum sealed bag (about 2 pounds), and is hard and clumped together. After opening the bag, pull rice cakes apart so they are no longer sticking to each other. Set aside.

3. Fill a pot with salted water and let boil. Turn off the heat when water is at a boil. Set aside.

4. Using a fry pan or medium-sized pot (I use my Le Creuset dutch oven), sautee the ground pork until it is no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Add bite-size vegetable and continue to sautee until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat.

5. Using the pot of hot, salty water, blanch rice cakes in batches (handful portions) for about 20 seconds to soften. It's best to use a deep noodle strainer for quick and easy removal. Keeping the rice cakes in hot water makes them gooey and mushy.

6. Combine the blanched rice cakes into the hot pan containing the sauteed ground pork and veggies. The heat from the sautee will continue to soften the rice cakes which also absorbs the pan juices. The idea is for each bite to have all the components of rice cake, ground pork and crunchy veg.

This recipe makes about 5 portions, but it all depends on who's eating.

Bon appetite!

finished product

Chinese celery

Chinese celery cut into 1" pieces (stalks only)

Chinese mustard green

ground pork being sauteed

rice cakes - out of the package and separated,

not yet blanched so still in hard form

rice cakes about to be blanched

deep noodle strainer

Dinner @ Home - Pork Chops

Dinner: January 26

I was at Antonelli's Meats (located inside CalMart in Laurel Heights) and their thick cut pork chops called out to me. It's really nothing special but I had fun making dinner, very relaxing. (See, I don't always eat out.)

BTW... Antonelli's is one of the best butchers in the city. They have a great selection of beef, pork, lamb, veal, chicken, homemade sausages, and seafood. My favorite is the American kobe flank steak. The meat is marbeled with just the right amount of fat making it tender and delicious beyond belief! In my opinion, so much better than the overly expensive filet mignon which has the texture of baby food – it's simply missing that satisfying chew you are looking for when biting into a piece of meat. Besides, filet mignon is certainly not the most sustainable cut of meat – there are 150 pounds of other cuts compared to 1 pound of filet.

Anyway, back to the pork chops:

1. Cut 3 shallow slits on each side of the chop. This allows the flavors of the brine to really get into the meat.

2. Prepare wet brine by filling a gallon-size Ziploc bag with water, salt, roughly crushed black peppercorns, rosemary, onion, apple juice.

How much of each? The liquid needs to cover all the meat. Be generous with the seasonings, especially salt, since it is sitting in unflavored water. The acid is important to help break down the meat a little, allowing for better flavor absorption. Make sure to taste it and add whatever you feel is missing – balance out the flavors. Scientific right? Our taste buds say so.

Wet vs. dry brine? I much more prefer a wet brine over a dry brine because it keeps the meat more moist while still providing flavor.

3. Place chops into Ziploc bag and refrigerate between 4 to 48 hours. Overnight is best. (Put bag on a tray in case any of the brine leaks.)

4. A couple hours before cooking, remove chops from brine and let sit at room temperature. Cold meat causes uneven cooking.

5. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Then heat olive oil in a pan. Cast iron pans are preferred because they regulate heat more evenly and get hotter than non-sticks.

6. Once oil is extremely hot, sear chop on each side. As Anne Burrell always says, "Brown food is good food." In my case, I seared about 7 minutes per side.

7. Finish meat by baking in the oven, between 15-25 minutes depending on thickness of meat.

Pretty simple, right? I served the chops with a balsamic vinegar reduction sauce, oven baked sweet potato, and sauteed greens of a Chinese variety.

Bon appetite!