Homemade Bagels

The Jewish Holidays are one of my favorite times of year to be in the kitchen.  Whether it's making my favorite brisket, making a kugel, or just spending time with my mom, I love it.  I spent Rosh Hashanah this year at home with my family, which I haven't had the chance to do in far too many years.  My mom makes one of the best Rosh Hashanah meals and this year was no different.  I'd pick that meal over Thanksgiving any day!



I was back in Chicago for Yom Kippur, so we got to break the fast with the Monkey Scientist's family.  We hosted at our place this year and I decided I wanted to make as many things from scratch as possible.  I made a challah (with raisins this time, per request from his dad), my mom's kugel (with a little almond extract, which was a fun little twist on a favorite), a kale quiche with my favorite homemade oatmeal crust and even cured my own lox.  I bought the cream cheese homemade from Southport Grocery and picked up a whole smoked herring from Dirk's.



But the pièce de résistance had to be the bagels.  They're the key to any break fast. And if I was going to fast all day, I had to have better bagels than the ones available in our neighborhood (which are, to say the least, sub par).  I had seen recipes to make bagels for a long time, but they looked like a pain.  A multi-day process and weird ingredients like barley malt... I hadn't been quite ambitious enough to accomplish it before now.  But this seemed like the right excuse to take the plunge, and I am so glad I did.  Finding the strange ingredients turned out to be easier than I expected and to be honest, so was making the bagels!  I think making frosting is much more difficult!



The whole meal was a great success.  The family was still talking about everything the next day - a sign that means I did something right!  And the bagels were definitely the star of the meal.  The Monkey Scientist's brother said they were the best bagels he'd ever had.  I didn't think they were far off, and definitely the best I've had in Chicago.  They were perfectly chewy and the malt gives them that "bagel" flavor. They were absolutely worth the extra effort!



Homemade Bagels
from Smitten Kitchen
Note: this recipe takes at least 2 days, so think ahead!

Ingredients
Sponge
1 tsp instant yeast
4 c unbleached high-gluten or bread flour (I used bread flour)
2 1/2 c water, room temperature
Dough
1/2 tsp instant yeast
3 3/4 c unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
2 3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp malt powder or 1 tbsp dark or light malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar (you can find the malt syrup at Whole Foods, this is the brand I used)
To Finish
1 tbsp baking soda
2 tbsp malt syrup
Cornmeal or semolina flour for dusting
Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, rehydrated dried minced garlic or onions, or crushed sea salt for topping

Instructions
1. In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine 1 tsp of yeast, 4 c high-gluten or bread flour, and water.  Stir until you have a thin, smooth and very sticky batter.  Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for two hours.  It will double in size and be very foamy.  It should collapse when tapped, but mine didn't really and was still ok.
2. Stir the additional 1/2 tsp yeast into the dough. With the dough hook attachment on the mixer at low speed, add 3 c of the flour and the salt and malt powder or syrup until the dough forms into a ball.  Stir in the last 3/4 c of flour to stiffen the dough.
3. At this point, you will knead the dough.  You can do it in the stand mixer, but if you have a standard Kitchen Aid, this is a very tough dough and it might not be able to handle it.  It really needs 6 minutes of kneading in the mixer, but after about 3-4 minutes mine started making bad noises and then smoking.  I finished kneading it by hand.   You can also just knead it by hand for about 10 minutes, which I think is what I'll do next time.  Once kneaded, the dough should be pliable and smooth and very stiff/firm.  All of the flour should be incorporated.  If the dough is dry and rips, add a few drops of water (I had to do this a couple of times) and continue kneading.  If it's tacky or sticky, add more flour - the dough shouldn't feel satiny not sticky.
4. Divide the dough into 12-14 bagels (if you have a kitchen scale, you can measure them to 4.5 oz.  I made 13 bagels).  If you like smaller bagels, you can make them smaller.  Form the pieces into round rolls.
5. Cover the rolls with a damp towel and allow to rest for about 20 minutes.
6. Line 2 baking sheets with Silpat mats or parchment and spray with cooking spray.  Poke your thumb through the middle of each roll to create a hole.  Widen the hole to about 2 inches by evenly stretching the dough.  Be careful to keep the dough equal all the way around so that it cooks evenly.
7. Place each bagel on the lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit for 20 minutes.
8. Test one bagel to see if it's ready to retard overnight in the fridge.  Fill a bowl with room temperature water and put a bagel in it.  If it floats within 10 seconds (mine floated instantly), they're ready.  Dry it off and put it back on the pan.  If not, dry it off and let them sit at room temperature for another 10-20 minutes, then test again. 
9.  Once they're ready to retard, put the pans, loosely covered with plastic wrap, into the fridge at least overnight and up to 2 days. (Note: after 2 days, the sides of my bagels were a little dried out.  That's ok, they'll be fine once you boil them.)
10.  When you're ready to cook the bagels, bring the oven to 500 degrees F.  Put both of the oven racks in the middle.  Bring a wide pot to a boil.
11.  Add the baking soda and malt to the water.  Note it will boil up like a science fair volcano when you add the baking soda.  You may need to turn the heat down a little bit so that it doesn't boil over, just make sure it continues to boil.
12. Add a few bagels to the pot, making sure they have plenty of room.  I could fit 3 at a time.  Boil 1-2 minutes, then flip over and boil for an additional 1-2 minutes. (Apparently, the longer you boil the chewier they'll be. I couldn't tell the difference between the bagels that I boiled longer.)  Meanwhile, coat the Silpats lightly in corn meal.
13.  Remove the bagels with a spider or other strainer. If you're going to top them with seeds, put them immediately onto a plate filled with the topping.  I had 1 of poppy, 1 of sesame, 1 of salt, and one with a mix of sesame, poppy and dehydrated onion to use as "everything".  Then put the bagels seed-side up on the baking sheet on top of the corn meal.  If you want a plain bagel, move it immediately to the corn-meal coated lined baking sheet.
14.  Once you've boiled all the bagels, put the baking sheets in the oven and bake for 5 minutes.  Rotate the baking sheets 180 degrees and move the top to the bottom and visa versa.  Bake for an additional 5-10 minutes until the bagels are a nice dark brown.
15. Cool on a baking sheet for 15 minutes.

Note: If you live in Chicago, I recommend serving them with the homemade cream cheese from Southport Grocery (call ahead to order) and lox or smoked whitefish from Dirk's.

Bibim Nengmyun (Gochujang Buckwheat Noodles)

Unless this is your very first visit to the blog, you know we are spicy food eaters.  I'm pretty sure sriracha has replaced ketchup in my regular diet (yes, it's all I put on my hot dogs), and the Monkey Scientist believes salt and pepper means salt and crushed red pepper flakes.  When the roommate and I were at HMart, the women handing out samples warned us a few times that we should be careful because whatever they were giving us was very spicy.  We disagreed.

I say all of this as a warning.  This dish was barely more than spaghetti and marinara sauce in our house, but our house is clearly not the norm.  If you hate spicy food switch on over to this post. And just ignore all that crushed red pepper....



One thing I love about Asian foods is the variety and intensity of the spiciness they offer.  Korean foods in particular have great flavor even in the spiciest ingredients.  Whenever we go to the Asian market, we have to pick up a container of gochujang.  This time, I learned something new about gochujang!  It is rated in terms of spice where the higher number is spicier.  Gochujang rated 1-2 is mild, 3 is medium, 4 is hot, and 5 is "burn your face off" hot.  Or at least I think that's what this label was trying to tell me.  We picked up a 3 and a 5 (the latter for the Monkey Scientist, of course).  We don't actually buy this brand, despite their amazing graphic design.  We buy Sunchang because the woman at HMart told us it's the best (and some others seem to agree).



I liked this dish because I thought it would be a good way to test out the difference between the gochujang rated a 3 vs the 5.  Honestly, I was terrified of the 5 at first.  The picture on the jar doesn't have eyes anymore!  But it actually wasn't that bad.  At first, I don't think there is even a difference between the 3 and 5, but once it hits your mouth the 5 does create a tingle.  I definitely burns a little bit, but it's also sort of just like a really pungent half sour pickle.  For every day, the 3 is just fine, but I'm ok with keeping the 5 in the house as well.

The dish itself is...interesting.  Which I know was what my great grandmother said about things she didn't like, but that's not what I mean at all.  I wouldn't say it was my favorite thing I've made recently, but it was a nice change of pace to what we usually eat and was super simple to throw together.  It's a cold noodle dish, which I'm not very accustomed to making.  I like the cold of the noodles contrasted with the heat from the gochujang. The tobiko on top added a nice bite that I enjoyed a lot.  The original recipe was served with a hard boiled egg, but that did not sound up my alley at all. Otherwise, the recipe itself was very good!



BiBim Nengmyun (Gochujang Buckwheat Noodles)
slightly adapted from spoon fork bacon

Ingredients
8 ounces Korean-style buckwheat noodles
1/3 cup gochujang
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ tablespoon low sodium soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
garnish:
1 tbsp tobiko (flying fish roe)
¼ small hothouse cucumber, julienne

Instructions
1. Cook the buckwheat noodles according to package instructions.  Rinse in a colander under cold water until the noodles are cool.
2. Combine the gochujang, sugar, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and sesame seeds in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.  The gochujang will be thick at first, but just keep whisking!
3. Pour the sauce over the noodles and stir to coat.  Garnish with tobiko and julienned cucumber.

October's Secret Supper at Southport Grocery

When we moved to Chicago a few months ago, I have to admit I was nervous. Not because I didn't think we'd love Chicago, but because we signed a lease before I'd ever even stepped foot in the neighborhood we'd be living in. I'd gotten stuck in NYC with a cancelled flight after a business trip, and was unable to make it out to Chicago the weekend that the Monkey Scientist and our roommate came to look at places. Still, I trusted their judgement and I quickly realized how much I love our part of town!



One of the best restaurants in our area is the Southport Grocery & Cafe. A coworker had actually told me about it before I moved and I was not disappointed. Their brunch is top notch and their cupcakes are out of this world. And I moved from DC, land of cupcake shops. Plus they have a great little market with high end ingredients like jellies, pickles, sprinkles and real maple syrup. So when I heard they host a "Secret Supper" once a month, I knew I needed to get an invite. I grabbed 4 seats to the October party as soon as I heard about it (by joining their email list) for me, my bff, my roommate and the MS.



All of the food was really a step above anywhere we've gone lately. My favorite course was the clam chowder. Now I'm a New England girl, and this was some seriously good clam chowder. The liquid wasn't too thick and there was a great substance-to-liquid ratio. I hate when there are big chunks of potatoes in chowder, but these were perfectly diced and the texture was offset by crispy shallots. The clams were cooked exactly how I like them - just a bit chewy and not at all briny.  Plus the sourdough bread bowl they baked upstairs was perfection.  Sourdough is my favorite bread by far - I think I could live off of it. I couldn't ask for anything more out of this course (except for, well, more).



The main course was a Pork Confit and Orchiette served in a large mug.  As the Monkey Scientist put it, there might not be anything better than a mug full of pork.  It was topped with currants and a juniper gelee, and was mixed with local arugula and carrots.  Some of our table found it a bit sweet, and I thought the sauce might have been a little heavy.  Plus, cooked carrots just don't do it for me.  It wasn't the highlight of the meal but it was really great nonetheless.



For dessert, we were served a pumpkin rice pudding with a black sesame lace cookie.  I'm not sure I'd ever had a homemade lace cookie before, but now I'm determined to make them myself. They melt in your mouth  and have the perfect bit of crunch.  Sesame seeds aren't my favorite thing ever so I might experiment with other things I can put in the caramel if I make them at home.  The rice pudding sitting below the cookie was great too.  Rice pudding is one of my favorite desserts.  To be honest, I think we all expected a little more pumpkin flavor, but it was topped with dried cranberries and candied ginger which was amazing. I loved the mason jar presentation, too!

The only thing I didn't capture was the special treat at the end of the meal. They had homemade Reese's, Three Muskeeter, Almond Joy, and Butterfingers that their pastry chef had whipped up for us. I think we all felt sweets overload at the end of the meal (OK everyone but me. I don't understand sweets overload until it's way too late) but they were absolutely delightful, albeit a bit melty.  I especially liked the Butterfinger and thought the Three Musketeers was unique and delicious (the consistency was denser than the original).  This was definitely a special dinner for us (we even got a bottle of wine, and we never drink at dinner), but I'm hoping we can go to another Secret Supper sometime (maybe if my folks come visit!). It was a blast!

Dak Bokkeum with Spinach (Korean Stewed Chicken with Spinach)

About a year ago, my coworker took me on a trip up to Maryland for what we called "Coworker's Without Cars Day".  It was my first trip ever to H-Mart and I was so excited to find all of the Asian ingredients I couldn't get at my local grocery store.  One of those ingredients was gochujang, a fermented Korean chile sauce.  Of course, being the klutz that I am, I dumped an entire container of gochujang on my foot while we were in the store and made quite the scene.  I was cleaning it out of my flip flop for months.



Despite the scene, I never got around using the gochujang until now! I know - a total shame and I had promised a recipe last April that I never got around to making.  My gochujang actually technically expired since then, but I looked online and there seems to be some consensus that this stuff never really expires and the date on the back is more a "best by" date (had to look online, all of the description around the date was in Korean).  The top layer did turn a little bit brown rather than bright red, but it tasted fine and we didn't get sick so it seemed good to me.



When you go to buy this, there is a huge aisle of H-Mart with different heat intensities of gochujang. It comes in a rectangular red tupperware and on the back right upper corner it will say gochujang in English in itsy bitsy font and it should say in English just how spicy it is. I think mine is the regular spice level and it was very spicy!  For those of you without an H-Mart or other Asian market, I hear a rumor that Annie Chung has a version of gochujang that's sold in regular grocery stores, though I've yet to see it.  Or, if you live in DC, they actually sell it at Tenley Mini Market, oddly enough.  Not exactly what you expect to see in a liquor store but they have it!



With all of this talk about gochujang, you probably want to know if it's worth it, right?  Man, oh man is it worth it.  This is one of my favorite recipes I've made in a long time and the whole time I was eating it I kept remarking to the Monkey Scientist how much I enjoyed it.  If you cook Asian food frequently, you might even have everything you need at home already so you can make this tonight.  You make the whole dish in basically one pot (and your rice cooker) which makes for fairly easy clean up.  The dish doesn't even need to be babysat while it cooks - you just throw it in and walk away.  That's my favorite kind of meal to make!  And the taste is out of this world! It's got a hefty spice level (the Monkey Scientist barely added any sriracha on top) and is packed with flavor.  It's super filling and healthy (just make sure you trim the fat off of the chicken thighs) as well!  It's a total win-win-win dinner - the two of us couldn't praise it enough.



Dak Bokkeum with Spinach
Korean Stewed Chicken with Spinach
from Cooking Light

Ingredients
1/3 cup gochujang (Korean chile sauce)
1/4 cup (1/2-inch) slices green onion bottoms
2 1/2 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
2 tablespoons minced peeled ginger
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1/2-inch strips
1 1/2 cups uncooked short-grain white rice (sushi rice)
1 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup water
3/4 cup (1 1/2-inch) slices green onion tops
1 (5-ounce) bag fresh baby spinach
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Instructions
1. In a large bowl, combine gochujang, green onion bottoms, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, brown sugar, and crushed red pepper. Add in strips of chicken thighs, cover, and put in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
2. Place the rice in a mesh strainer. Fill a large bowl with cold water and place the mesh strainer in the water so that the water covers the rice. Stir the rice gently and then remove from water. The water will be milky. Drain water and then repeat 2-3 times until the water comes out nearly clear.
3. Cook the rice with 1 1/2 cups water in a rice cooker. If you don't have a rice cooker, place water and rice in a pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover and allow to cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 20 minutes. (I actually added a pinch of sea salt to my rice cooker as well.)
4. While the rice is cooking, add 1/3 cup water to a dutch oven and bring to a boil. Add the chicken mixture and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat, cover, and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Uncover and allow to simmer for an additional 10 minutes or until the mixture reduces, stirring occasionally.
6. Remove from heat. Stir in green onion tops and spinach and allow the spinach to wilt. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over the rice.