Bagels, and Much More

I'm struggling a little bit with how to organize this write-up of my weekend in the kitchen. The chronological approach, which serves my purposes otherwise, has the downside of "burying the lead". Well, consider it buried. (I think it liked daisies.) If you're just here for the bagels, skip ahead to Sunday.

Friday

My workplace is open President's Day, and I chose to take my floating holiday on Friday to make this a three-day weekend. I spent most of my day off twitching, but did manage to cook a couple of things. I made a stove top macaroni and cheese which was really good and will be my go-to for that dish in the future. It was the FOURTH mac 'n' cheese I shared with my neighbor lady and the first she liked.

I also roasted a chicken. When it was done, I remove the hindquarters and carved off the breast meat. I threw the carcass into a pot with some carrots and onions and water to cover. I also threw in the neck and gizzards from inside the chicken, and I seasoned with salt, pepper, star anise, and ginger. When strained, the resulting stock was pretty good.

(The chicken breasts and stock will be coming up again in this post. And again. And again.)

Saturday

My biggest objective for Saturday was to make whole wheat bread. I've made this recipe twice previously and been pleased with everything except the limited rise I've gotten. (The rise is really only an issue because I want the slices to be big enough for sandwiches.) As an experiment, since I understand whole wheat flours tend to be low gluten, I added about 1 tbsp of vital wheat gluten for each cup of flour. It turned out really well.

I used one and a half of the chicken breasts in a chicken salad with fennel and basil, the recipe being from the "Healthy Family Cookbook" from America's Test Kitchen. It was...okay. I'm not sure I'll make it again.

I used some of the chicken stock I'd made for "Carrot Ginger Soup", also from the "Healthy Family Cookbook". It's pretty tasty. The chicken stock also served as the cooking liquid for some bulgur I did in my rice cooker.

The highlight of the day, though, was the pizza I made. It was a cheese pizza on a whole wheat crust, both recipes coming from the "Healthy Family Cookbook". I was REALLY tired by the time I got to it, but wanted to get it done, because I want the method under my belt. Here's what it looked like out of the oven:

(Please note: the shape is not "odd", it's "rustic". So there!)

The pizza really was good. And, I have another pizza's worth of dough in my freezer for next time I have a pizza urge!

Sunday (and finally with the bagels)

If you've been kind enough to read my other entries, you may have gathered that I don't always have good reasons for what I want to cook. But, I really love bagels, and when I found what looked like a manageable recipe in the iOs app version of Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything". (I assume it's in the print version as well.)

Here's the basic procedure: 1) Make the dough; 2) Let rise until doubled; 3) Form bagels, 4) Let rise again; 5) Boil (1 minute a side); 6) Bake.

Some illustrations:

Formed, before 2nd rise

Being boiled

Before baking. The bench knife is about 6"wide.

The final product.

I was quite pleased - tasty and with a very nice chew. Would a New York deli maker have been proud of them? No. Are they better then most of the bagels I've had in the Midwest? Yes.

The last two dishes I made were sort of designed as ingredient use-ups. I made a frittata (sort of - forgot the cheese) with the yolks left over from my angel food cake. It was flavored with a shallot I've had lying around and half a chopped andouille sausage link.

I finished up with a version of Mark Bittmn's "Simplest Paella" (also from "How to Cook Everything"), which I'd made before. It's easy because it just uses a normal skillet, and once all the ingredients are in it finishes in the oven. About half the stock was the tag end of the batch I'd made on Friday. I also threw in the last of the chicken breast, the rest of the andouille sausage, and some baby shrimp. It's really good.

Is it any surprise that I ran my (smallish) dishwasher four times this weekend?