Making Bagels

By now I've gotten the hang of making Gravlax.  It takes about 4 days, easy to assemble, set timer to rotate at about 12 hour intervals, then enjoy for quite a while since I make about a kg at a time, quartering and freezing what I am not about to use.  During the eating time, I seek out bagels.  The best packaged ones come from Shop-Rite bakery though they are expensive.  I will buy a reduced package, which is clearly past optimal.  The next come from Trader Joe's.  These have become my staple, but after a day they need to be toasted to be serviceable.  Shop-Rite brand and others get purchased when on sale, but they are mass produced and not very good even when toasted.  Einsteins and Manhattan Bagel make good stuff but are expensive and I prefer the kosher certification  for home use.

So I'll try making my own.  There are two styles, NY and Montreal, where the dough recipes are not all that different.  I do not have malt extract and don't plan to get any but some Montreal recipes substitute maple syrup which I have.  The recipes use a bit more flour than I might have expected.  Not particularly difficult, basically a variant of bread with a boiling step before the baking step and perhaps some dexterity in forming the bagel.  Whether it's really worth the effort for a dozen packaged in 4s and frozen is unlikely but worth a try at least one time.

Kitchen Adventures

Just unwrapped about a pound of gravlax that I had been turning end over end in a ceramic loaf pan morning and night under two heavy cans for four days.  Washed off the surface rub, tossed the dill into the garbage can and the loaf pan into the milchig tub for washing, then sliced off a chunk of the thicker end for myself.  Worth the effort.  Have to get more bagels.  Have cream cheese and some more dill. 

Next project, I think, Frog/Commissary Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies.  Have not made these in years but they are the best, also a little effort but worth it.

Unfortunately, FoodTV has deteriorated from masters trying to elevate amateurs like me to a series of Iron Chef wannabe competitions.  I only watch Triple D nowadays, the original, not the component where one tries to outdo the other.  Cooking as it develops into my most enduring hobby does not have an opponent.  It has beneficiaries.  I learn patience, a little creativity as I modify the core recipes to adapt to kosher or to use up ingredients at hand or just to experiment.  Some of the effort, particularly complete dinners, requires planning.  And I get to see the result, both in the product produced and the delight of those who share the meal or goodies with me.  Competition detracts from this.