I’ve probably made bagels 25-30 times at this point, and have reached a point where they turn out surprisingly well– not the best I’ve had in New York, but better then any bagel I can buy locally. Here’s my standard recipe, based on trying a few variants (I’ve even made two different recipes and done blind taste tests with friends). It’s very similar to the one in The New Best Recipe. ...

Some typical flours and their protein percentages: Cake or pastry flour: 8-9% Generic all-purpose flour: 10.3%? King Arthur all-purpose flour: 11.7% Generic bread flour: 11.7%? King Arthur bread flour: 12.7% King Arthur whole wheat flour: 14% <-- though I believe the protein / gluten relationship in whole wheat is different, because some of this protein is in the bran yet not available to promote gluten formation. King Arthur Sir Lancelot high-gluten flour: 14.2% Bob’s Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten: 75% Why am I posting this? Mainly because I’m about to post a bagel recipe, and having a high-protein flour really does matter for them. ...

Following on the Portland Food Recap, here are some notes about the 60+ beers we tasted at the Oregon Brewers Festival back in August. A side note before I talk about all the beers I didn’t like– yeah, yeah, it’s far easier to be a critic than to actually make something, these are just my opinions (well, combined with some comments and notes from James). The OBF as they call it was the initial impetus for visiting Portland that particular weekend, though plenty of other beer, food, book-buying, and friend-visiting activities fit themselves into the available time. ...

Peanut Butter Malt with hot fudge at Mr and Mrs Miscellaneous:

I’ve made bagels 7 or 8 times at this point, and thought I’d settled on a recipe I liked… but cooking in a new kitchen always throws a few wrenches in the works. In this case, the oven in a vacation home rented with friends didn’t seem to want to go above 350F, while I wanted 450F… so I baked some bagels in the oven, but cooked most of them on a gas BBQ grill on the outside deck. To my surprise, that worked pretty well. ...

Here’s a quick post-bike-ride dinner I assembled in 30 minutes from getting home to sitting down to eat (I say “assembled” because I picked up major premade components from Rainbow on the ride home– go ahead, think less of me). 1. Boiled water (slowly on my sad electric stove) and also heated milk on medium high with a few pinches of salt, stirring frequently to avoid scorching. 2. Shelled some fresh cranberry beans (they caught my eye after a recent conversation and a dinner at Camino). ...

I don’t post about every meal I eat out– just notable ones. This Camino dinner certainly qualifies: Here’s the lamb hanging and twisting in front of the open fire, dripping juices into dishes of beans: Everything was great. David Lebovitz posted many photos and a long writeup (including musings on Chez Panisse kitchen history).

Two of us assembled a “not your usual canned beer” tasting at work, from right to left (click to embiggen): My favorites: Oskar Blues " Mama’s Little Yella Pils" (pilsner: clean, flavorful, very slightly sweet– nice. Probably the group favorite, to my surprise.) Young’s Double Chocolate Stout (strong cocoa smell, the most polarizing in our group– most people liked it, some people couldn’t stand it.) Big Sky Brewing Moose Drool Brown (I wouldn’t say it’s unusual in any particular way, but it’s a good solid take on a brown ale, and a beer I’m never unhappy to see at a bar. I first had it when visiting Montana, but I now often see it in the Bay Area, though I’d never seen it in a can.) Oskar Blues G’Knight “Imperial Red Double IPA” (a fascinating beer: strong, hoppy smell, but the tastes of malt (several kinds?) and alcohol (9%) help keep the hops in their place… then the hops jump back out at you at the end. My personal favorite of the tasting.) Others: ...

BBQ preferences can be a touchy subject, like pizza, with a lot of regional style preferences that make it hard for people to agree on what’s good. When I lived in New England, I far preferred Blue Ribbon BBQ in Arlington to Redbone s in Somerville, which I know shocks some people. And in the Bay Area I loved Doug’s in Emeryville (now closed, sadly), like Everett & Jones in Oakland and Gorilla BBQ in Pacifica a fair amount, but don’t like Memphis Minnie’s or Brother-in-Law’s (and the succession of replacements in the same space) in SF. ...

A quick-and-simple (15-minute) dinner: boil soba (3-4 minutes), saute broccoli and minced garlic in sesame oil (just a few minutes), combine along with a bit of soy sauce for a minute more, serve with sriracha and avocado.

A quick dinner from mostly free-to-me ingredients: I sauteed some fresh ginger and moroccan spice[1] in peanut oil, then added crookneck squash[2], coated it in the spiced oil, and cooked for about 5 minutes. In parallel, I boiled the wide flat beans[3] for a few minutes (they turned bright green). I added the drained beans to the squash for a minute, emptied them onto a plate, then fried a duck egg[4] in the oil left over in the pan. I served them with lemon[2] and avocado[3]. Not bad! ...

I had this 18%-alcohol, 120-minute IPA at City Beer Store earlier this week. To my surprise, I really liked it. I tend to not enjoy really hoppy beers when I feel it drowns out all other flavor, and I’m not even especially into the Dogfish Head 90-minute IPA. But this beer was excellent– the hops don’t come on as strong because there’s such a powerful malt/caramel and alcohol taste as well, without being as sweet as a barleywine. ...

This is the first time I’ve made a dinner for friends with courses each paired with / inspired by a specific beer. Some of them worked well together, some didn’t, but it was a good evening overall. Appetizers: a slightly bitter, slightly floral beer (Upright Flora Rustica) with a collection of snacks: bread, cheese (Cowgirl Creamery Mt Tam), radishes, fresh-pickled fennel (an interesting concept), Boccalone orange-fennel salami and pepper salami, salted almonds, and three kinds of pickled carrots (carrots pickled for a week with dill, vinegar, and salt, carrot quick pickles (overnight with lots of vinegar, mustard seed, cloves), and some Happy Girl spicy carrot pickles I bought). ...

A few restaurant highlights from a recent trip to Portland (which also included beer tasting, biking around, and seeing a few friends, but I promised myself this wouldn’t be a blog that’s mostly long-winded stories about my day with only a passing mention of food): The Waffle Window(at 36th and SE Hawthorne): A waffle with sauteed mushrooms, spinach, roasted peppers, fresh tomatoes, and “marinated chevre”. The chevre had the consistency of a dense whipped cream and was a nice cool counterpart to everything else. Plus, look at that pleasing collection of colors with the blue-rimmed plate! ...

This is great sliced thick and used to make a sandwich or luxurious toast (but with soup, I prefer whole wheat bread). I used to make this monthly but haven’t in many years– I just found the recipe card recently. White sandwich bread (two loaves, takes 4-5 hours total including cooling) Mix and let stand 5-10 minutes: 4 tsp dry yeast 1/4 cup warm water Meanwhile, mix: 1 cup warmed milk 1 cup warm water 2 Tbsp melted butter 2 Tbsp honey 1 Tbsp salt Combine the two mixtures. Gradually add: ...