Donnie’s Blog

A while ago a friend sent me a link to an article called Vogue’s 8 Steps to Hamburger Perfection. The article is actually based on an interview with Jeffrey Steingarten, who frequently appears on Iron Chef America, and is highly entertaining primarily because he is just so disagreeable with everyone. He is mesmerizing to watch at times, because he is so inventive in devising ways to crush the spirits of other people.

Anyway, the article goes through and describes how to create “the perfect hamburger,” although it focuses primarily on the preparation of the meat patty. This is only one of many factors in preparing a perfect burger. But, I am also a bit obsessed about perfect hamburgers, and I had never tried grinding my own meat for making burgers, so I decided that it was worth giving this whole thing a try.

(more…)

Some friends of mine recently received a food processor as a gift, and they were wondering what to make with it. I suggested mayonnaise, since homemade mayo is always tasty, but they weren’t so excited about that. Another good suggestion is cashew-nut butter or almond butter; the texture is just like peanut butter, but the flavor is amazingly rich.

Every time I think of peanut butter, I remember this one episode of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood where he made peanut butter. Or, at least, he tried to make peanut butter. His operating premise was that the name “peanut butter” was based on the actual ingredients for peanut butter. So, he threw a bunch of peanuts into a bag, added a stick of butter, and then proceeded to bash the crap out of it. The result wasn’t exactly peanut butter. I distinctly remember the scene - that big traffic light and the aquarium… I seem to recall him saying, “Well that didn’t work very well…”

I am glad that Mr. Rogers never tried to make butterflies.

About a week ago I tried some butternut squash soup from Trader Joe’s. I was so uninspired by it; the flavor is very subtle and mild. It couldn’t even stand up to the plain ol’ grilled cheese sandwich I had with the soup. Pitiful!

So, since there happen to be more than half a dozen whole butternut squashes around the house right now (stock up!), I decided to make my own.

It’s awesome, and very garlicky, which is great by me! Very easy to make, too.

I think I have finally figured out how to make good bagels. Our neighbor has a friend whose husband loves to bake, and he makes bagels very frequently. What he does is to make up the bagels and then put them in the refrigerator for a day or two, until they rise and get nice and plump. Fortunately there is a refrigerator out in the garage, and I can just leave my bagels in there for a couple of days, out of sight and out of mind.

Also, since I tend to make my bagels with 50% whole wheat flour (you know, to be healthy and all), I thought that using bread flour instead of all-purpose (AP) flour could also have a big impact. Whole wheat flour has less gluten than AP flour, so it isn’t able to rise as well as AP flour. Bread flour, however, takes it to a whole new level, containing even more gluten than AP flour! This means the bagels can rise better and hold more of the CO2 emitted by the yeast.

These were the two things I tried for the last batch of bagels, and they were hands down the best I have made. Unfortunately, they were so good that I didn’t really get any pictures of the finished bagels. Anyway, I just need to make a few more tweaks to the bagel recipe and then I think it will be a winner. At that point I’ll try to write up a page and put it on my website.

Today I tried roasting my own coffee beans. This all started a few months ago when Slashdot had a poll about what people drink in the morning, and all the coffee snobs basically said, “You really don’t know what a real cup of coffee tastes like until you try fresh-roasted beans.” This piqued my curiosity, so I bought some green coffee beans from the Red Door Cafe at Caltech, and I tried roasting them on the stove.

(more…)

My mom got me a new coffee cup today:

Thanks mom.

Last weekend I did another bagel experiment. This time I made blueberry bagels. I acquired a bag of dried blueberries from Trader Joe’s and chopped up a cup of them as fine as I could with a chef’s knife. Somewhat surprisingly, this created a mash about the same consistency as the contents of Fig Newtons, which made it difficult to work with.

When it came time to make the dough, I threw in chunks of the chopped up blueberry mash, and just worked the dough until everything was uniform. Success! I was very pleased with the results.

Other changes from last time:

• I let the bagels rise a second time after forming them. Good choice.
• Instead of rolling cylinders and trying to join the ends together, I made discs and carefully poked a hole in the center to work them into the bagel shape. Also a good choice.
• I didn’t egg-wash the bagels this time. Doesn’t seem so appropriate for blueberry bagels; they don’t need a golden brown color. They’re blue!

I’m pretty pleased with the results. They taste really good.

Last week was so crazy that I just needed to take a break and make some tasty baked treats, so I tried my hand at making bagels over the weekend. It was quite an interesting process, since bagels are different from “normal” bread in two ways. First, bagel dough is much denser than regular bread dough. This makes kneading it much more physically demanding, but if you keep at it then you can produce a very nice malleable dough.

Second, bagels are actually poached in boiling water before they are baked! This is what gives that characteristic “bagel” feel to the bread. You only poach them for about a minute before you get them ready for the oven, so it’s not too crazy.

Anyway, here is a picture of the results (click for a close-up):

My biggest complaint about how they turned out is that they are way too dense. This is because the recipe I used only has you let the dough rise once, before forming it into individual bagels, and I wasn’t smart enough to realize that this would be a problem. Really, you need to let the bagels rise once more, to get that nice fluffy soft result that most people enjoy at the bagel shop.

So, I will probably try this again next weekend, because it was just so fun! My ultimate goal - blueberry bagels. One of my favorite bagels of all time is the blueberry bagel from Goldstein’s Bagel Bakery. It’s a consistent winner, but I just don’t get over there too often anymore. So, if I can only crack the bagel secret then I’ll be able to enjoy them anytime I want.

Today I ate at Lucky Boy for the first time. This is really strange since I went to both high school and college only a few miles away from the place, and I was often up very late at night. Oh well; not knowing how tasty the food is has probably preserved decades of my lifespan.

I got the double cheeseburger, and I think it definitely rates in the top 3 hamburgers that I have ever eaten. Yes, I have a rating system, and yes, I really do keep track of such silly things.

Considering only tastiness, the rating is:

1. Monster Burger (Red Robin)
2. 1/2 lb. Double Cheeseburger (Lucky Boy)
3. 1/2 lb. Cheeseburger (Tops)

However, I think that Lucky Boy’s burger probably shortens your life more, so taking health into account:

1. Monster Burger (Red Robin)
2. 1/2 lb. Cheeseburger (Tops)
3. 1/2 lb. Double Cheeseburger (Lucky Boy)

(Yes, after 30 you start taking health into account…)

I won’t bore you with the rest of the list. Not in this post, anyway…

I love it when a plan comes together.

I haven’t been to a farmer’s market in ages. But, since I have two big meals to prepare this weekend, I thought I had better hop on over to the South Pasadena Farmer’s Market so that I could pick up a few things. Honestly, I just had no idea where I was going to find this stuff, but fortunately I found everything and more.

(more…)