Thanksgiving in the time of COVID-19

 

And how was YOUR Thanksgiving this year? Mine started out kind of differently right away when I went food shopping. There were no whole turkeys smaller than 16 lbs. to be found anywhere. Let me tell you, a 16 lb. turkey is a lot for just two people. Then, like millions of other Americans who are in a high-risk category, we stayed home, barely having any human contact except to do a food swap with our immediate neighbors. 

The menu was the same as it's been for the last few years. My partner was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in 2019 and has been in heart failure for several years. My goal these days is to make life as normal and routine as possible for him, and having the same old menu seemed more appropriate than ever.

THANKSGIVING 2020

Roast Turkey - Alton Brown's Good Eats version, which always comes out great

Stuffing/Dressing - Ina Garten's Sausage & Herb Stuffing with green apple

Gravy

Cranberry-Orange Sauce - my friend Cindi aka Blind Bob's Bakery recipe

Mashed Potatoes

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Corn

Steamed Carrots

Apple Pie w/vanilla ice cream

Pumpkin Pie (my spicy version based on Libby's)

I do things a little differently from Alton's recipe. I buy a frozen turkey and allow it to thaw and brine for 3 days. Make up Alton's brine as usual, stick the frozen turkey in a bag, add the brine and iced water to the bag, and place the bag in the fridge or a cooler (ideally sitting in a cold place, like outside). After 2 days, take the turkey out and pull the neck and frozen giblet package from the cavity, put the turkey back into the bag and fridge/cooler to finish defrosting. Thanksgiving day, I get the bag, drain the brine, rinse the turkey well inside and out and pat dry. Then follow the rest of Alton's instructions for making the aromatics and his fantastic roasting method. Use a thermometer and I promise you, it'll come out perfect.

The only thing I do to improve Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie (the recipe on the can) is to double the cinnamon, add  1/4 tsp. nutmeg as well as a tablespoon (loosely packed) of grated fresh ginger root. Of course you need to generously slather on lightly sweetened whipped cream, stabilized with instant vanilla or white chocolate pudding mix.

My food-swapping neighbors, who are vegetarian, provided smoked veggies in parchment, potatoes au gratin, crunchy brussells sprout salad, cranberry relish, and baklava. With such a bounty and variety of food, I actually felt guilty thinking of the many people who are now food and housing insecure, and who've lost family members to this terrible virus.  

I sure hope next year's Thanksgiving will be normal, but after four years of a madman in the White House, a political party turned cult and my partner's health issues, the chances of things returning to normal are slim. Nevertheless, I wish all of you out there who may be reading this post, health, hope, and most of all normalcy in 2021.

Sourdough Pizza Crust

Photo from King Arthur Flour

Yup, like everyone else who has an oven, I too have been baking sourdough goods for months now. I like to think I was a little psychic, though, since I began tinkering with a starter back in October last year; that first starter just would not stabilize and I started a new one in December. That starter finally stabilized around the beginning of February, just in time for COVID-19 lockdown. I passed my starter (aka 'Rainier Beach Ghetto Blaster') to a couple baker friends who then shared it with others. While working to stabilize my starter in the beginning, I ended up with a LOT of discard. I could not fathom throwing all of it down the drain, so I made more starters to give away and looked all over the internet for recipes using the  discard. King Arthur Flour has extensive content about sourdough and sourdough discard. Another site I found fascinating was Sourdoughs International, run by sourdough scientist Ed Wood. They even sell exotic dried starters from all over the world! I ended up ordering a couple but they're in my fridge as backup in case my notorious RBGB starter dies. 

This recipe for Sourdough Pizza Crust was one I took from King Arthur and tweaked a little to fit my liking and technique. I love to prebake the crusts, store in the freezer and, when the mood hits, put fresh, hot, delicious homemade pizza on the table in 15 minutes. 

Sourdough Pizza Crust inspired by King Arthur Flour

Makes one 14" round or 18" x 13" thick-crust pizza or two 12" round thin-crust pizzas

5 oz. (150g) warm water
1/2 tsp. instant or active dry yeast
1 tsp. salt
1 cup/8 oz. (250g) unfed/discard sourdough starter
2-1/2 cups (300g) unbleached all-purpose Flour
Olive oil for greasing
Fine ground cornmeal for dusting

In a large mixing bowl, sprinkle the yeast and salt into the warm water. Whisk in the starter until blended, then mix in the flour. The dough should be soft and shaggy (add water or flour if needed). Knead by hand in the bowl until smooth, or for about 7 minutes in a mixer with the dough hook until the dough wraps itself around the hook.

Place the dough in a greased container, cover and let rise until doubled in bulk (2-4 hours or more). For a faster rise, place the dough in a warm spot, or double the yeast. At this point if you want to make your pizza later, shape the dough into a ball, place into an oiled ziploc bag and store in the fridge for up to a week. TIP: cold, refrigerated dough is easier to shape. 

Preheat oven to 450°F. Gently dump the risen dough out onto a well-floured board. For two thin-crust pizzas, divide the dough in half. Using oiled hands, gently stretch, rotate and shape each piece into a flattened disk with a rim. Don't pound or roll the dough, as doing so will make the crust tough and cracker-like. Transfer the dough disk to parchment, oiled pizza pan or cornmeal-dusted pizza peel (if using a baking stone in the oven), reshaping and patching if needed. For thick crust pan pizza, oil a 18" x 13" half sheet and, with oiled hands, press the dough out to the edges of the pan. The dough should have a thin film of olive oil on the surface from your hands. Cover the dough lightly with plastic wrap and let rise for 15-30 minutes (or even longer for a thicker crust).

Remove the plastic wrap, spread sauce and toppings on, all except the cheese. Bake thin-crust pizza for 5 minutes, or thick-crust pizza for 10 minutes, before removing from the oven and adding the cheese. Return to the oven and bake until the cheese is bubbly and crust is brown (about 5-10 minutes). Remove pizza from parchment or pan to prevent sogginess, and let cool on a rack for a few minutes before cutting.

Prebaking and freezing pizza crust: After shaping the crust and the final rise, bake the crust without sauce or toppings (thin crust – 5 minutes, thick crust – 8 minutes). Remove from oven, prick any large bubbles, remove crust from parchment or pan, and allow to fully cool on a rack. Wrap crust in plastic wrap, place in plastic bag and freeze. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 450°F. Bake the plain, thawed crust for 5 minutes then remove from the oven, adding sauce, toppings and cheese. Bake until cheese is bubbly and crust is brown, about 10 more minutes. For a toaster oven, just put all your toppings on the frozen crust and bake at 450°F for about 15 minutes.

Bagels are easy AF to make and amazing!

Like everyone else in the pandemic, I've been baking up a storm. Although I've slowed down my sourdough-in-everything baking, the starter lives in the fridge, ready to do its magic whenever I want. Hopefully I'll be posting my sourdough favorites soon.

For years now, we've been getting bagels from Costco. Our favorite is the everything bagel. A couple months ago, the light bulb went off in my dim head – why have I never tried making bagels at home? I knew they needed unusual preparation, boiling and then baking, which always seemed daunting on top of the rising sequence. But now that I've got all the time in the world, why not?

I tried one recipe for New York bagels, which was good. Then this one, from Emma Fontanella, which I've settled on but have tweaked a tad. Check out Emma's recipe which gives instructions on how to make a variety of bagels using the same basic dough. For my everything mixture, I use sesame and poppy seeds, dried onion, garlic powder, Italian herbs and kosher salt.

The only thing that can be difficult about making bagels is shaping them. The smoother you can keep the surface, right up until you put them in the oven, the better. Avoid mangling the dough as you handle, move and flip them. I actually do my second rise in NordicWare egg cooking dishes (about 3.5" dia.) to help keep the bagel size uniform and make it easy for me to dump the bagel into boiling water. This can be kind of a tricky step but you'll figure out a shaping/handling method which works best for you. Remember, even if the bagels look ugly, they'll still taste great! 

 

NEW YORK-STYLE BAGELS (based on a recipe by Emma Fontanella)
Makes 11 bagels

750g (5-1/3 cups) all-purpose flour
415g (1-3/4 cups) warm water
2 tbsp. sugar or 3 tbsp. syrup (maple, honey, etc)
2 tsp. salt
1 packet or 2-1/2 tsp. dried yeast
2 T olive oil

Everything mixture: 1/2 cup sesame seeds, 1/4 cup poppy seeds, 1/4 cup dried chopped onion, 1 tsp. kosher salt, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder, 1 tsp. Italian herbs

Measure out the flour and put in your mixer bowl. Measure out the warm water, dissolve in the sugar/syrup and salt, and sprinkle the dried yeast on top and mix in. Let the yeast mixture proof for a few minutes. Turn on your mixer with the dough hook, and slowly pour the yeast mixture into the flour. When the liquids have mostly been incorporated, spoon the olive oil right into the middle of the dough near the hook. Let the machine knead until all the flour has been absorbed and the dough is a smooth ball. Take the ball of dough out and let rise in a covered, greased container, until doubled in size. Weigh the dough and divide into 10 pieces (mine typically weigh around 120g). Round each piece into a smooth ball (here's a tutorial on rounding, from the excellent Bake with Jack series on YouTube), place on a greased tray with some room in between and give it a good squish with the palm of your hand to flatten a bit. When all the balls are done, take your thumb and make a slight depression in the middle of each, then use a small round, greased cutter to make a hole right over the depression. Since I like my bagels to have small holes, I actually use an empty pill vial (1-1/4" dia) with the bottom cut off and the lid screwed on, which acts as a handle. Combine all your bagel hole scraps into another ball, and use it to make your 11th bagel. Cover the bagels and let rise for about 30-60 minutes. Preheat the oven to 450˚F. Get a second tray set up with a sheet of parchment and sprinkle some of your everything mixture on it. A few minutes before your bagels are finishing their second rise, fill a wide skillet, wok or pot with about 3 inches of water and bring to a boil. Use a spatula to pick up your bagels and place gently in the boiling water (don't crowd, do batches of 2-4). Flip over at about 30 seconds, allowing each bagel to cook for a total of about 1 minute (more time makes them chewier, no more than 2 minutes). Lift the bagel out with a skimmer and place on the prepared tray. Immediately sprinkle more everything mixture on top, while the bagel is still wet. Repeat until all the bagels are done. Bake at 450˚F for about 20-25 minutes. The bagels will be golden brown when done. Remove from the parchment and, if not consuming immediately (I dare you not to!), let cool on a rack before packing up into a container or wrapping and freezing.