Soft Pretzels

Oktoberfest may have already come and gone, but to most Americans, they think it's still going through the rest of the month.  So to those of you who keep on partying and don't know why, I salute you.  Why not make some pretzels to celebrate someone else's recently passed holiday?

These pretzels were delicious, rivaling any mall store or ballpark pretzels.  As long as you have a couple of concepts understood, you can make your own delicious version of this at home.  I got the recipe from the show Good Eats by Alton Brown, and followed it to the letter.  I will only add more detail when we get to the part about the dough, which I think is important for success.

Also, you don't have to make pretzel shapes with this dough.  I stupidly forgot to take a picture, but with this dough I made 4 large, 4 small, and 4 pretzel rolls, which made for excellent sausage sandwiches.  Just shape them into ovals, let them rise in a towel, and then treat them as you would a pretzel-shaped version.

These went great with my spicy german mustard recipe, which will be an evolving page with updates as I tinker even more to get this exactly the way I want it.

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2007

• 1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
• Vegetable oil, for pan
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
• Pretzel salt

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Here's an important point - you'll get the best, fastest performance out of your yeast if you can find a nice HUMID place to put the dough, not just warm.  I forget where I picked up this trick, but I like to make a small "proofing" chamber out of a plastic tote I bought at the megamart, and put the dough bowl inside along with a small container (at least a pint) of boiling water.  This creates the unbelievable rising effect seen in these photos, which I kid you not are taken only 90 minutes apart, which actually had risen too much.

Note the size of the dough ball before rising.  Also note that there are no shear marks on the surface of this - it's fairly smooth, having been well kneaded until it was elastic and just slightly tacky

My proofing box - dough + boiling / steamy water = awesome.

This is what you would like to see, although maybe this was in there a bit too long

While the dough is rising, start preheating the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces (definitely consider doing 16 pieces instead, the 8 pretzels this makes are just way too huge). Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Start with a nice long rope.  I had to roll it as shown to get an even diameter all down the length

I asked a German baker about the trick here, and he said "just bring the two ends up and let it come together".  That didn't really work, but I got it after a few tries.

It helps to look at a store pretzel while doing this.  You basically cross the tips over twice, and then press in slightly where the dough rejoins or crosses itself.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Before the bath, wash, and bake

Taking the first bath, before a quick rinse with some egg yolk and a sprinkle of sea salt

The final product!

Braised Lamb Shanks with White Beans

I've always wanted to master lamb shanks.  Filling, complex, rich with collagen, and easily portioned into undisputable gargantuan helpings you just can't argue with, they are far too underappreciated in this country.  I only know a few cultures that cook lamb shanks well - the Greeks, and the Irish.  I suppose the French can do it to, and that's what I had a run at with this recipe, kind of a take on a cassoulet but without a variety of different meats (or as many beans).

I made this recipe a few months ago and as a result have forgotten exactly where I found it, but I believe I scavenged it mostly from Williams-Sonoma and then modified the spice blend slightly, to produce more of an herbes de provence blend than just the original thyme and bay leaf mix.  My version had an overly thick sauce which would have benefitted from slightly more broth, but otherwise the flavor was so incredible that I almost phoned the last French bistro I ate in and asked for my money back.  Rest assured that I won't be ordering this out at a pricey restaurant any time soon - this probably cost me $30 out the door for two people, including meat from a top-end butcher and a bottle of wine, most of which ended up being drunk at dinner, as was the chef.

Braised Lamb Shanks with White Beans
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Seasonal Celebration Series, Autumn, by Joanne Weir (Time-Life Books, 1997)

• 3/4 cup dried small white, white kidney or cannellini beans (or 2 15 ounce cans if you’re lazy)
• 2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 lamb shanks, each 1/2 to 3/4 lb.
• 1 yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 celery stalk, finely diced
• 1 large carrots, peeled and finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 3/4 cup dry red wine such as Côtes-du-Rhône, Cabernet Sauvignon or Chianti
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned)
• 1.5 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
• ¾ tsp chopped fresh rosemary, or ¼ tsp dried
• 1-2 leaves chopped fresh sage, or ½ tsp dried
• ½ tsp dried marjoram
• ¼ tsp dried basil
• ¼ tsp fennel seeds
• ¼ tsp dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

If using dried, pick over the beans and discard any misshapen beans and stones. Rinse the beans, place in a bowl and add water to cover generously. Let stand for about 3 hours.  Drain the beans and place in a saucepan with water to cover by 2 inches. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until nearly tender, 45 to 60 minutes. Drain well.  Or, if using canned beans, ignore that whole process and open 2 cans, rinse, and drain.

While beans are cooking (or being opened), prepare the herbes de provence by combining thyme, rosemary, sage, marjoram, basil, fennel, and oregano in a small bowl.

Meanwhile, in a deep, heavy stock pot over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the lamb shanks and brown on all sides, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer the shanks to a plate. Add the onion, celery and carrots to the pan and sauté over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the wine, broth, tomatoes, tomato paste, herbes de provence mix, bay leaf, and lamb shanks. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the shanks can be easily pierced with a skewer, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Add the beans, stir well, cover and simmer gently until the lamb begins to fall from the bone and the beans are tender, about 30 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the bay leaf and discard.

Transfer the lamb shanks and beans to individual plates and garnish with chopped parsley.

Yellow Tomato Gazpacho

If you're one of the lucky few who's got an abundance of tomatoes coming from your garden, you may consider making gazpacho - a chilled Spanish tomato soup.  I found this on a quick search after coming upon 3 delicious, overripe yellow tomatoes, which I found slightly less bitter than red tomatoes.  However, I later made this recipe exactly the same way with normal tomatoes, and it came out just fine.  I have since made this dish a number of times with yellow tomatoes, which seem to have slightly less acidic flavor, and which really make for an impressive dish.

This dish travels incredibly well - I have served it out of a tupperware pitcher into disposable cups at least twice in my life, most notably when I was about ten, but more recently a couple of weeks ago.  It confused everyone the first time, but both times it was delicious.

Athenian (Greek) Chicken and Potatoes

For some reason, in my home town we don't have diners - we have a lot of Greek delis.  I don't know how this happened, somehow the American restaurant icon got disenfranchised by a local demographic and the customers discover that they would rather have a gyros omelette over scrapple and chipped beef.  One of the staple dishes I grew up with was called Greek chicken, also called Athenian chicken in places that charged you a dollar or two more for the fancier wording.  Regardless, it's good, ol' fashioned comfort food - healthy, fairly mild, hearty - that I have tweaked a number of times until getting something vaguely reminiscent of what I used to eat as a child.  Enjoy!


Athenian Chicken and Potatoes
modified from Bon Appétit, April 1992

• 1 4-5 pound chicken, quartered
• 3-4 russet potatoes (about 2.5 pounds), peeled, quartered, lengthwise
• 4 large garlic cloves, halved
• 1 cup canned low-salt chicken broth
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano, crumbled – perhaps slightly more
• Lemon wedges, for serving

Preheat oven to 375°F. Arrange chicken (skin side up), potatoes, and garlic in large roasting pan. Place at least one half of a garlic clove under chicken pieces, if possible.  Season with salt and pepper.  Pour broth over.  Whisk olive oil, lemon juice and oregano to combine.  Pour evenly over chicken and potatoes.

Bake until chicken is cooked through and golden brown and potatoes are tender, basting every 20 minutes with pan juices, about 1 hour 5 minutes.  Tent with aluminum foil, bake for another 10 minutes.  Serve with lemon wedges.  If potatoes are not browned, remove chicken and roast at 425 until cooked, up to 20 minutes more.

Serve with something green and make yourself a nice homecooked meal

Chicken Riggies

Update 12/24/2018: after making this dish again from my own recipe, I have realized that I am now a bit smarter about the process. So I updated to remove a couple of unnecessary ingredients and fix the method to be better all around.

Since the dawn of homo sapiens, when we first stood tall, emerged from our caves, and embarked on the great human experiment, we have begun to seek the answers to the great questions in life.  "Why are we here?  Do we have a purpose in life?  And what, really, is a riggie?"

Well, at long last one of these questions can be answered.  A riggie, coming from the Italian word "rigatoni", which in turn translates as "tube of extreme deliciousness" in a language I have not yet heard of, is a dish coming from the Utica / Rome area of upstate New York.  Only there would you take a tomato cream sauce, not unlike a vodka tomato sauce, but instead add both sweet and hot peppers, as if you were about to slather this stuff onto a cheesesteak or a hotdog, before going ahead and throwing in a few select proteins to toss with your pasta as originally planned.  The first time I encountered this dish was in Lansing, NY at Rogue's Harbor brewing company, who serves this under a section of NY state specialties.  I wish I could personally extend my thanks to the great man or woman who, on what must have been a very cold, somewhat alcohol-fueled night, decided to turn an otherwise classy, rich dish into a slightly less classy yet unbelievably satisfying assault on the senses.  Sweet, tart, velvety, warm, and hearty - a perfect meal for pulling the kids out of the snow, sloshing into wooden bowls, and mowing through by a roaring fire while you warm your bones.

I tried this dish from a recipe I dug up online few years ago with limited success - things just didn't come together, and the flavors weren't right.  The sauce broke, it wasn't the right mouthfeel, and it just lacked that well-rounded flavor that I was expecting.  But now, after a few more years of cooking and recognizing some flaws in the original recipe, I believe I have tweaked it into something altogether better, maybe suitable for entering into "Riggiefest", which I swear I am not making up.

Chicken Riggies
from various sources, fused together by me

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 tablespoons minced shallot (3 medium) or 1 small onion, minced
• 1.5 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast meat
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 (4 ounce) jar sweet red peppers or cherry peppers, drained and julienned
• 3-4 ounce jar hot banana peppers or cherry peppers, drained
• 1/2 cup fresh tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp dry sherry
• 10 pepperoni
• 4 ounces heavy cream
• 8 ounces uncooked rigatoni pasta
• Grated parmesan (optional), for plating
• Minced parsley (optional), for plating

Prep your setup.  Get the shallots and garlic minced and together in a small bowl.  Go for shallots instead of onions - live the dream.  It does make a lot of difference.  Cube the chicken into bite-sized pieces, about 1" to a side.  Not so small that they won't hold up in what is essentially a stew, and not so large that you have huge hunks of flesh floating around in there.  Chop up your peppers, which should be equal parts sweet and hot (hence the bold to differentiate above).  You could use roasted red peppers, but I prefer sweet cherry peppers.  For the hot, what I originally had and still prefer most is hot banana pepper rings, although you could use hot cherry here and roasted red for the sweet.  Whatever suits your taste, but keep the ratios the same.

In a large cast iron saucepan, heat oil and melt butter over medium heat.  At same time, start boiling water for your rigatoni. Add the garlic and shallots to the pan and saute until soft, then add the chicken, season with salt and pepper to taste, and saute for 8 to 10 minutes, or until halfway cooked. Don't brown the meat, just keep stirring until it's no longer pink.

Add peppers and stir in tomato sauce, reduce heat to low and simmer about 10 minutes. Now start cooking your rigatoni.  Back in the main pan, add the sherry and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Add the pepperoni and the heavy cream, and cook for 5 minutes. Do not use anything lighter than 'light' whipping cream - no half-and-half, no whole milk mixed with cream, nothing like that.  If you try to add anything but actual cream, this sauce will break, forming little fat bubbles separated from a watery mess.  So don't think that you can come up with a low-fat substitute for this - I've already tried, plus I cut the fat down in the first step, which originally called for double the amount of oil and butter.

When the pasta is just barely al dente, if not slightly before, set aside about a cup of the cooking water, drain the pasta, and immediately toss it into the sauce. Toss this together to finish cooking the pasta for 1-2 minutes in the sauce, adding in a few tablespoons of the reserved rigatoni cooking water to thicken and help the sauce cling to the pasta. Feel free to add more of the water if the sauce is still too thick, but not so much that it will become loose again.

After adding the cornstarch, observe how thick this is.  This picture from an earlier attempt.

To serve, plate into bowls, possibly with shredded parmesan, and top with finely minced parsley.  I took mine plain.  Try to find something healthy as a side, like a salad or something green.