varina Food Journal

(Promoted from the Diaries - K)

Forgive the unimaginative title, and the fact that I have no pictures of food. I spent a whirlwind two days in Dublin, and managed to get hardly any pictures. Which is too bad since it was gray and drizzly all week and I've always felt green things look especially green, almost luminous, in that weather (It's worth mentioning here that I was born in Washington). In any case, I had some excellent food in Dublin and some that I can only describe as "what globalization hath wrought", much of that from what the guidebooks call "self-catering" and what I call "tired, broke, desperation".

In any case, starting with the excellent: With much fear and trepidation I tried the restaurant recommended in a Bon Apetit article on "Euro Bargains", Ely HQ, and I have to say, I was just wrong to approach with fear and trepidation, bon apetit was just right. That's all there is too it. This lovely restaurant is tucked into a narrow little slot about two blocks away from St. Stephan's Green so it's easy to get to (or as easy as anything is when trying to navigate the Dublin bus system, which is fast, reliable, and requires several years of study to use with success). You sit down and are handed a one page menu and five page wine list. Nice. I ordered venison medallions with new potato wedges. The potatoes were, it has to be said, a little salty, but I found myself not caring because it was just so profoundly good. The venison was perfectly seared but pink and bloody just beyond the crust, nestled on soft, almost caramelized onions and swimming in a wine reduction pan sauce that, according to my hastily scrawled notes was simply, "brilliant!". I may or may not have licked the plate. Sources will not confirm. I spent a total of about 30 Euros on the meal including tip (I was not sure if that was necessary) which is reasonable for a really good meal, and I do think it was a good deal, even if not out and out cheap. If you want to go though, go at lunch, their dinner menu is close to twice that.
The other really excellent meal I had was at the cafeteria at Marks and Spencer. Seriously. I'm not entirely sure how British food got such a bad reputation, but I think it was from someone who willfully ignored afternoon tea. Technically I had brunch at M&S, but since that consisted of a devon scone, apple cake (the filled sponge cake kind), and a pot of Earl Grey I think it counts as a tea, culinary speaking. I can't say enough about the scones. They were the kind of magical baked good that proves the goodness of simple food done right (especially with strawberry jam). They were so good I found myself not even caring that there was no clotted cream in sight. The tea was perfectly done, and here's the cool part, by them. I am always a little annoyed about the do it yourself tea served in even nice places in the US. They either put leaves in it or a nasty bag. I am a firm believer that tea should only steep for so long, so when it's done, you have to remove it from the leave then, and only then, so if you're served a pot of tea with leaves you only get one good pour. At M&S they brew fresh tea periodically and keep it in giant, hot urns so it comes to you brewed perfectly, because frankly if I'm going to spend 3 dollars for a pot of tea with maybe 25 cents worth of leaves in it I want someone else to do the work. It's called value added people. The cake was also lovely, appley and perfectly spiced with thick buttercream caramel frosting between the layers and on top (but not the sides) and dusted with confectioner's sugar. Not a well balanced meal, and it did serve as my lunch (I had a lot of luck with lunch) so shame on me I suppose. Oh well.

As far as the bad, I have three words for you: hoisin duck wrap. I don't know what I was thinking. I was at a convenience store (Spar, if you're interested), hungry, tired, and a long walk from the nearest decent pub and I saw this and thought "My what a zesty and intriguing combination", hoisin "duck" wrapped with roasted bell peppers, arugula, and scallion in a whole wheat tortilla. As I mentioned earlier: what globalization hath wrought. I'm sure it is obvious to you that the duck only faintly resembled a once buoyant water fowl and really the same could be said for every other ingredient (although why arugula would resemble a water fowl is anyone's guess). I ate the whole thing. I was that hungry and tired.

As far as ugly we have the Irish breakfast. Consisting of sausage, bacon, tomatoes, eggs, black pudding, white pudding, brown bread with irish butter (yum!), and some potatoes it's substantially ugly and absurdly good, not that I can claim to have eaten the whole thing.

When I was nearing the end of my time at university in small town Western Pennsylvania I was fond of saying that the only thing I'd miss about Western Pennsylvania is the Pierogies. Now, I have to say that isn't true, but this should in no way downplay my love of the true pierogie, which is so ubiquitous in Western PA and so practically impossible to find anywhere else. I've thought about making them before, but it seemed like way too much work, and I hate rolling out pastry. Then I got this wonderful Soviet cookbook (and yes, I was surprised to be using wonderful in conjunction with Soviet cookbook, but wonderful it is), Please to the Table, and she talks about the tradition of making massive quantities of vareniki (pierogie in Polish) and freezing them for when friends drop by unannounced, or for dinner parties when guests bring along a few friends. It had somehow never before occurred to me, despite that fact that I so often bought frozen pierogies when I lived in PA, that I could make far more than I planned to eat at one time and just freeze them. So even though making pierogies is a lot of work, if I can get several meals/side dishes out of it's not that much work per meal. Or anyway that's what I told myself...

I decided to make a double batch and to use the potato/ cheddar filling as that was always my very favorite. Overall I'd have to say that while I can see why a legion of old Russian Orthodox church ladies is frequently seen as de riguer for large pierogie making session, they weren't that hard to make. The Pierogie dough is much more elastic and forgiving than standard pie dough. In fact, it really wasn't difficult at all, merely time consuming, and the dough didn't even half fill my Kitchen-Aid bowl, so the appropriate conclusion I think, is quadruple the recipe invite over a friend or two, preferably one that has plenty of good gossip to share, getting to filling and divide the spoils.* Oh, and the most important thing is that these pierogies, sorry -- vareniki, are definately good. Probably among the best I have ever had, and I've been to a Russian Orthodox food festival, so that is, I assure you, high praise indeed. To the Recipe:

Potato Vareniki, adapted from Please to the Table by Anya von Bremzen and John Welchman (all mistakes are almost certainly my own, oh and this is a doubling of the recipe presented in the book)
yeilds about 100 vereniki
Potato Filling:
1/2 C (1 stick) butter
1 1/2-2 medium-sized onion, finely chopped
5-6 large russet potatoes
1/2 cup sour cream or creme fraiche [recipie actually calls for farmer's cheese, but I don't have that and this was good so do what you feel)
4 onces milds cheddar cheese or colby
salt and fresh black pepper to taste

Bake potatoes at 400 degrees F for 45-75 minutes, or until easily poked with a knife. Then scoop innards into a bowl and mash roughly
Melt butter over medium heat and sauté onions until nicely browned (about 15 minutes), take off heat and allow to cool. Meanwhile, mix cheese and cream into potatoes, when onions have slightly cooled add them, then season to taste.

Vareniki
4 C all purpose flour
1 t salt
4 large egg yolks
2 T oil
3/4-1 C water

the book called for this to be brought together in a food processor but I hate making dough in a food processor, I don't know why, so I did it in a Kitchen-Aid. To do so, combine flour and salt in work bowl with dough hook attached. While hook is turning, pour in yolks 1 at a time alternating with 1/2 T oil. Then slowly incorporate water, stopping occasionally to scape down sides (it did occur to me that the paddle attachment would probably have been easier), until it comes together into a smooth, but not at all wet, dough. It should be moister than pie dough, more like bread dough really. Knead for 2 minutes than cover with a towel and allow to rest.

Turn onto well floured surface and divide into 4 even pieces. Be sure to have on hand, your dough, a biscuit cutter, your filling, a fork, and a cookie sheet lined with parchment or well greased, and enough space in your freezer cleared to hold same. If you can manage to get a nearly empty deep freeze I found that extremely helpful. My set-up looked like this:

and was just a few church ladies shy of perfect
Now, roll out one of the 4 piece as thin as you can/ feel like (around 1/16 of a inch is good), then cut into rounds with the aforementioned biscuit cutter, to the size you like, then fill as full as you can (sure that sounds imprecise, but try it, it isn't). I think I got around a tablespoon of filling per round. the best way is to place a round of dough in your left hand, mound the filling into roughly the middle, but more ovular, then pinch sides together, forming into a half-moon, lay on your work surface then press the tines of your fork all around the edge of the pierogi, then transfer to cookie sheet and do a hundred more times (oh, and if you can't rope a friend into helping, you'll need some great tunes). so now, toss what you aren't using now in the freezer, in a few hours take them off the cookie sheets and put into heavy duty zip top bags.

However, you don't want to spend two hours making pierogies and not even eat them, I mean what are you, a squirrel? So, you have two basic prep options, you could boil them in well-salted water for a few minutes and they'd be, well, fine, or you could do what true Pittsburghers do and melt a few tablespoons of butter in a large heavy bottomed skillet, add about a handful of sliced vidalia onions and cook on med or medium low until brown(this step can be skipped, but is really good) then toss in about 9-12 peirogies and cook over medium for about 2-3 minutes per side until golden brown.** You could also deep fry them, but that seems like madness even to me . Whatever way you cook them, add a few minutes cooking time when rescuing from the deep (no need to de-frost) and serve with sour cream. Accept no substitutes.

*Incidentally this is also my advice for jam making, pickling, and pie baking at the peak of the relevant fruit season.
** Okay, real Pittsburghers only cook them until they are slightly crisp and starting to get golden spots, but I think they are better darker and crispier, but then I'm southern, not a Pittsburgher

I was recently reading Peter Mayle's excellent French Lessons and I came across a description of a dish so fantastic I knew I had to have it, and the book even provided a fairly detailed description of how to go about making it. In the book, Mayle was visiting the chicken festival in Bresse, which apparently has the world's only AOC chicken; a chicken so lush and tender it could only be descried as "unctuous". While there they had a dish called Poulet de Bresse á la créme that is apparently made comme ça:

First into the pan goes a generous knob of butter, followed by chicken breasts and legs, a large onion cut into quarters, a dozen or so champingnons des paris, a couple of cloves of garlic en chemise, crushed but not peeled, and a bouquet garni of herbs. When the color of the chicken has turned a deep gold, a large glass of white wine is poured into the pan and allowed to reduce until a half a litre of créme fraîche is added the bird is cooked for 30 minutes, the sauce is strained through a fine sieve, the dish is seasoned to taste, and there you have it.

Did I mention this quote was from their waitress? I think it adds something to it.

In any case, I attempted a recreation of this tonight. Obviously I did not have a poulet de Bresse (or champingnons de paris, but I figured creminis will do), but a Tyson broiler/fryer, so it's not as good of course, but even with such a vulgar chicken this is a truly lovely dish, well worth making some créme fraîche for*. I decided that a tablespoon or so is approximately a "generous knob", and that a couple of cloves is 4, minimum (obviously a couple is merely an informal way of saying two, but I like garlic). I also decided that is should be cooked over medium heat, and that the wine should be reduced by half and the chicken should be cooked to an internal temp of at least 165 F before adding the créme fraîche, so that the time it braises it will be almost done and just tenderizing.

It came out just lovely, especially the sauce. If you do try this (and I definitely recommend doing so) be sure and serve with lots of bread or fresh biscuits to soak up the sauce (or, you know, just lick the plate). I will say that the breasts were much better than the thighs, which is usually the opposite of my preference, and unless you're having a dinner party I can't see a reason to strain the sauce, just pull out the bouquet garni (which I always put in a tea ball, it's much makes it easier). My overall conclusion is that French Lessons needed more near recipes and that French waitresses should always be questioned about delicious food. Perhaps not the most astounding of conclusions, but what the heck, anytime I eat chicken without thinking "this is the most boring and over used food animal on earth" is a good time.

*Créme fraîche is basically just yogurt made out of cream instead of milk. Just heat up a pint of cream to 108-112 degrees F (technically you should heat to boiling and let cool to 110, but I figure with a fresh opened pint that shouldn't be necessary since it was pasteurized right before bottling), mix in 4 T yogurt or half a packet of yogurt starter and either pop into a yogurt maker, or in a tightly covered, sterile jar in a warm oven and culture for 6-8 hours. Then it's done. It's easy and approximately a fourth the price of buying créme fraîche in most American supermarkets.

This week I had my first experience inventing and testing a recipe to perfection. Don't get me wrong, I have combined different elements of a recipe, or whole recipes to make a new dish, and I have modified recipes until they are scarcely recognizable, but never before have I made a recipe practically from new cloth (as much as such a thing is possible while using classic methods, that is). However I felt compelled to do so this week because I really, really want to buy an over-priced electric kettle and so I am entering a contest to win a gift certificate to the store that sells it and so have to create a recipe featuring a fairly standard Taiwanese oolong. Since this tea is somewhat smoky and, um, dark (I need to work on my flavor descriptions) I thought is would be a good pairing with duck, after all oolong smoked duck is a classic, and delicious, Chinese dish. I was planning on brining the duck in oolong/ saline solution and roasting it, but Randalls didn't have any duck and its the only store within walking distance and my bike is in the shop, so I used Cornish Game hens instead. I think this was definitely one of those happy accidents because I had never before realized how good game hens can be, also since it came in a twin pack it was easier to put through multiple trials.

I decided to still brine it and, based on far too little internet research, to soak it for six hours. This produced a hen that was horrifyingly salty, and yet, under the salt, incredibly delicious. Next I soaked it for only 2 hours. This hen had the right amount of salt, but was otherwise flavorless. So I had a good think about the chemistry at work here. Brines work by osmotic action; the bird's cells try to equalize the amount of salt inside as the salt outside, so it stands to reason that if you use twice as much salt as you ultimately want in the bird then it shouldn't matter how long you brine it for. So, I reduced the salt from 2 tablespoons to two teaspoons, brined for 6 hours again, and this bird was just right. Supremely juicy and with dense layers of flavor, this hen demonstrated the best balance of long soak with the right amount of salt, and with a little baguette it is the perfect dinner for one or two.

So here is my final recipe, any critique on structure and wording would be appreciated.

Tea-Scented Game Hens ~ serves 1

Brine
~1 pt. dark oolong tea, brewed at double strength (with 5 t. tea leaves)
~2 t. sea salt
~3 whole cloves garlic, smashed lightly and peeled
~15-20 black peppercorns
~5 sprigs parsley
~ 2 sprigs thyme

Mix together all ingredients while tea is still warm then allow to cool to room temperature.

1 Game hen, fully defrosted

Now, place the bird inside a small plastic container or a very sturdy 1 qt zip lock bag, then pour the weak brine over the entire bird. Make sure it is fully submerged, if using a plastic container this may require weighing it down, in a plastic bag simply remove all the air and place in a bowl or pan to catch any drips.
Place in the fridge and allow to marinate around 6 hours, according to the basic principles of biology, no more than one teaspoon salt will infuse into the bird, so marinating longer, such as overnight or over the course of a workday (since who eats cornish game hen for breakfast) should result in no ill effect, but I have not tested this and can’t guarantee the result.

45 min-1 hour prior to cooking pre-heat oven with one aluminum foil covered brick inside to 500 F.
Place 8-10 in cast ion skillet over medium heat
Drain brine off hen, remove any herbs or spices and pat dry. Remove the spine by placing the bird breast side down on a cutting board. Using scissors or poultry shears, cut from the neck to the tailbone to remove the backbone. You will then be able to see the inside of the bird. Make a small slit in the cartilage at the base of the breastbone to reveal the keel bone. Grab the bird with both hands on the ribs and open up like a book, facing down towards the cutting board. Remove the keel bone.

Add 2 T olive oil to pan, heat, then add bird, cover with pre-heated brick. Allow to cook on stove top for 5 minutes, then place a digital probe thermometer deep within the thickest part of the thigh meat, remove to oven and bake until temperature hits 175 degrees Fahrenheit, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from skillet and rest for 5 minutes

In that time you can make an excellent side dish by placing skillet back over medium heat, whisking in 2 T. white wine, and 1 T. Dijon mustard, combine throughly then stir in medium hardy greens such as, chard, broccoli rabe, or mature spinach, heat until wilted, then plate with bird.
Here is the beautiful Red Chard I used before it is thrown in the pot (obviously this is just gratuitous food porn, but isn't it beautiful)

To double recipe: increase brine ingredients by 50%, use two hens (obviously), and cook in a 14 in skillet. Double all ingredients for dressed greens.

The Final Result:

I must admit the parts that I borrowed from others. I used the hen cooking method from Alton Brown's "Fowl Territory", and of course it's not like I invented brining or the idea that it is delicious on poultry.

I have to say I am usually a little overly cautious about inventing things in the kitchen. This experience has definitely taught me to trust my instincts, the whims of my supermarket, and the occasionally delicious scientific method and play with my food more often. Next I'm thinking butter cookies with oolong caramel, but I am pretty sure the caramel flavor would mask the more subtle smoky flavor of the oolong...

So, I hope I don't sound like a commercial for various products, but I have just discovered a few very excellent things and thought I would share.

I am kind of a tea-nut. Add the word "tea" to basically any food product and I'll try it (the most successful has to be Earl Grey cupcakes, but that's another post). I also love online shopping way too much, so I have basically bought from every online tea company out there. A long favorite has been Adagio, not so much for the quality of their teas, which is good, but because they sell all their teas in generous sample sizes so I can feed my obsession with trying new things without actually spending far too much money or having to rent storage for my tea. Anyway, when they e-mailed me about a fancy new feature of theirs, custom tea blends, I was intrigued. Basically you can mix three teas, determine the concentrations of each, give it a label and description and put it for sale on the open market, of course I doubt many people buy the blends of people they don't know, still it's a fun little feature. Since I find their line of flavored teas overly strong and a bit cloying, I mixed half irish breakfast tea with vanilla black and almond roobios (out of some random desire to diminish the caffeine content and have a burgundy-colored cup). Well, I just yesterday received my blend and I have to say it turned out just about perfectly, one of the best flavored teas I've ever had, probably because it is not largely flavored tea at all.

As well as being a fun little exercise this has gotten me thinking more about blending teas, how different tastes work together, and what makes the perfect tea. Since I mostly have loose tea I think I'll be mixing a lot more at home, next time with just different varieties of pure tea. I'll keep you posted on any real successes.

Well, now that tea is taken care of, onto the rest of breakfast. I've recently started reading the blog, Under the High Chair, which includes some of the best quality, practical home food I've seen on the web. Most of what you find tends towards mediocrity or extravagance, but this blog is by a chef taking time off to have kids and she makes great food that's practical for everyday in the home kitchen. Today for breakfast I made Cornmeal Cranberry muffins from her blog, which came out dense, tender, lightly sweet, and, uh, corny (in a good way). I love a little cornmeal in baked goods since it can help retain moisture and provides a dense, moist crumb; I also love things that only take only a few minutes and include stuff I always have on hand.

I mixed these muffins up wit my favorite new gadget. I have such a love/hate (or probably more love/guilt) relationship with new gadgets. I love new stuff but can't get over the guilt of taking up space and money with unnecessary things. However the dough whisk I recently bought from King Arthur flour makes me feel no guilt. It was relatively cheap, at least cheap for something so sturdy it will doubtless last forever, and is eminently useful. It mixed up my muffins quicker than any thing I have ever tried, allowing for perfect mixing with minimal gluten formation. It's also supposed to be good for yeast doughs, which i haven't tried yet, but it's great for anything mixed using the muffin method. Of course it's far from necessary, but every so often one must get something simply because it is more enjoyable.

So now I present to you, the near perfect breakfast:

(Promoted from the diaries - k)

So, I had two basic food quandaries. I have a really fantastic sourdough starter (I use the basic levain process in Daniel Leader's unbelievably fantastic Bread Alone ), which I realize is not exactly a horrible thing but it has to be fed at least once a week. So, I can either throw some starter out and feed it, or I can use it to make bread. Throwing it out makes me feel guilty but I am starting to get bored with just variations on basic bread. I mean, seriously, there are only so many Baguettes au Levain that you can eat before you start to think you need a new sourdough application. My other problem is that when going to what my Grandmother refers to as "That fancy Yankee school" I developed a taste for bagels. I mean real bagels that are dense and chewy with a dark thick crust, toasted with butter and slathered with cream cheese. I have since learned that while Yankees are not to be trusted with pecan pie or barbecue of any style, there are no good bagels in Texas. Okay, Einstein Bagels are okay, but there is only one of those in all of Houston and it is all the way across town. Sometimes I get desperate and buy a bagel at Kroger. Oy, it's just a roll with a hole in the middle. So, the obvious solution is sourdough bagels. Sourdough is a great flavor in a bagel and the denser texture of sourdough is perfect for bagels.

I decided to go with this recipe, although I didn't read it near carefully enough. It calls for yeast. In sourdough. That ain't right. So changes had to be made. Also i have no idea what clear flour was, forgot the sugar, am wholly opposed to weighing 12 grams of salt or 14 grams of malt syrup (which I also don't have or know what it is). The final problem I had was that the dough had all the flour it needed way before I was done putting in even close to the amount of flour that the recipe called for. I suspect that my starter wasn't at 90% hydration (whatever that means) or that using instant yeast compensated for the fact that they were too dry to get a good rise, I'm not sure. but that was way to much flour for the way I was making them (and that was even in a kitchen in Houston right before rain. I'm not sure about my starter, but my kitchen was definitely at 90% hydration). In fact this was how much flour I had leftover after the dough reached the right consistency.

So my recipe was more like this:
* 335 grams (12 oz) starter that is approximately the consistency of biscuit dough that has been fermenting overnight
* about a tablespoon agave nectar
* 1 tablespoon sea salt
* 359 grams (12.5 oz) water (as with all bread it is best to use bottled spring water, nothing fancy, I use Ozarka from the gallon jug, or HEB brand spring water, what's important is that it specifically say spring water as municipal tap water usually has trace amounts of chlorine that can inhibit yeast growth)
* 587 grams (20.5 oz) bread flour or all-purpose flour plus about 2-3 tablespoons wheat gluten flour. Only use unbleached flour, I like King Arthur brand

I apologize for any steps I might skip or oversimplify but I have been making bread since I was but a wee bairn (okay, 12) and do alot of this automatically. I strongly recommend Bread Alone if you are a novice bread baker, the site, A Year in Bread, is also really great.

Okay, first I scale the starter, preferably in the mixing bowl, then add the water and syrup/ agave nectar and stir until stater is dissolved. I use my kitchen-aid with the paddle attachment to add the first cup (about) of flour and the salt, mix in, then add about a third of the remaining flour. When that's incorporated add more flour about 1 cup at a time, switch from the paddle attachment to the dough hook whenever paddle becomes too gummed up and is no longer doing the job (usually about 2/3 of the way through). You could just use the hook throughout, but it will take a lot longer. If you are not sure when you have enough flour, it is always better for bread to be too moist than too dry. Bread that is too dry will not rise properly. And you can always add a little more when hand kneading.

I like to knead for about 5 minutes in the mixer, and then turn onto a floured work surface and knead for another 7-10 minutes. Remember, it is virtually impossible to over-knead and the great chewiness of bagels is from gluten with is formed from kneading. My mother always used to say knead until you can't stand it anymore, but I'm lazy and should really knead longer than that. Add more flour only if your dough is sticking horribly to your board and you are developing a dough mitt on your hand. I like to use this hybrid method because kneading all by hand take at least 15 minutes of hard work, but kneading all by machine means you don't get a feel for the dough and can't be completely sure that it's mixed consistently and has the right amount of moisture. Plus your hands will smell like sourdough all day, mmm. Okay, with that done, form it into a ball. Behold the perfect dough-ball!

not the best picture, but the dough is at the right consistency.

So now put the ball somewhere draft-free and between 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit to rise. I like this cheap clear plastic bucket I got at a garage sale. I fitted it with a rubber band that I can use to easily tell when it has doubled or whatever I want. Although honesty requires me to admit I stole that from Alton Brown. Since the final dough is supposed to be on the dense side, only wait until it is risen 50%, which should take 1 1/2-2 hours. If it takes more then there's something wrong with your starter.

pull out of container and deflate with your knuckles until is looks like uncooked foccacia (don't punch it, this is a myth perpetuated by the baker-industrial complex to ensure home bakers never have good bread), then fold into thirds, then thirds again, comme ça:

Then form into a log and cut it into 12 roughly equal pieces, form each piece into a tight little ball, cover with a damp cloth, and rest 20-30 minutes. Form into circles (I didn't actually do this well, so be inventive. In most cases rolling them into a snake and pinching the ends together worked, but I didn't pinch hard enough on some and they slightly un-rolled in the pot). Then cover and rest (1-1 1/2 hours), you rest to:

I made half of mine into everything bagels, so after a half an hour I got up to caramelize onions and garlic. This was a mistake. I should have only lightly sauteed the onions, since they were going back in the oven on top of the bagels. My everything bagels came out under-cooked with burnt onion on top.

After are the dough is almost finished resting, put a wide shallow pan (a 4 qt saute pan is perfect) filled with water and one tablespoon baking soda on to boil. Once boiling drop as many bagels as you can comfortably fit in your pan in, boil them, being sure to expose all sides to the boiling water, for about 20 seconds, although I usually left mine for a little longer, with no bad result. This is when a few of mine unraveled. Definitely remove them with a wire skimmer not tongs or you will have bagel fractures.

If you are making plain bagels, you may now pop them in a 400 degree pre-heated oven on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and bake for 20-30 minutes, until golden brown and delicious, if not, dip them in your intended topping first.

As mentioned I tried to make my favorite type, everything bagels, I sprinkled fennel seeds, garlic powder, and onion powder in the bottom of a pie plate, dipped the bagels, after boiling and cooling for a few seconds, then covered with caramelized onions and garlic:

As mentioned This didn't actually work so well. I think I should have sprinkled each seasoning on individually and cooked the onions and garlic less. However the plain bagels were the perfect expression of everything a bagel should be. Slightly crunchy bottom, dense chewy middle, and full-rich flavor. I'll be doing this again, and if anyone has any everything bagel related advice, please share, also if any of this requires clarifications