Bagels version 0.3

phil November 27, 2012

Wow, a lot has changed since my last try at making bagels.  My version 0.2 post was more than a year ago!  (Also see the sad version 0.1)

What’s different this time around?

– I used a sourdough starter instead of conventional active-dry yeast.

– I now use a Kitchenaid stand mixer instead of kneading by hand.  Much easier, especially with a dry dough like bagel dough.  (Shout out to Angry Man Eats for making the stand mixer happen.  The blender and mixer still live together.)

– I did the recipe by weight and used a 55% hydration ratio.

– I left the bagels to proof for 24 hours in the fridge.  The 24 hours was mostly out of convenience – I couldn’t bake until then.  I don’t think I had them proof at all last time.

– I had poppy seeds and caraway seeds this time around

 

How’d they turn out?

– The crust was a bit crispier than last time.  I’m not sure the cause.. will have to do some research.  Baking Bread 101 says it’s because there wasn’t enough steam in the oven, but I did bake over a pan of water.  Then again, maybe it was crispy because I ate the bagel 5 minutes after I took it out of the oven.  The bagels were much less crispy and quite a bit chewier the next day.

– Also, the crust in the center of the bagel tore.  I am not sure what caused this either, other than the crust couldn’t expand as fast as the oven spring wanted it to.  Perhaps I could bake at a lower temperature to stop the crust from forming so soon.  Or maybe I boiled for too long?  Sobachatina’s answer on Stack Exchange has some good tips.  I can’t really slash the bagels though.

– The bagels were much smoother than last time.  I think this was due to the fact that I actually proofed them and probably did a better job kneading. . or at least the mixer did a better job.

– They tasted great and the torn (and crispy) crust doesn’t really bother me.

Recipe

For anyone who is interested (and since I typed this up for Sean anyways), here is what I did:

– Refreshed starter for 2 cycles – I hadn’t baked in 3-4 weeks, I think, so it needed some love.  S
– Mixed ingredients, kneaded in kitchenaid stand mixer:
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– I set the dough out to rise overnight (about 8h) at room temperature (about 65F).  In the morning, the dough hadn’t risen much – it spread out a bunch though and increased in volume by  maybe 75%.   I figured that this might happen since I used such a large quantity of starter.
– Formed dough into balls
– Proofed in fridge, covered, for about 12 hours
– Put holes in the balls, stretched them to get the bagel shape
– Boiled each bagel in a pan with ~1 inch of water and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar for 1 minute on each side
– Added toppings
– Baked at 450F for 25 minutes, uncovered, with a pan of water underneath the bagel pan

Steer Butchery Competition at Eat Real Festival 2012

phil November 12, 2012

The stage was in a slightly different spot on the green at Jack  London Square, but the crowd showed up just the same for Eat Real Festival’s 2012 Flying Knives Steer Butchery Competition.   The competitors were familiar, but with some changes: The defending-champion Yedra brothers, formerly of Marin Sun Farms  are now working for the BN Ranch team.  Dave the Butcher, Josh Kleinsmith and Adam Tiberio all joined forces once again, and the Butcher’s Guild put together a formidable team.

 

The crowd gathers, waiting for the start of the competition.  A woman holds a sign: “Viva Los Campeones Los Hermanos Yedra”

A Butcher’s Guild team member is representing Oakland:

Trophies for the 2012 champions-to-be:

The Yedra brothers hoist a hindquarter onto the hook.  These weigh about 200lb.

A Butcher’s Guild competitor rocks the Oaklandish STAY sticker on his knife sheath / scabbard.  Yeah Oakland!

Katy Quinn starts cutting with the saw:

The Yedra brothers start getting to work as well:

At one point, a festival attendee started resting his arms on the butcher’s table and was interfering with the competition.  Katy Quinn politely asked him to give them some space:

Oscar Yedra:

Adam Tiberio:

Josh Kleinsmith:

The crowd is having a good time:

The work of the Yedra Brothers:

The Butcher’s Guild table: (Hat from Zingerman’s Cornman Farms in Dexter, Michigan)

Yedra brothers:

Dave the Butcher of Marina Meats was mic’ed up and performed the dual roles of commentator and butcher:

Dave the Butcher laughs at a comment from Anya while cutting away:

The Yedra Brothers had quite a fan club:

And they came well-prepared.  Labels and kale.

Cuts of beef, labeled and on display by the Yedra Brothers:

Impressive.

The Butcher’s Guild team celebrates after breaking down the hindquarter:

Anya Fernald hands the microphone to Oscar Yedra to talk about what his team did:

Katy Quinn enjoys a well deserved beer:

The Yedra Brothers were declared champions, once again.  This was their 4th win in a row.

Removing a stuck filter from a lens that has been dropped

phil November 3, 2012
(image courtesy of mr brown on flickr. mine is white.)

We went on a mini-bike tour last weekend and I decided to take my big, honking 5D along for the ride.   I placed the camera in my Ortlieb Ultimate 5 Handlebar bag and everything worked out well.. until I decided to take the bag off of the bike and walk around.

 

The strap clips into place on the side of the bag.  I clipped the strap onto the bag until it clicked on both sides and our group sat down for some well deserved beers after a long day of riding.

 

As we were leaving the bar, I got up and took a few steps.  The bag fell as the strap somehow had come off of the clip.  I didn’t think anything of it at the time but got a lot of weird stares the next time I took my camera out to take some photos.  The lens filter had cracked (I am so glad I had one) and the edge was dented so that I couldn’t remove it.  It was stuck.  I had a little bit of neoprene padding in the Ortlieb bag, but apparently that wasn’t enough.

 

I have mixed feelings about the bag, by the way.  It’s pretty well constructed like any ortlieb bag, but it rattles and doesn’t work well with the jumble of brake and shifter cables that are in front of the handlebars.. but that is for another blog post.

Anyways, here’s the guide:

How to remove a stuck lens filter from a lens that has been dropped:

 

I was a little unhappy as I realized it would mess up my photos for a while, but I was glad to see that the lens itself had not been damaged, even though the filter ring was bent in.   I’ve had lenses break before when the camera was dropped (a sadly retired Sigma 20mm f.1.8 and a repaired and still quite useful Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-5.6).  The lens here is the Canon 24mm f/1.4 Mark I, but these steps should work for almost any lens.

I was also glad that the camera itself wasn’t damaged, of course.

I ordered new filters from KEH and when they arrived, I did the following.  The standard internet “I’m not responsible for anything that goes wrong” disclaimer applies, of course!  If you don’t want to do this yourself, there are shops that will do so for you.

Step 1: Try to unscrew the filter

This is an obvious step, but if you can get the filter off the normal way, by all means try to do so.  If the threads or filter ring is bent, then it will be really hard (and quite damaging) to unscrew the filter as the threads will no longer be able to move in a helical pattern.  It’ll require too much force to turn the filter ring and you will strip the threads of the filter ring or the lens.  This will probably make it hard to use a new filter in the future if you do manage to get the broken one off.

Step 2: Remove the filter glass

Sometimes when the filter shatters, the glass falls out on its own.  In my case, the filter cracked, but not enough for the glass to fall out of the filter ring.  This meant I had to find another way to remove it.  I chose a hacksaw, but I have used a rotary tool (like a dremel) with a cutoff wheel before with good results.

 

The filter ring is made of aluminum and is fairly soft and easy to cut.  I cut a notch in the filter ring til it was near the lens.  The filter is already trashed, so don’t feel bad hacking it to bits.  Just be careful not to damage the lens body or the lens elements.  I chose to use a hacksaw this time because it’d give me a bit more control.

The notch creates a weak point in the ring, and sometimes you can give the filter a twist with a pair of pliers (generally you want to bend it inward, towards the center of the lens and away from the lens threads.  I tried this, but I still had broken glass in the way.  If glass has already come out then you can move on to the next step.

I decided to cut another notch in the filter ring so that I could bend the ring enough to set the shards of glass free.

Eventually, I was able to bend the filter ring at an angle so that it no longer captured the glass.

Step 3: Bend filter ring inward

Bending the filter inward releases the bent portion of the filter ring from the lens filter thread.

I removed two chunks of glass and then used a pair of pliers to bend the filter ring inwards.  It didn’t take much bending for the filter to come out. I didn’t have to even unscrew it.

Step 4: Clean the lens

There will probably be tons of little aluminum filings and pieces of glass on the face of the lens.  I used compressed air to get all of the particles out.  Note: Some say not to do this as it can damage the coating on the lens element surface.  I don’t think this was a problem for me, but you may want to try using a wet tissue instead.

Step 5: Install the new filter

The new filter went on without a problem, which is a good sign – the lens threads were not damaged.  Or at least they weren’t damaged enough for it to be noticeably hard to twist on a new filter.  The previous filter protected my lens the last 4 or 5 years.  I hope this one lasts even longer.

Eat Real Festival 2012 (sans Steer Butchery)

phil October 17, 2012

Oh hey!  Last month was Oakland’s annual Eat Real Festival and I returned to take pictures on September 22nd.  I will put up photos from the Flying knives steer butchery competition in a separate post.

Miss Pearl’s Jam House led a demonstration and discussion titled “Water to Table”.  This is a tuna.

Chef Eddie Blyden freaks out a local child with a giant fish:

The festival featured multiple beer pouring stations.  This one featured a refrigerated storage container filled with kegs.  Here, an Eat Real Festival volunteer poses for the camera after completing a pour:

Kids customized t-shirts at the new Kids’ Zone:

5733/LOAKal was there to represent:

Ice cream from Berkeley’s famous Ici, located in the wonderful Elmwood district:

Judges are a little critical of one entry in the Bare Bones BBQ Competition:

Festival-goers season their corn:

Homebrew winner.  Homebrew winner.  Homebrew winner:

Jamboree contest entries featured Ollalie Berry Jam, Tangerine Lemon Jelly, Lemon Orange Marmalade and Kumquat Chutney:

The start of a beautiful thai fruit carving:

Gorgeous autumn sun floods through Jack London Square:

A helper for Jack London Square newcomer, Forge Pizza takes orders:

American flags over Jack London Square:

Ecuador – Galapagos Part 3b

phil October 3, 2012

These photos are from day 3 of our Galapagos trip back in June.  I didn’t realize I had more photos from the same day, so here is Part 3b.

In the late afternoon, we made our way back onto Espanola island to see boobies and albatrosses.

It was teeming with life and the sounds of life.. though it was very interesting to me that there was not much biodiversity.  But there were large populations of the few species that was saw.  Or maybe that was just my impression as this was in direct contrast to our experience in the Ecuadorian Amazon – where there is incredible biodiversity but only a small number of each plant or animal in any given area.

–

We were immediately greeted by boobies.  This male nazca booby was making clicking sounds in an attempt to attract a mate.

after maybe a 10 minute walk, we came upon the breeding area of the waved albatross (Phoebastria irrorata) or the galapagos albatross.

Some of them were nesting, sitting on eggs.

Our guide explained that the albatross is very heavy for a bird and has a giant wingspan, which makes it a super-efficient glider but clumsy when traveling at a low speed.

They spend most of their lives flying, and are generally on land only to breed.

Here’s a photo of some of our tour group who walked ahead while I stared at the giant birds.

The waved albatrosses don’t fly well at low speeds and thus have a hard time landing.  We watched the same birds circle the landing area a number of times and finally make an attempt to land, only to abort the landing at the very last moment.  Here’s one lowering its landing gear:

And this photo shows off their giant wingspan:

It was neat that a bird could look so majestic and goofy at the same time.  We saw a couple of birds perform their complex courtship, which involves a lot of walking in circles and clacking of beaks.  They mate for life.

As we walked back to the dock and boarded our panga, we were treated to a beautiful sunset:

and we had dinner and relaxed.

Eat Real Fest 2010 Part 4

phil September 26, 2012

— update: 09/26/12 – I realized that I had never posted these.  From the archives, this is Eat Real Festival 2010.

 

Crowds of people at Eat Real Fest 2010

Flag and palm trees above Jack London Square

eat real festival balloon against the blue skies of oakland: “our pitmaster can smoke your honor student” – Jim N Nick’s BBQ

Jenni and the ever-photogenic Sputnik by Ritual Coffee Roasters:Jenni

The Yedra Brothers win again – at the 2012 Flying Knives Steer Butchery at Eat Real

phil September 23, 2012

The Yedra Brothers win for the fourth time in a row at the 2012 Eat Real Festival Flying Knives Steer Butchery.  Oscar Yedra of BN Ranch  shakes hands with Katy Quinn of the Butcher’s Guild after the steer butchery competition is over, with cuts of beef on trays in the background. More to come as I process the photos.  Follow me on twitter or like this site on facebook for updates as I post them.