Recipe: Pretzels

Video available at: http://youtu.be/KTGjIvGEU08

 

Ingredients
2 tbsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp softened butter
1 heaping tbsp salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 cups warm water
5 1/2 cups AP flour (divided roughly in half)

For soaking:
5 cups water
1/4 cup food grade lye.

Add all ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer except for the flour. Allow 15 minutes for the yeast to bloom. Add half of the flour and mix in a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. (you can do this by hand too, but probably don't want to.) As the dough comes togater, slowly add the remaining flour. Once dough has come togather and has a smooth surface, allow to rise for 30 minutes (cover with a damp towel).

After the dough has risen, punch it down and transfer to a work surface. Using a pizza cutter, dough scraper, or other tool of your choosing, cut a strip of dough off and roll out until you have a two foot long strand. (If you have too little dough to get it that long, just make a smaller pretzel) Hold the dough at both ends so it forms a U shape. Make one full twist a little more than half way up and fole over to make a pretzel shap. Repeat until all dough has been used. (Hint: cover the ball of dough with a damp towel to prevent it from drying out) Allow to rise for 15 minutes on the counter and then move to the refridgerator for at least an hour. A longer time in the refridgerator will helf the yeast flavors more fully develop, but try not to wait more than 24 hours to proceed to the next step.

Done protective gloves and goggles. CAREFULLY add lye to the 5 cups of water in a non-reactive vessel and stir until completely disolved. Before baking, submerge pretzels one at a time for 30 seconds each. Apply salt or other seasoning and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. The lye will break down in the oven, yeilding safe to eat pretzels.

Yeilds 8 to 12 pretzels.

Recipe: Chicken Soup

1 whole fryer chicken (3.5 to 4.5 lbs)4 carrots, sliced
4 stalks celery, sliced
1 onion, diced
3 bay leaves
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp thyme leaves
1 tbsp salt
8 cups water.
4 cups uncooked egg noodles

Add all ingredients except the noodles to a crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. Remove chicken and add noodles. Set crock pot to high and cook an additional 30 minutes. Shread the chicken meat and return to crock pot. Allow meat to warm back up and serve. Gosh, that was easy, wasn't it?

Allthough egg noddles are the most familiar, you can use any form of noodle including gluten free vairents. If using rice, add two cups of uncooked long grain rice in lieu of noodles.

Recipe: Fish and Chips

For the chips:
4 potatoes

For the batter:
2 cups AP flour (gluten free: 2 cups rice flour)
1 tbsp baking powder (gluten free: also add .5 tbsp baking soda)
1 tsp salt
1 12 oz bottle of beer (gluten free: 1.5 cups club soda)

1.5 lbs firm flesh white fish (cod, tilapia, etc)

1 gallon of oil for frying (canola, peanut, corn, etc)

Make the batter by combining all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix to the consistency of pancake batter and refridgerate at least 15 minutes, but no more than an hour.

White the batter is chilling, make the chips. Cut potatoes into your favorite shape and soak in water to remove excess starch. Dry well and fry for 4 to 5 minutes in 325 degree oil. Work in small batches. After all fries have been cooked, crank the oil to 375 and refry to potatoes for 4 to 5 minutes. Drain on paper towles (or a brown paper bag) and hold in a warm over.

Cut fish into workable peices and coat in batter. Fry for 3 to 5 minutes in 350 degree oil, until crust is golden brown and fish has been cooked throuogh (will depend on what kind of fish and how much you fry at once)