Monthly Archives: September 2010

Food

Bialys and Protein Flour

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I have never been a fan of the bagel. Ever since my grandfather told me the joke about the Brooklyn bakeries of the old days…one hot summer day a man goes in to place an order. He sees a guy in the back of the bakery, shirtless and covered with sweat, slapping dough balls against his chest before he sprinkles on onion and bread crumbs and then tosses them into a 700F degree oven. The customer says to the man at the register “That’s disgusting! So that is how you make the shape of a bialy?” The man at the register says “Yeah, that’s nothing. You should see how he makes the bagels!”

Seriously though, even the best Brooklyn bagel never left me as satisfied as the Bialy. The more I have read about the history of the Bialys, and their origins in Bialystok, Poland, the more convinced they are a great start to the day. They are unlike the bagel in that they are not boiled, they have no sugar and they use high protein flour.

The amount of protein in a flour influences the gluten produced, as explained by the Oregonian. High protein means better structural support as the bread rises, which allows the bialy to be light and airy on the inside while crispy on the outside.

Bialys also differ from bagels because they tend not to come in a million flavors. However I suspect the crazy flavor phenomenon of bagels was a late byproduct of their wide popularity. Blueberry bagels? Come on, that never ever would have happened in Brooklyn. Sesame yes, chocolate chip, no.

Here is the best recipe I have found so far for the Bialy; as soon as I find a brick oven that can go to 700F I will be taking my shirt off and making these.

Amount    Measure  Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  -------  --------------------------------
   6      cups     high protein flour
   3      cups     very cold water
   2      tbsp     non-iodized kosher coarse or sea salt
   1/2    oz       fresh bakers yeast -- I used dry instant
   
Topping
   1      med      sweet white onion. -- 1 c when finely chop
   2      tbsp     coarse bread crumbs (from bialys)
   3      tbsp     poppy seeds & a little garlic salt
                             
Another Topping
   1      Tbsp     oil
   1 1/2  tsp      poppy seeds
   1/3    C        onion & a little garlic powder or garlic salt -- minced
   1/2    Tsp      salt -- kosher

Prepare toppings 3-5 hours before needed. Peel and chop onion very 
fine. Mix 1 tbsp crumbs into onions and set aside, loosely covered. 
Reserve extra crumbs. After about 3 hours make sure mix has 
thickened to texture of loose wet sand. Can add more crumbs - 
waiting 10 minutes between each addition.

Mash yeast into 1/2 cup cold water. When dissolved, stir into 
remaining cold water.  Add 5 c high protein flour and salt  into 
bowl. Mix and slowly add flour only if mix is too sticky, or more 
water if needed.  Gather dough and place in large, unoiled glass or 
ceramic bowl. (Do not knead yet)  Cover loosely with towel and set in 
warm, draft free corner.  Let rise for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, or until 
double, or until an indentation made with finger springs back into place.

Knead 10-20 minutes. Shape into ball and place back into bowl, 
covering loosely with towel. Let rise in warm, draft free corner for 
1 1/2 hours until depression made with finger springs back into place.

Punch down dough, divide into 4 postions, roll each between palms 
into ropes that are about 2 inches in diameter.  From each rope, 
pinch off 3-4 pieces. Roll each gently into ball between lightly 
floured hands. Cover shaped rolls to prevent them from dying out as 
you work with remainder.  When all are formed, cover with kitchen 
towel and let them rest 45 minutes.

Slide baking stone onto shelves in lower third of oven and preheat 450.

To form center indentations, work with well floured hands and left 
each round of dough slightly off work surface and slip index and 
midddle fingers of both hands underneath, with both thumbs working on 
top. Press and lightly stretch center bottom dough, forming a well, 
not a hole, and leave aboaut 1 1/2" rim of unpressed dough.

When all are formed, add onion topping. If you are going to use 
poppy seeds, brush top of bialys with tiny bit of water so seeds will 
stick. Smear about a scant teaspoonful of mix over each bialy with 
fingers, being sure to get thin coating in well and around its top 
edge, spreading the well slightly again. Then sprinkle 1/2 tsp 
poppyseeds over each bialy..

Put on stone, leaving 1 inch between. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until 
bialys are golden brown
Sailing, Security

US Marines Defeat Pirate Ship

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The story in the BBC called “US Marines capture ship hijacked by pirates off Somalia” started to get me all excited about new methods of anti-piracy from the US military. Several things stood out as different from past anti-pirate exercises.

  1. Marines, not Special Forces or Commandos
  2. No shots fired
  3. Rapid response and conclusion

Then I read through to the real details and noticed that the pirates essentially gave up after the shipping company used a clever set of defenses to render their own ship useless.

The hijack began on Wednesday when pirates boarded the 8,000-tonne container ship, which flies the flag of Antigua.

But after searching the vessel for three hours, they were unable to locate the crew, according to the ship’s German owners, Quadrant.

The pirates then phoned the shipping company in Hamburg to ask where the crew were hidden.

“They were told the crew was on holiday,” said spokesman Juergen Salamon.

“They then asked how to switch the engines back on, but were told they were broken.”

The 11-man crew, comprising two Russians, two Poles, and seven Filipinos, spent the time hidden away in a small, cramped safe room whose entrance was not immediately obvious, Mr Salamon said.

I detect a tone of humor from the spokesman. This is very different from the tone I heard last year from shipping company security experts who were rattling on about the need for allowing weapons on merchant vessels.

Could this hiding technique, coupled with basic naval support and response, be a good interim solution? Disabling the ship and protecting the crew are smart priorities versus trying to calculate the risks of firefight. This instance certainly makes it look promising. I also noticed the BBC did not pick up on the success of new piracy courts setup by the UN in the Seychelles and Kenya.

Food, Security

Food Expiration Dates and Bolani

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I picked up a jar of Bolani Sweet Jalapeno condiment the other day. Instead of the usual expiration warning found on condiments I noticed the label said no refrigeration necessary and that it “keeps for multiple years” with natural preservatives. It has only Bell Pepper, Jalapeno, Pepper, Vinegar, Sugar and Spice. Impressive. My jar is almost empty after just a few days but it still got me thinking about food security again.

The fact is only baby food and infant formula are required by federal law to have expiration dates. Spoiled food is of course a risk but expiration date stamps seems to appear everywhere now in America. This is echoed by sites like Slashfood when they report ketchup will go bad in just one month! It then suggests that high levels of sugar, often found in ketchup, can help preserve a food. Well, which is it? Something doesn’t smell right.

The obvious first counter-point is that sugar does not preserve food; mold and yeast thrive on sugar. Second, restaurants leave their ketchup out for more than a month. How can the usual hamburger and fry shop offer room temperature condiment without starting riots in the streets? Further explanation comes from Answers.com

My name is mike and i have worked for the FDA for 10 years. Rarely do we have someone die from expired ketchup. Normally we get around 50-100 cases of severe food poisoning a year from this food, but only 2 deaths have been linked to expired ketchup, specifically Heinz, over the past 5 years. Both cases were also linked to tomatoes grown in central California. The best way to prevent this is to throw away any food that expires within the same month being used. However, since the acidic properties of tomatoes that have gone bad work directly against the colon, a half cup of vinegar is highly effective in combating any sickness from the expired food product.

The acidity in tomatoes and vinegar are the preservatives. It perhaps can be said that high levels of salt, alcohol and oil were used traditionally to keep food from going bad. In some cultures the condiment was actually meant as the preservative for the food to which it was added. Condiments basically need no refrigeration; yet it still feels like a surprise to see a condiment label in America with so few ingredients also boast it will not spoil.

The bottom line seems to be that refrigeration of condiments is thought to be useful for flavor, not health, but health is an easier pitch. A look at other countries and cultures that do not depend on refrigeration (temperature control) reveals a lot about our own perceptions of security.

< hr / >

Update: Slashfood expired in 2011.

AOL Axes Slashfood, Its Six-Year-Old Food Blog

Security

Rogue Police Officers Attack DJs in San Francisco

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Police raids of parties in San Francisco at the end of 2009 started a series of protests and then legal action by the EFF. The EFF site makes the case that police acted in violation of the law.

San Francisco law currently requires after-hours parties with live DJs to get a permit, and failure of those throwing the party to do so can be punished as a misdemeanor. But DJing an unpermitted party is not a crime, and certainly not one for which one’s laptop could be forfeited and held. EFF brought witnesses from the Halloween party and other events to testify that what happened to our clients was part of a pattern of illegal police practices, including rifling through purses and backpacks to find and seize laptops by people who were not even DJing.

They bust into parties and seize random laptops? This sounds like a story from a war-torn or undeveloped country. Perhaps you have the urge to be angry at the San Francisco police. You and the EFF might be right. Note, however, that the story has been boiled down by the SFBG to the actions of just one or two police officers.

Two undercover enforcers have been at the center of just about every recent case of nightclubs or private parties being raided without warrants and aggressively shut down, their patrons roughed up (see “Fun under siege,” 4/21/09) and their money, booze, and equipment punitively seized “as evidence” (see “Police seize DJs laptops,” 11/24/09) even though few of these raids result in charges being filed in court.

Officer Larry Bertrand of the San Francisco Police Department’s Southern Station and Michelle Ott, an agent with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, are plainclothes partners who spend their weekends undercover, crashing parties, harassing disfavored nightclubs, brutalizing party-goers, and trying to send the unmistakable message that they’re in charge of San Francisco nightlife. Neither responded to our interview requests.

People often ask me how PCI can work if every QSA comes up with a different interpretation of the requirements. I say take a look around (e.g. try being a DJ at a party in SF). We interpret rules every day everywhere we are. A compliance standard is based on interpretations and the resolution of disagreement — it is all part of the process. One QSA opinion does not spoil the standard, just like one nail that bends does not ruin the bag.

My guess is that other police officers not only disagree with Bertrand and Ott’s tactics but also realize that they are generating a backlash that could change the laws (protect the public) regarding seizure of electronic evidence.