Kosher Food and Drink

Originally published in the Jewish Link Fall Food & Drink, Autumn, 2024/Tishrei 5785 Issue

The all-time greatest Jewish American classic brunch fare remains the bagel, cream cheese and lox. Many of us love this meal and identify it with some of the most joyful moments in life, and for good reason. There’s really not much better a bite than a New York-style bagel, a schmear of rich cream cheese, topped with the salted goodness of fresh gravlax. The single mouthful combining crisp chewiness, fluffy cream, and buttery silkiness—this plate has got it all.

There’s no need to run out to the local bagel shop. You can do it yourself, if not better. While the idea of making any of these items seems like a potchke, it’s a great family weekend project.

Because we want to make this extra special, we’re going to be learning to make Black Russian bagels, my version of which is a black bread/everything bagel, a really delicious item on its own.

With just about 10 minutes of prep on Friday, you will be well on your way to a Sunday family meal or personal treat.

Friday:

Start with the best, freshest salmon you can find. The key to excellent gravlax, as you can imagine, is the fish. Let the fish do the heavy lifting. The curing process is not a “flavoring step” per se, as much as capturing and freezing in time the beauty of the fish itself. You need not begin with a whole side of salmon. Take at least a nice sized filet of 1 lb. to begin and adjust the ingredients accordingly

Ingredients:

• 1 side super fresh salmon, fileted, 3-4 lbs.
• 1 cup salt approximately, enough to coat fish
• 1/2 cup sugar (I prefer raw cane turbinado)
• 1 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 2 bunches of dill, chopped finely, including stems

Instructions:

• Cover your counter or working space with overlapping sheets of plastic wrap, at least a foot longer than the fish itself.
• Use about 1/3 of the salt and make a bed to lie the fish upon. Lie fish skin side down over the salt.
• Toss the remainder of the salt, the sugar, and the pepper, and coat the salmon. Then cover the side with the chopped dill.
• Take the ends of the plastic wrap and pull them across the top of the fish. Take a couple more pieces of plastic wrap and seal the fish. Place in a full size deep aluminum foil pan and refrigerate.

Saturday night:

Turn the wrapped fish on its other side.

Sunday morning:

Let’s start our Black Russian bagels. Here’s what you’ll need. It’s a good idea, as with any baking, to use a kitchen scale.

We start by measuring out the yeast, warm distilled or filtered water and our three flours.

• Dry active yeast 8 g (0.28 oz.)
• Warm filtered water 330 g (11.65 oz.)
• White flour (bread or all-purpose) 200 g (7.05 oz.)
• Whole wheat flour 150 g (5.3 oz.)
• Whole grain rye flour 150 g (5.3 oz.)
• Kosher salt 8 g (2 tsp.)

Mix ingredients and then knead for 1 minute by hand. You will develop a coarse mixture.

I then transferred the dough to my MixMaster as the next items are quite dark and sticky. Next add molasses and cocoa powder.

• Molasses 100 g (3.5 oz.)
• Dark cocoa powder 30 g (1/3 cup)

Turn on the MixMaster at the lowest setting and let it work the dough for about 4-5 minutes or until the molasses and cocoa are fully blended into the dough.

At this point, the dough will be very dense and dark. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm area (I like to nestle it above my hot water urn) for about 2 hours or until it has doubled in size.

This recipe will make about 12 small bagels or 8 full-sized ones. I chose to make 12 with this batch. So divide into your predetermined pieces (12 for me) and roll them lightly into a ball shape.

Allow to rest on your mat/counter for about 15 minutes. Then form into bagel shape and press a hole in the middle. Don’t stress yourself out by worrying about a perfect shape. That will come with practice.

Allow them to rest another 15 minutes. At this time, you have two immediate jobs:

1) Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and

2) Start a large pot of boiling water.

Add dark brown sugar to the water once it’s boiling.

• Dark brown sugar 60 g (1/2 cup)

Take a baking tray and line with parchment paper. Coat the paper with olive oil.

At the end of 15 minutes, and with your water boiling, drop each bagel into the boiling water, about 4 at a time, so that they have room to float around. Boil the bagels for two minutes before flipping and boiling another minute.
Transfer the bagels to your baking tray.

Brush the bagels with egg white wash around the top and sides and coat with “Everything Bagel” mix or your favorite topping. (I feel strongly that Everything Bagel is the proper topping for a Black Russian.)

Bake the bagels in your preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until brown and crispy on top. Remove and allow them to cool on a wire rack.

(FULL RECIPE)

This recipe can make 8 full-size bagels or 12 smaller ones.

Ingredients

• Dry active yeast 8 g (0.28 oz.)
• Warm filtered water 330 g (11.65 oz.)
• White flour (bread or all-purpose) 200 g (7.05 oz.)
• Whole wheat flour 150 g (5.3 oz.)
• Whole grain rye flour 150 g (5.3 oz.)
• Kosher salt 8 g (2 tsp.)
• Molasses 100 g (3.5 oz.)
• Dark cocoa powder 30 g (1/3 cup)
• Dark brown sugar 60 g (1/2 cup)
• EVOO for coating
• Egg white wash
• Everything Bagel Mix for coating

Directions

1. We start by measuring out the yeast, warm distilled or filtered water and our three flours.
2. Mix ingredients and then knead for 1 minute by hand. You will develop a coarse mixture.
3. I then transferred the mixture to my MixMaster as the next items are quite dark and sticky. Next add molasses and cocoa powder.
4. Turn on the MixMaster at the lowest setting and let it work the dough for about 4-5 minutes or until the molasses and cocoa are fully blended into the dough.
5. At this point, the dough will be very dense and dark. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm area (I like to nestle it above my hot water urn) for about 2 hours or until it has doubled in size.
6. This recipe will make about 12 small bagels or 8 nice-sized ones. I chose to make 12 with this batch. So divide into your predetermined pieces -12 for me- and roll them lightly into a ball shape.
7. Allow to rest on your mat/counter for about 15 minutes. Then form into bagel shape and press a hole in the middle. Don’t stress yourself out by worrying about a perfect shape. That will come with practice. You can see mine aren’t so pretty.
8. Allow them to rest another 15 minutes. At this time, you have two immediate jobs: A. Preheat your over to 425 degrees and B. Start a large pot of water boiling.
9. Add dark brown sugar to the water once it’s boiling.
10. Take a baking tray and line with parchment paper. Coat the paper with olive oil.
11. At the end of 15 minutes, and with your water boiling, drop each bagel into the boiling water, about 4 at a time, so that they have room to float around. Boil the bagels for about 1 minute on each side, turning them over midway.
12. Transfer the bagels to your baking tray. Brush the bagels with egg white wash around the top and sides and coat with “Everything Bagel” mix or your favorite topping. (I feel strongly that Everything Bagel is the proper topping for a Black Russian.)
13. Bake the bagels in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes. Remove and allow them to cool on a wire rack. For fun, I did one of the bagels in my outdoor pizza oven since I was already making pizza also.
14. Slice and serve with your favorite goodies.

While the bagels are cooling it’s time to make the cream cheese, a far easier process than you think, and a pretty cool experiment. This cream cheese will not taste like Philly cream cheese. It is more natural and fresh tasting. You will need just three ingredients!

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 cups whole milk (do not try this recipe with low fat)
• 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon salt

TOOLS:

• Saucepan
• Wooden spoon or spatula
• Large bowl
• Strainer
• Cheesecloth (in a pinch you can use coffee filters, but these are fragile)
• Food processor

INSTRUCTIONS:

Heat the milk on medium until it starts simmering.

Add lemon juice, 1 tbsp. at a time, while stirring continuously.

Simmer until the mixture curdles, which will be very quickly, just a couple minutes.

Place cheesecloth in a strainer and carefully pour into a large bowl. The curds will remain in the cheesecloth while the whey will separate into the bowl. Cool for 15 minutes.
Squeeze cheesecloth to remove remaining whey from the curds.

Place curds into a food processor and blend until smooth. If the mixture is somewhat coarse, you can add a bit of the whey. Otherwise, you can toss the whey.

Add salt to taste. You can also choose to add any spices, herbs, or other fruits/veggies, etc. here. The possibilities are endless.

Your cream cheese is ready! You can store it in the fridge for about a week.

Next, remove your gravlax from the fridge, unwrap, and place on a good cutting board. The most difficult step in gravlax is the cutting, and this requires a good knife (I prefer a 12 inch flexible knife) and practice at cutting even, thin slices. But even the worst slice will still be delicious, so don’t overthink it.

SLICING METHOD:
Using downward pressure, and holding the fish on the opposite side of cutting, cut at a 45-degree angle. Do not cut through the skin, rather cut the piece off just above where the flesh meets the skin. If using a whole fish, your first cut should remove the last few inches of the tail, which will be salty. This is good fish to chop up and mix into your cream cheese. Continue at the same 45-degree angle and slice as thinly as possible, making even slices. Serve immediately.