Mindboggling bagels

"A study performed at the University of Maryland noted that laughter seems to cause the tissue that forms the inner lining of blood vessels to relax or expand, increasing blood flow. Mental stress, on the other hand, causes the opposite effect: making vessels constrict, and thus reducing blood flow." (source: suite101)
Sure thing is that our bodies got a real work-out on that particular Wednesday when we started performing the June challenge, baking bagels from scratch. This challenge proved (proofed?) to be a source of both; a little stress and lots and lots of real belly laughs.

Remember this one is all about bagels. Daring Bakers bagels. In the process we discovered friendship, a Principle, the art of writing a good recipe, the art of reading a recipe and the art of working with bagel dough. I will take you through uncharted waters bubbling with mayhem malt syrup, raising hell and dough in a smallish kitchen crowded by two official Daring Bakers and two less official but nonetheless very dear and daring baker friends. Please meet: Tanna (at My Kitchen in Half Cups, Sue (at Sue Cooks Wild) and Monique (at no blog, not yet) and myself.

First things first: the recipe we had to follow (exact! as in: don't you dare stray/interprete...) used a huge amount of yeast, we frowned, protested, eyed each other, and decided to go ahead with it. Reading the recipe was another thing, there was a lot of white noise which made it hard to get to the core of the recipe (as in instructions: what to do when and how). Which caused a little bravado in the beginning and ended in some stress in getting the bagels ready for dinner. Yes, that's D i n n e r. I know you're not supposed to eat bagels for dinner but since we had lots of them and no time left to prepare dinner we could as well eat them, right? We, that is we adults, I rushed out at half time to get the kids some take-out fries and croquettes...

Second: how to make perfect bagels? I can safely tell you that we explored almost every known method including rope, snake, hole-punching and still had time and energy to invent some more. Mind, we were drinking tapwater at the time! Let me show you the bagel-dance, the bagel-twist, the Halo-bagel, the Helga-bagel, the on-the-floor-laughing-no-bagel-in-sight-bagel and where the-hell-did-that-bagel-go-bagel. Oh and yes, along the way we invented this wonderfull new name calling word: Flat bottomed bagel! To be used in instances like: get outta my way you flat bottomed bagel!

Third: Boil a Bagel... Well that was not easy! We had the occasional sinker, lots of floaters (yeast leaden bageloos?), shrinkers, puffers, wrinklers and combinations of aforementioned.

Fourth: the proof is in the pudding. Let's eat the darn things! We had plans, oh yes, we planned, of having a tapas oriented bagel-feast. (We were officially permitted to get crazy on the toppings.) You know, tapas-style identical bowls, elegantly laid out with salmon, avocado-pear salad, shrimps, eggs, lettuce, paté, tomatoes, hummus, sun dried tomato-olive spread, cream cheese..... Starring the perfect bagels in their midst. Got the mind-picture?

Now forget that and picture the largest plate in the house with all of the above splashed on it, wine, water and the paninimaker right there on the table. Impromptu served dinner. Our excuse: We were tired and famished!! And Monique didn't get to taste one of the bagels, she had to rush out to a meeting.... Shame on us!

Verdict: Bagels were so-so. I think I have to do this again. To really know what was going on. Maybe. Sounds like a good idea. But not for a while. In fact, I was planning to this weekend and do a side by side comparison, but it dawned on me (literally very early this morning) that this post was due today! Please hop over and read Tanna's story over here. Most of the pictures you see here are taken by the incredible talented Sue-chef. Thanks Sue!

You can find the recipe we had to follow: "Real Honest Jewish Purist Bagels", and a round-up of all the bagel posts at All Things Edible and Writing at the Kitchen Table, Freya and Jenny are the hosts of this month's challenge. Thanks gals!

Three girls in London are what?

Probably "Three -very- posh bangers in a bap"! I must comment however, we are certainly not "cheap as chips" no way, not us. Ask the fishmonger at James Knight in London..... and blame the hotelstaff for a true waste of fish-goodies (and money!). They wouldn't let us use the -computerized- minibar to store our treasures and even threatened with a penalty if we should have the courage to do so.... They did however were so kind to bring a bucket of ice. Ice melts. Plastic bag not entirely leakproof. End of fishy goodies. Start of fishy smelling hotelroom. It is so much fun to have all the pictures we took on my screensaver. Sue and Tanna were so sweet to copy their photos for me, and I giggle every time I see three (or even more) almost copies of the same scene pass by. (Credits for the photos are either Tanna's, Sue's or mine...)


Although the DH gets a little unnerved by the repeating pictures and tells me my laptop is in a loop. Well no honey, a loop is something completely different. A loop occurs preferably late at night, when you are tired from getting up early in the morning, travelling, walking the Docklands, visiting the euh .. carshow? (Oh well since you ask, I confused Canary Wharf with Butlers Wharf so we ended up in a mingle of highrises, business suits, drinks and high heels and eh, the carshow... yes I am entirely to blame!)

What we did find however was a very nice restaurant which served us very nice food and an even nicer dessert, which was completely responsible for us to completely clean the plate using all available hardware and that included fingers! But at the end you'll have to find your way back to the hotel. Shouldn't be too complicated. Unless you get caught in the loop. A twilight zone of Bermuda triangle proportions with the Oval station at it's centre. Every time we took another train we ended up at Oval.... Scary!

But the dinner we had! A friendly book store owner directed us towards some restaurants nearby, but not before he gave us his vision on the dangers of traffic in Amsterdam! (What's with the preoccupation with bikes in Amsterdam?).

If you happen to be in the neighborhood, I think all three of us can recommend to go to El Faro, situated on the waterfront (we were outside on the terrace), very friendly Spanish staff, lovely view and good food. In fact, it must have been good or we were starved because neither of us took photo's! I found this picture in Thomas Keller's Bouchon (oxo!) which resembles the cod we had.

We shared our second Tortilla de Patata, and all three of us had Bacalao glaseado con Allioli sobre salsa Vizcaina y Revoltillo de ajetes (that would be Irish Sea cod glazed with aioli, served on a bed of spring garlic with Vizcaina sauce) I discovered that "A la vizcaína, or Biscayne style", means that a dish is cooked in a dried-pepper sauce. Very very yummy.

Where to start?

Hmm I guess I forgot to tell you that I wasn't going to be around for a while. Tired of that lonesome crab quiche yet? I should warn you to brace yourself, I've spent the whole morning (in between washing, folding, vacuuming, clearing mess and cleaning) at my laptop trying to sort out all the photo's three tireless travellers made in ten days. And if I am going to try and post only half of the stories I gathered and only a percentage of the photos.....you're in for a very busy blog.

It all started on a Saturday, by making trip to Amsterdam to collect two ladies and their luggage....only a few small bags. I didn't know what to expect when we walked into the hotel lobby, surely not one blogging lady in yoga position on a couch... I bit my lip and asked (head upside down) eeeh Sue Cooks Wild Sue? And from the corner of my eye I saw this other blogging lady unfolding herself...My Kitchen in Half Cups Tanna?

Nothing better than speaking upside down to break the ice. The first laughter was on it's way.

We negotiated Amsterdam traffic (taxis and eeh..bikes, I will let someone else explain) to find ourselves a place to have coffee and chat. Time to pile into the car and get home. The kids were looking forward to meet "the English ladies without husbands". Don't ask. English?

The weather was beautiful so after having a tour of the house we were back in the garden with wine and water. And since I am very very organised and planned this wonderful 5-course dinner meant to be served inside on fresh white linen with napkins and crystal... I decided there and then that we would stay outside and served appetizer and first course all together on large plates in the garden. I guess that above anything I am flexible and not sticking to an agenda (::cough::). Really girls, I do have napkins, linen, crystal, candles and stuff although you haven't seen any of it. Ahum. So much for planning. Oh and look, I even got a crash course napkin folding from Tanna!

Already the garden was filled with lots of chatter and laughter, my dinnerplans collapsed as the twins went to have dinner at a friends house instead of staying home, and I spontaneously invited Floris' friend for dinner in their place. In between unwrapping presents and sipping Gratien & Meyer Cremant we all went inside the kitchen to arrange the bites on plates. All hands on deck and I guess that was a preliminary of how the week was going to be. Kitchen, garden and dinner table heart of the matter. Chatter and laughter all around. A very good sign of things to come!

Sue and DH in the kitchen.

For dinner I tried to make a compilation of blog-bites and Dutch originals. Appetizer should have been buckwheat pancakes, spread with wasabi sour cream and smoked salmon cut into little slices. That was going to be followed by a rectangular dish with three bites: puffs filled with shrimp and a little sweet pepper-flavoured cream cheese, a cherry tomato "burger" with basil and buffalo mozzarella cheese sprinkled with balsamic and lemon oil, and piquant peppadew peppers filled with honey-flavoured cream cheese. Well .... it all ended on a large plate for all of us to sample. Assembling buck wheat crepes.

Then we had a creamy roasted yellow bell pepper soup with some fresh baked semolina bread.

DH and F digging in for presents

To proceed with a very Dutch main course: White asparagus with two types of ham (smoked Italian and cooked Dutch), boiled and crumbled eggs with hollandaise sauce and new small potatoes. I got the asparagus from the farmers market and they were really wonderfull, white asparagus that squeak when rubbed together are a sure sign of freshness.

And still even more presents to unwrap! All of us got fabulous gifts (I began to understand what was in all these bags!), we -and I especially- felt very pampered! All the boys were very happy with their T-shirts and had some stories to share in class Monday morning, wearing their new shirts of course!

Can't wait to tell you about the magnificent cookbook Tanna and Sue brought me and , and, ... so many stories to tell!

Mini Crab-Lime quiches

I guess you have to read this one first before embarking on slaying the great white and serving the eggs to the unsuspecting audience....

This is what you'll need:

2 eggs, beaten
200 gr canned crabmeat, drained
2 ts lime juice
1 heaped tbs lime zest
180 ml coconut milk
1 tbs chives (vary with chili-flakes, lemongrass, ginger...)
pepper and salt (preferrably fresh ground)
1 package (10 square sheets) puff pastry

mini-muffin pans

and this is what you do with it:

Butter or spray the muffinpans. Combine all the above mentioned ingredients in a bowl and mix. Cut out little rounds of puff pastry (use a sharp edged cutter) that will cover the bottom of the holes in yr muffin pans. (They don't need to go all the way up the edge, just make sure the bottom is covered). Use 1 tbs of the filling and spoon it over the puff pastry.

bake for 20 minutes on 200C

That's all folks!

Note 1: Depending on the size of your muffin pans you're supposed to get approx 24 quiches, I think my mini muffinpans are very very mini, so I got almost 45 quiches out of this quantity!

Note 2: Prepare in advance, freeze and reheat for a couple of minutes in a hot oven.

Shark eggs

Hunting for bite-sized edibles I came up with these little cuties. No I didn't fight the great white, but I admit to humming a funny little tune (remember? Tadum, tadum, tadum) when I made these. It sure made for some looks at the table.

These crispy little crackers were made from left over scraps puff pastry. I needed little round-shaped puff pastry cups for another party finger food and what happens when you cut out little rounds out of a square puff pastry? You are left with odd-sized bits and pieces and since I really hate to throw good food out... I use it. Lindy, here's another something out of nothing for your collection!

I don't know how much you know about the shape and size of ray's or shark's eggs but they really look a-like so when people asked me what they were..... the answer was simple!

You don't need a recipe, do you? I simply cut the forms loose, arranged them on a baking sheet and sprinkled with freshly ground pepper and salt and added a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Bake for a couple of minutes on 200C untill they are a golden brown and puffed. Check back tomorrow, you'll find how I used the puff pastry rounds...