Wok Wednesdays | Stir-Fried Bagels with Cabbage and Bacon

WW wokking through Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge
by Grace Young

Yep, you read that correctly - b a g e l s.  The recipe calls for your standard plain Jewish bagel to be made into a delicious Chinese stir-fry. Crazy as it sounds, it works!

The recipe comes from Lejen Chen, of Mrs. Shanen's in Beijing. The original recipe is normally made with laobing, a type of Chinese flatbread. Lejen, having extra bagels on hand, decided to try it with bagels instead, and I thank her, for I'm sure the laobing would be hard to come by for me, if not downright impossible.

Mise en place.

Bowl 1: Ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, dried chili pepper

Bowl 2: Bacon

Bowl 3: Garlic

Bowl 4: Cabbage

Bowl 5: Soy sauce, rice vinegar

Bowl 6: Bagels

Bowl 7: Salt

The contents of bowl one are first stir-fried in a little oil to bring out their flavor, then the bacon is added and cooked just until it begins to crisp up a bit, then the garlic is added (the fat from the bacon is not thrown out! This is what helps flavor the dish), then the cabbage (which I would have liked more of), which is cooked just until it starts to wilt, at which time the soy sauce mixture and bagels go in, the wok is covered for a short time to soften the bagels (mine were extremely fresh - pillow soft, and I could have probably skipped this part), then a little salt is sprinkled in and tossed to combine. Voila! You now have an interesting and tasty side dish. 

I was thinking this would be good for breakfast too, served alongside or topped with a poached egg. I don't see why you couldn't prep everything the evening before so it's ready to go when you are. If you feel your bagels are too dry, just sprinkle some water over them before covering the wok.

Think of this as a deconstructed BLT sandwich - minus the T; though you could add some halved cherry tomatoes if you like - I wouldn't tell. :)

We have been asked not to post the recipes here on our blog. You will find the recipe on page 255 of  Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge, which you can purchase at your local bookstore or find at your local library.  The recipe just so happens to be available here as well. :)

TWD: Bagels | Everything & Jalapeño - Cheddar

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing baker: Lauren Groveman



                                            Everything Bagel

I'll definitely try my hand at making bagels again. These were good. Especially the jalapeño-cheddar bagel.

The only downside was that the everything bagel was dry and tough the next day, as where the jalapeño-cheddar bagel was still soft and moist; probably due to the cheese I added to the dough. I'm wondering if the vegetable shortening that I had inadvertently omitted would have any effect on the texture of the bagels. The reason I question this is that other recipes I have seen do not call for shortening or other fats to be added.

I halved the dough after mixing and to one half I added chopped jalapeños and grated cheddar cheese. Before baking I also topped them with additional cheese and jalapeños. I did not add anything to the remainder of the dough itself, but I did top the remaining bagels with a mixture of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried garlic, dried onion, and salt.

Lauren's recipe makes ten large bagels. I wanted to have plenty to go around so I divided the dough into approximately 2 ounce portions which yielded 24 bagels. They turned out to be the perfect size.

I decided to go with Peter Reinhart's (author of The Bread Baker's Apprentice) instructions to form the bagels before retardation*. He also has you do a "float test" (shown below) to make sure they are ready to be refrigerated. This would save a lot of time in the morning. I would just have to boil, top, and bake before delivering them to the boys in time for their morning break.

*Retarding is a second, slower rising of your bread dough. It is done by placing the dough in the refrigerator which causes a slower fermentation, or rise, of the dough. Retarding bread dough is often done overnight when the dough is placed in the refrigerator so that it can be freshly baked in the morning. It is also done to increase the flavor of the bread and to give the crust a darker color when baked. (Source: about [dot] com.)

In making of my bagels I used three separate resources:

1. Baking with Julia for the initial recipe.
2. The Bread Baker's Apprentice for dough preparation.
3. Brown Eyed Baker for the everything topping recipe.

Success meter (1-3): 2

"The float test". After the bagels are formed and have rested

for about twenty minutes, check to see if they are ready to be

retarded (placed in the refrigerator) by placing a bagel in a bowl

of cool to room temperature water. If it floats within ten seconds 

they are ready. Return the bagel to the pan, pat it dry and continue

with the recipe. Should the bagel not float, return it to the pan and

let the dough rest for another ten to twenty minutes and try again.

These are my favorite.

I left two plain - just in case.

All packed up and ready for the boys!

(Only to drive up and find them all

standing in the middle of the shop

eating breakfast sandwiches!)

The directions say the bagels will keep

for a day in a paper bag which I did not

have. Wrapped in parchment is so much

cuter anyway - great gift idea!

Bagels are really easy and fun to make. If you would like to give it a try visit our host Heather at Heather's Bytes for the recipe or one of the other resources I mentioned above.

Do make sure to check out the results of my fellow bakers; there are always interesting variations and techniques to accommodate ingredient & equipment availability, personal preferences, and health restrictions.