Month: March 2019

Vegan bagels

I love bagels a lot, but for some obscure reason I almost never make and bake any, hence my last posta about bagels is almost a year old…

So when I saw a recipe in my bread in 5 book, I just wanted to try it. What’s different from the previous one? Basically that it starts like regular bread, in which a little of oil is added to the dough, so it is vegan, the rest is pretty much the same. I kept my way of shaping them rather than the one in the book and same for cooking them. Bread in 5 boiling time was too short for my bagels, I kept with my previous cooking time.

The result was really bluffing. A little less sweet and buttery than with my old recipe, but with the same base I can also make focaccia and fougasse, because I used olive oil. So it makes the preparation very versatile. Of course the boiling and baking of bagels is a little extra effort, but so much worth it… with Isumi smoked ham and the new cheese factory (I’ll talk about this later) cheese I tested this weekend… perfect!

Vegan bagels (makes 6)

– 250g of flour

– 125g of tepid water

– 5g of yeast

– 7g of salt

– 15g of olive oil

Mix all the ingredients, and leave for the first rise for 2-3h at room temperature. When almost double in volume make a ball and cut in 6 pieces. Make 6 balls. Plant your finger in the middle and roll around your finger like a hula hoop until the hole is about 3cm. Leave to rest for another 30-60min. Prepare a pot of boiling water. Roll around your finger before plunging them in the boiling water. Don’t boil more than two or three at the same time. It’s better they don’t touch each other. Cook 90sec on each side and drain. Then roll them in what you want: sesame or any seeds, sugar, spices… bake for 15min at 200deg.

I don’t use egg batter but you can…

Enjoy!

Yacon

In a couple of days this fruit/vegetables I didn’t know about is everywhere around me… it all first started when I stopped at Tsukuba station to buy something for lunch at the station store selling local products. I wanted their super delicious 100% carrot juice but they didn’t have it anymore… so I had to improvise and chose a yogurt made of Ibaraki milk and seasoned with yakon. I really like the soft, sweet and subtle flavor. I then discovered that apparently, though yakon is originally from South America, it grows very well in Ibaraki apparently since the 1980’s. But not only, just the next day I found yakon at our local farmers market in Isumi. Enough to convince me to try cooking them. To be honest I have not been very extravagant with this new fruit/vegetable and I mainly used it with other vegetables, in soup or sautéed, as a replacement of potatoes. I did a bit of reading and found that it can actually be used raw or cooked, for sweet or savory recipes… too much at once for me. I first need to get used to the taste before I can accommodate it in complex and fancy recipes. In particular because yakon doesn’t have a strong flavor. Yet the texture is very interesting and it’s French name “poire de terre” suits it very well for the fresh and crispy texture it keeps even cooked.

My first trial was on a simple vegetables soup, with carrots and leeks. I didn’t bother peeling them, just washing thoroughly. As I said, it keeps it crispy texture which was great, even better than potatoes that become too creamy and soft sometimes. This took me then to another trial…

For the second recipe, you’ve already saw the picture in the last post, as yacon was part of the plate I prepared with the tatsoi, and the duck. I simply peel and cut in sticks, and panfry in a bit of oil them until golden like French fries. Again, it was great. Really crispy both from the frying and the texture of the yacon. Loved it!! what I learned in preparing them is that they oxyde very quickly and turn brownish. So better cook them quick after peeling and cutting.

Now I need to find some again and continue exploring how to use it!

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