Bagels

I love waking up on Friday mornings (the start of the weekend in Qatar) and knowing there's not much to do but hang with the little chefs. The most energetic we get is to pop over to the pool for an hour or so. Lately, I've been baking a lot on Fridays, so today I'm boiling and baking bagels. I'll prepare the dough and let it rise while we're swimming and an hour or so after we get home we'll be sitting down to the heavenly smell and delicious taste of New York style bagels.

The beauty of bagels is that you can play around with the flavours depending on what kind of mood you're in. I like to top my bagels with sesame seeds or sunflower seeds. I quite often make them with chapati flour, which is an indian unrefined flour for a healthier version. And if I'm in a sweet mood I'll make them with mixed spice, cinnamon and some raisins (they're delicious topped with cream cheese).

 

Try these, you'll be amazed how easy they are to make.

New York Style Bagels

• 2 teaspoons of dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 1/4 cups of warm water, you may need a little more
• 3 ½ cups (500g) of bread flour, you can use plain flour, but they won't be quite as chewy
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Method

Mix the water, sugar and yeast together and let it sit for a few minutes until frothy.

Put the flour and salt in a mixer with a dough hook (if you're lucky enough to have one), or into a bowl, add the yeast mixture and bring together, add more water if the mixture seems too dry. Knead, with the dough hook, or on a floured surface for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

 

Put into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap, leave for an hour to rise (the dough should double in size). Punch the dough down and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into 12 balls. To make smooth even balls, cup the ball of dough in your hand and roll it around the work surface, gently pulling the dough into itself as you roll.

Poke a whole in the middle of each ball and while stretching the hole shape the bagel into a 'bagel shape'. Put onto an oiled baking tray, cover with a damp tea towel and rest for 15 minutes.

Heat the oven to 210 degrees celcius (425 degrees fahrenheit)

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and put the bagels in 3 or 4 at at time and boil for 2 minutes on each side. Remove and drain. If you want to top the bagels with toppings, brush with beaten egg yolk and water (1 egg yolk + 1 tablespoon water) and dip into your topping of choice. Today I'm using sesame seeds for us and leaving them plain for the little chefs.

Place the bagels onto a greased baking tray and bake for 20 minutes until golden and cooked through.

My advice...slice one of them open, smother in butter and scoff. There is nothing quite so tasty as a freshly baked bagel, hot out of the oven.

Red Curry Fish Cakes

I love Asian food - just in case you hadn't noticed. I love Asian flavours - crisp, fresh, fragrant and clean. I don't take a bite of a SE Asian dish and have to think and analyse what 20 odd ingredients have gone into my mouthful. One of the reasons I love Thai food is it's pure simplicity, and the combination of flavours are traditional and make sense...

ingredients that grow together - go together!

I catered a friends birthday party recently and these Thai fish cakes barely made it out of the kitchen, teamed with a tomato chile jam, they were a hit. They also make a fabulous midweek dinner combined with a simple salad.

For my Doha friends, Thai Basil is available at Megamart, they get their Asian vegetables in on a Thursda, so Friday is a great time to shop. It's sold by weight, so don't be afraid to to open the bag and pull out a small handful of leaves.

Thai Fish Cakes

Use the freshest fish you can in this, and change around the flavours to suit what you have and what you like.The fishcakes are moderately (popularly) spicy, if you like extra spice, add in some chopped chile.

• 500 grams firm boneless white fish, chopped into bite sized pieces
• 2 teaspoons red curry paste
• 1 teaspoon cornflour
• 2 spring onions, chopped finely
• 1/4 cup thai basil chopped finely
• 1/4 cup coriander leaves, chopped finely
• 1 clove garlic, chopped finely
• 1/3 cup coconut milk
• juice of half a lime
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• oil for shallow frying, or a spray of oil to bake in the oven

Method

1. Combine the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the ingredients come together but you can still see lovely lumps of fish. Alternatively, chop fish finely and combine with the rest of the ingredients.
2. Form the mixture into 3cm balls - the mixture will be sticky, so use wet hands to form the mixture into balls. Flatten.
3. Either cook in an oven at 400 degrees fahrenheit (200 degrees celcius) for 10 minutes, turning once during cooking, or heat 1cm vegetable oil in a frying pan on moderate heat, and fry the fishcakes for 2 minutes, then turn over and fry for 2 minutes more.
4. Drain and serve.

Foccacia Bread

We had friends over for a barbeque last week and to complement the grilled meats and salads I'd put together, I made fresh foccacia bread. Served warm straight from the oven, it was a fabulous complement, delicately fragrant, and deliciously tasty. I can and have eaten a half loaf of this bread standing in the kitchen having just pulled it out of the oven.

You can top a foccacia bread with whatever toppings you fancy - olive oil, is of course, compulsary. I'm a big fan of coarse sea salt and fresh rosemary, and if I'm organised, I roast a garlic bulb in the oven while the bread is cooking and then squeeze the garlic all over the freshly baked hot bread - yummmmm!

Foccacia Bread

2 teaspoons dried yeast

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

3 1/2 cups flour (plus extra if needed)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup olive oil

Topping

 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt

olive oil to drizzle (about 2 tablespoons)

Method

1. Mix the warm water and sugar together, sprinkle yeast on top and stir briefly. Set aside for 5 minutes until yeast is activated and starting to froth.
2. In a bowl, mix together flour and salt, add olive oil and yeast mixture and stir together. Turn onto a floured bench and pull together and start to knead. Add more flour if the mixture is too sticky. Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. (I'm going to be honest, I pop mine into my mixer with a dough hook and let it do the kneading for 10 minutes)
3. Pop the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and leave for 1 hour in a warm place to rise.
4. Punch the dough down, roll into a oblong, pop onto a baking tray and stretch to fit the tray, poke holes in the dough and drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle sea salt and rosemary over the top and leave to rise for 15 minutes.
5. Bake at 200 degrees celcius (400 degrees fahrenheit) for 15 to 20 minutes until golden. Serve warm if possible.

Thai Prawn & Pomelo Salad

I love Pomelo, a big fat green citrus fruit with pink flesh. It is close to a grapefruit in taste, but is sweeter and drier in texture, and it is amazing in salads as it soaks up the flavours of the sauces and herbs really well.

Hubby though is not a fan, so I don't get to make this salad often. I had a more adventurous friend coming over for lunch so I took the opportunity to make it.

In Thailand this salad is called Yam Som-O. I have played around with the ingredients so much over the years that I'm sure this varies from the traditional salad, but it still tastes great.

The combination of fresh herbs, sweet sugar and coconut, sour lime and tamarind, the spicy red chillies and the chewy texture of the prawns and pomelo create a stunning dish both in flavour and looks.

I like to serve this salad warm, but it is equally nice served at room temperature - everything can be prepared in advance and combined at the last minute before serving, just take the prawns out of the fridge 15 minutes before serving to come to room temperature.

You can also make this salad with crabmeat if you don't fancy prawns.


Prawn and Pomelo Salad
(serves 4 as an appetiser)

• 300 grams prawns, peeled and deveined
• 20 grams dried shrimp, crushed (optional)
• 1 medium pomelo, pith removed and shredded
• 1/2 cup coriander leaves
• 1 or 2 red chillies, de-seeded and sliced
• 2 shallots, sliced (or 2 spring onions, sliced)
• 2 tablespoons dessicated coconut, toasted in a dry pan to golden brown

Dressing

• 100 mls tamarind concentrate
• 40 grams palm sugar (or brown sugar if you don't have palm sugar)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 30 mls lime juice (juice of 2 or 3 limes)

Method

1. Soak the shallot slices in water for 5 minutes (this removes the pungent onion taste), drain well.
2. Put the dressing ingredients into a pot, and bring to the boil, stir until sugar has dissolved and then simmer gently for 3 minutes to thicken. Set aside to cool.
3. Bring a pot of water to the boil and add the prawns, poach for a minute or two until they are opaque and pink. Leave to cool if you want to serve your salad cold.
4. Combine prawns, dried shrimp, pomelo, shallots and coconut
5. Add dressing to taste, it will not need all of the dressing. Serve on individual plates and sprinkle with coriander and chillies.

Hot Cross Buns

I know, I know, it's a bit late for an Easter recipe, but it was the first time I'd ever made these gems, they tasted fabulous, and look so scrumptious, that I just couldn't resist sharing the recipe.

I woke up one morning and quite fancied a hot cross bun (as you do around Easter time). Unfortunately the only two places in Doha I'd found that made them, made a very poor rendition - too bready, not enough fruit or spices, and the deal-breaker...no rich sticky sweet glaze.

So I googled and found a fabulous recipe on taste.com.au and gave them a whirl. I didn't have mixed spice, so I made my own - mix together 1 teaspoon ground allspice, 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground cloves, 1 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg and a pinch of ground black pepper.

I've just made a batch of the dough and it's happily rising on the bench, I'll just leave off the cross and have them as plain fruit buns instead.

Hot Cross Buns

1 tablespoon dried yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

185ml (3/4 cup) warm milk

125ml (1/2 cup) cold milk

50g butter, melted

1 egg, lightly whisked

525g (3 1/2 cups) plain flour

200g mixed dried fruit (I used sultanas, currants and some mixed peel) 

70g (1/3 cup) caster sugar

2 teaspoons mixed spice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

A pinch of salt

Flour paste - 1/2 cup plain flour + 75mls water

Glaze - 1/3 cup water + 2 tablespoons caster sugar 

Method

1. Whisk yeast, sugar and the 3/4 cup of warm milk in a jug. Set aside for 10 minutes or until frothy. Whisk in the 1/2 cup of cold milk, butter and egg. Combine flour, dried fruit, sugar, mixed spice and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Add the yeast mixture. Stir to combine, and turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Or like me, let the mixer and dough hook do the work.
2. Place in a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Set aside to rise for an hour or two in a warm place until doubled in size.
3. Punch down the centre of the dough with your fist. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 2 minutes. Shape into 12 even portions. Brush a baking tray with melted butter. Place portions side by side in the prepared pan.
4. Cover with a clean tea towel. Set aside for 30 minutes, buns will have risen and almost joined together.
5. Preheat oven to 190°C. Combine flour and water to make a paste. Place in a sealable plastic bag. Cut 1 corner from the bag to make a 2mm hole. Pipe crosses onto the buns.
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden and cooked through.
7. Heat sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Simmer gently until the glaze thickens (about 5 minutes).
8. Transfer buns to a wire rack and brush tops with hot glaze.
9. Serve warm, smothered in butter.

After first rising

After second rising

After baking and glazing