Bagel Bombs

As soon as I saw this post on The Amateur Gourmet, I emailed J and told her we had to make them using her stand mixer. They are based on the recipe from the Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook, which by all accounts is frankly amazing. And while we were very pleased with the results, I am tweaking it to compensate for the fact that 1) there was way too little flour in the recipe, 2) I found the results too salty this time around, 3) why make a single batch of 8 when you could make a double batch of 16 and 4) some ingredients can be tricky to find in London, so I've just omitted them. So below, you'll find my version.

Bagel Bombs

Adapted from The Amateur Gourmet and Christina Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook

Ingredients

400g plain cream cheese (two containers)
Scallion greens from a bunch of scallions, thinly sliced (I also added fresh chives from the garden)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
2 3/4 cups (or 350 grams) flour (original recipe says 1 3/4 cups)
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 3/4 cups (or 370 g) room temperature water (warm enough to activate but not so hot it kills the yeast)
Neutral oil
6 tablespoons white sesame seeds (original recipe gives you an "everything" bagel mix of poppy seeds, garlic, onion, salt, etc. but I actually prefer plain sesame or poppy seed bagels)
1 egg

Method

1. Put the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream it on medium speed, until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the scallions and sugar and paddle briefly to incorporate. Taste to adjust.

2. Scoop the cream cheese on to a parchment-lined cookie sheet in 16 even lumps and freeze until rock hard, 1 to 3 hours. (We ended up with 20 scoops, so 4 were saved for spreading on other things.)

3. To make the dough, stir together the flour, salt and yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer using the dough hook like a spoon. Continue stirring as you add the water, mixing for 1 minute, until the mixture has come together into a shaggy mess.

4. Engage the bowl and hook and have the machine mix the dough on the lowest speed for 3 minutes, or until the ball of dough is smoother and more cohesive. (If it just looks like a big wet mess, add some more flour until it begins to look more like a ball.) Then knead for 4 more minutes on the lowest speed. The dough should look like a wet ball and should bounce back softly when prodded. (We found this took much longer, but mainly because there was not nearly enough flour to make it turn into a ball.)

5. Brush a large bowl with oil and dump the dough into it. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough proof at room temperature for 45 minutes.

6. Preheat the oven to 325F (163C).

7. Scatter flour over a smooth, dry surface. Punchdown and flatten the dough on the surface. Use a dough cutter to divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Use your fingers to gently stretch each piece of dough out into a mini pizza between 2 and 3 inches wide.

8. Put a cream cheese plug in the center of each dough circle. Bring up the edges of each round and pinch to seal so that the cream cheese plug is completely contained, then gently roll the ball between the palms of your hands to ensure the bomb has a nice, round, dinner roll-y shape. Arrange the bombs 4 inches apart on a parchment- or Silpat-lined cookie sheet.

9. Whisk the egg and 1/2 teaspoon water together and brush a generous coat of egg wash on the buns. Sprinkle a heavy even coating of the sesame seeds all over the bagel bombs–every possible inch, except for the bottoms, should be coated.

10. Bake the bagel bombs for 20 to 30 minutes. While in the oven, the bombs will become a deep golden brown and a few may have cream cheese explosions. Continue baking until you see this happen! Not to worry–serve them as is or use your fingers to tuck the cream cheese back inside the bagel bomb. Bagel bombs are best served warm out of the oven–or flashed in the oven later to warm and serve. If you can’t finish them all right away, once they are cool, wrap them well in plastic and store them in the fridge for up to 3 days.

The Blind Tiger

697 Wandsworth Road 

London 

SW8 3JF

Lucky me, O was in town for my birthday this year so she and A and I all went out for an amazing dinner and drinks evening at The Blind Tiger. While it is definitely a pain in the ass to get there if you're not from the Wandsworth area, the place is so beautifully done up and has such a great vibe inside that we would consider making the trek back. First up, the cocktails are elegant and interesting - and at happy hour they are a very reasonable 4.50 each! I had some kind of elderflower, mint and gin concoction which was a lovely start to the evening. On to the food - steak tartare to start, and then an entire lemon sole for mains. The tartare was nice but nothing extraordinary; the sole on the other hand was absolutely outstanding with a crispness from the grilling and a gorgeous caper and brown butter sauce that I was practically licking off the board by the end. All of this, paired with some great music from Top Shelf Jazz, made for a delightful birthday celebration that I will remember, especially since I had such wonderful company.

Dynasty Indian Cuisine

57-59 Brookley Road

Brockenhurst 

Hampshire

SO42 7RB

On our second night in the New Forest, we were looking for a place to have dinner that would be a little different from all of the British pub fare we had been eating for two days. Dynasty Indian Cuisine fit the bill and after walking past and seeing other happy customers inside, we decided to give it a chance. I am so glad we did - we had one of the best Indian dishes I've had in recent memory. The Murgh Noorjihani, described as succulent pieces of chicken and minced lamb cooked with oriental spices and cream served with fresh coriander, was fantastic and really different from standard Indian dishes. Each flavor was distinct and balanced well against the rest of the dish - we polished this one off with no problem. The Sag Ghoost (lamb with spinach) was good as well, but we then made the mistake of ordering Sag Aloo as well, since it's basically the same dish except with potato instead of lamb. Anyway - this was a surprising gem of a restaurant in Brockenhurst, which is not exactly full of dining options, so if you're there, I'd definitely give this a try.

The Oak Inn

Bank

LYNDHURST

SO43 7FD

The Oak Inn is an adorable pub outside of Lyndhurst - it happened to be on our cycle route (in fact, it may have been the entire point of our cycle route), and since the cycle hire guy basically said to us, you should make time to have lunch there, we did. We lucked out with the one week of unbelievable sunshine at the end of March, so we sat in the garden, basking in the warmth like the sun-worshippers we are. I opted for the fresh Lymington crab sandwich, while A had scampi and chips. Both were absolutely perfect and everything you could want from a country pub. I was surprised by how generous the crab filling was, as I know how hard it is to get that much crab when you're picking out tiny shreds of flesh from a craggy shell, so not only was it tasty, it was a bargain as well. Anyone wandering in the New Forest should make sure to stop by!

Kopapa

34 Monmouth Street
London
WC2H 9HA


I chose Kopapa as our pre-theatre dinner before seeing Matilda (which is fantastic, by the way, in case you didn't already know). It was a while ago, since I'm not doing a great job of keeping up with blogging these days, but I'm pretty sure I had the starter described as "Pork, chilli, coconut & gapi salad on endive, crispy shallots, tamarind dressing". The flavors were really interesting - a delicate balance of salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami, all in one bite. I think I then had "Roast miso cod, Jerusalem artichoke, bok choy, soy ginger beurre blanc" which was cooked perfectly - the fish flaked off in big pearly pieces and paired well with the slightly Asian-influenced sauce and greens. Sadly I can't remember anything about what A had, but I know he enjoyed it as well - I'd certainly recommend this to anyone else who wants a slightly more elegant dinner in the Covent Garden area.

Homesteader Cornbread

You know, as much as I love my jalepeno cheddar cornbread, sometimes I just want something a bit more simple to accompany dinner. This is a simple cornbread - dense, only slightly sweet (mainly because I omitted quite a lot of the sugar), and moist. So easy to make, and so easy to eat.

Homesteader Cornbread

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

185g cornmeal
590 ml milk
250g plain flour
10g baking powder
6g salt
75g white sugar
2 eggs
120 ml vegetable oil

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a small bowl, combine cornmeal and milk; let stand for 5 minutes. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix in the cornmeal mixture, eggs and oil until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean.

Duke's Brew and Que

33 Downham Road

De Beauvoir Town

Hackney

London 

N1 5AA

Duke's Brew and Que is my favorite new neighborhood joint - they've got pretty decent barbecue for London standards (including some pretty outstanding pork ribs), and a great selection of beers, some of which they actually make themselves. The chips are crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and the mac and cheese is as cheesy as it should get. The only dish that I wasn't quite as keen on was the creamed spinach, but then you're not really going to a barbecue place for greens, are you? Add that to a boisterous but not rowdy atmosphere, and it's a place I will be spending many nights in!