Montreal Bagels, Cream Cheese and Gravlox

It’s challenging for me to figure out where I want to go with this post; I’ve been to Montreal just so many times. Meals in Montreal have been shared with family, friends, text books and magazines on so many occasions over so many years that the memories of the poutines, vegan BLTs, pizzas and matzah balls have become indiscernible one from the next.


There is Peking Garden, the Chinese restaurant on Queen Mary Boulevard near my grandmother’s old apartment. We used to eat at Peking Garden with my grandmother, uncles, aunts and cousins on every visit to Montreal when my grandmother was alive. The spring rolls were enormous. Practically a meal. My grandmother passed away when I was 8 and I haven’t been to Peking Garden since but I remember those spring rolls as the best I’ve ever had.







There is also Solly’s, the understated Cote-St-Luc deli where we invariably stop on our way out of town to stock up on cylindrical tubes of gefilte fish for the car ride home. The demand is high as the fish serves to stave off extreme restlessness on our traverse of a notoriously uninspiring strip of pan-Canadian highway. Some people count punch buggies.








As there are stars in the sky, so are there infinite stock images of gefilte fish on the internet.





Then there are the bagels. I adore Montreal bagels and the process of procuring them: the dense, bland, sweet dough; the Sunday morning line at St. Viateur bakery; the brown paper bag still radiating the heat acquired from the wood-fired oven. Cream cheese and lox in tote, Olympico latte in hand, the ritual is part of the reward.





All 3 meals equally scream My Montreal as do many more. Inspired by my cousin Ellen’s hospitality, her beautiful Mile End flat and her proximity to St. Viateur - home of great bagels and the best smoked-salmon spread around, I’ve made bagels, cream cheese and gravlox. It’s true, smoked salmon and gravlox are not the same thing, but until I master stove-top smoking this is as good as it gets.



RECIPES

Montreal Bagels

www.food.com/recipe/montrea-bagels-35261

Ingredients:
• 1 ½ cups warm water
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons canola oil (I used sunflower oil)
• 1 package (8 grams) dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon beaten egg
• 1 tablespoon malt drink powder or 1 tablespoon malt syrup
• 4 ½ cups unbleached white bread flour (possibly more)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup poppy seeds or sesame seeds or both
• 6 litres water
• 1/3 cup honey

Directions:
• In a large bowl, stir together the warm water, sugar, canola oil, yeast, egg and malt; keep combining until the yeast dissolves. Then, stir in salt and one cup of the flour
• Gently add enough flour to make a soft dough, about 3 cups
• Knead your dough for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring in extra flour as you need it. When your dough is firm and smooth, cover with inverted bowl and let sit 10 minutes
• Next, divvy up the dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 10-inch rope, then curve each one around your hand, pressing together ends to make a bagel shape. You may need to use a few drops of water to help the ends stay together
• Let bagels rise for 30 minutes
• When ready, fill a large pot with the 6 litres of water and then stir in the honey; bring that to a boil.
• Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 425 degrees F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• When the honey-water has come to the boil, drop in the bagels and boil for about 90 seconds turning only once. Drain your bagels on clean, dry dish towels and then place on baking sheets. Sprinkle both sides of bagels with seeds.
• Place your bagels in preheated oven and bake until golden in appearance, about 20 minutes, turning just once.


Gravlox:

Recipe is care of Mark Filipczuk

Ingredients:
• chunk of good quality salmon
• 2 bunches of bushy dill
• lemons or limes and/or tequilla
• kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, brown sugar

Directions:
• rinse fish and pat dry
• rub fish with lemon or lime juice
• make a mix of 1/3 salt: 2/3 sugar and rub all over fish.
• crush black pepper (to taste)
• in a big glass dish, make a dill blanket along bottom. Place fish on top and then cover with another layer of dill.
• put something heavy on top to press the fish.
• Let marinate for about a week in the fridge.
*if you do tequilla, just do it with the lemon.



Cream Cheese

The recipe is Ricki Carroll’s, a Vermont cheese-maker, and is found in her book Home Cheese Making.

Ingredients:
• 4 litres of light cream
• 1 packet of direct-set mesophilic starter or 8 tablespoons prepared mesophilic starter.
• Cheese salt

Directions:
• Bring cream to room temperature (22 degrees celsius). Add the starter and mix thoroughly.
• Cover and let set at 22 degrees for 12 hours. A solid curd will form.
• Pour the curd into a colander lined with butter muslin. Tie the corners of the muslin into a knot and hang the bag to drain for up to 12 hours, or until the bag stops dripping and the cheese has reached desired consistency. Changing the bag once or twice will speed up the draining process.
• Place the cheese in a bowl and add the salt.
• Place cheese in small molds and cool in the refrigerator.