It’s been a very bagel-y few weeks! Which I’m extremely proud of, given the distance between the place where I sleep and the closest true bagel. On Super Bowl Sunday, I journeyed home from Montreal with enough wherewithal after a late night of poutine-ing and discoing to carry back half a dozen St. Viateur bagels and arrive just in time for our party; just this Wednesday, I flew from New York to Sarasota with a Sven-cat-sized pile of hot Ess-A-Bagels that almost got swiped by the man sitting behind me who kept eyeing them; and I’ve officially lined up my local bagel making teacher for this summer after I go on a salmon fishing trip to Alaska where I’ll be collecting the ingredients to make lox. (Hi, Dave!)

Living in a bagel-less world is hard, but it makes me appreciate good bagels even more. And since I so rarely get the chance to eat a good bagel, I never ever feel guilty when the regular bagel eater next to me orders it *scooped out*. #ohmyg.

But so we got a bagel place in Fargo! Have I told you that? Bernbaum’s. It’s been open for a year or so already, it’s in a midcentury modern furniture store, it’s so great, they have labneh (!), and last week for Valentine’s day when Eggboy and I drove the Eggparents to Fargo for a flight, we stopped for romantic bagels. Which are the same as regular bagels but you eat them on Valentine’s day. And they were so good and chewy that we couldn't not get half a dozen for later.

They brought so much bagel-y joy into our house and later that week I figured, well, I’ve actually been doing pretty well with my New Year’s Resolution of no fried foods during the week, so I gave myself a break and fried them. And I fried them in olive oil so that I could still be kinda healthy (did you know that you can fry in olive oil?), I also put them on a bed of yogurt and vegetables so that I could up the healthy ante, and came up with this salad that I now make almost every day, it’s a fattoush-type thing.

A fattoush is like a middle eastern panzanella, or a salad that you make with stale pita that’s been brought back to life by frying or toasting it. It typically includes cucumbers, greens, and herbs, and is heavy on the sumac. I love sumac, it’s so lemony, I put it on everything. This version with the bagels is cool because the torn pieces end up being plumper and not flat like pita, so the outsides get crunchy and fried and the insides are still chewy and soft. The produce here is all stuff I can get pretty reliably in the dead of winter in the upper Midwest: english cucumbers, fresh herbs, purple onions, and Kristin always brings me preserved lemons when she visits so I have a steady supply of those on hand. Speaking of Kristin, everybody congratulate her on her engagement!!!!!!

Of course, if you have other vegetables that you desperately want to add, do it. Radishes and micro greens would be great, tomatoes would be greater, and add allllll of the fresh herbs that you can get your hands on. Mint was made 4 this salad.

Lastly, use good olive oil that you can fry with because you don’t want to fill your house with smoke and you also want it to taste good since one layer of this salad is a good drizzle of olive oil. I’m using California Ranch’s Everyday Extra Virgin Olive Oil, but really any of their olive oils will work, since they all taste great and have a sky high smoke point.

fried bagel fattoush

makes 2 servings

ingredients

california olive ranch olive oil

1 everything bagel, torn up (it can be day-old)

1 English cucumber, seeded and chopped

1/2 small purple onion, chopped

4 slices preserved lemon (you can also just squeeze a heavy hand of lemon juice and add some zest)

heaping 1/2 c Yogurt

2 small handfuls of greens

Kosher salt and pepper

2 good pinches of sumac

Tahini sauce (below)

And for added protein, throw in some crispy chickpeas or a fried egg

A handful of cilantro

A handful of mint

clues

Heat a nice healthy layer of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. when the oil is shimmering, add the torn bagel pieces to the skillet and heat, stirring occasionally, until they're hot and crispy and golden brown on the outside.

in a medium bowl, toss together the cucumber, onion, and lemon.

spread the yogurt between two shallow bowls. top each with a handful of greens, half of the cucumber mixture, a drizzle of olive oil, a good pinch of salt, a few turns of pepper pepper, a dusting of sumac, half of the fried bagel, and a good drizzle of tahini sauce. top it with chickpeas or an egg, if using, and then finish it off with the fresh herbs.

Enjoy!

tahini sauce

ingredients

1/4 c tahini

3 tb water

1 tb lemon juice

Kosher salt and pepper

ingredients

combine all of the ingredients together in a small bowl. mix until thickened.

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-yeh!

thank you, california olive ranch, for sponsoring this post!

okee doke, i am back from california, under my pile of wearable blankets, and have got just enough time to do a load of laundry and catch up on designated survivor before packing back up and scooting over to chicago and indiana for two of my final fall tour stops! it feels so good to be home, *especially* because eggboy kept up with all of the leftovers while i was gone so our fridge is not the war zone i expected! instead it's shiny and clean and ready to be filled up with lefse dough for the holidays. somehow there are zero eggs in our house though. macaroni, what the heck?? i was all ready to get back and try these steam scrambled eggs that alana just posted about (you use an espresso steamer to cook them!) but that will have to wait until macaroni get back to work. what are they even doing.

it's probably for the better that i don't dive into a new recipe just yet because i have kind of a lot to unpack still and no clue where i'm going to put it all. on my trip i acquired a dozen new cookbooks 😬, a collection of sprinkles (from alana who brought them back from europe and my new friend amelia who brought a custom mix to me at my san francisco signing (!)), and some new warm weather gear in the form of socks that feel like a bear suit and a sweater that i'm never taking off. luckily it all fit in my allotted three checked bags (remember that time i packed light? lol) so if you need me i will be out back, building an igloo of cookbooks and a hot tub of sprinkles.

i have a brussels sprouts recipe for you for thanksgiving! typically my family roasts them or shreds them and turns them into latkes, but this year i'm going all in and deep frying the suckers. the first time i fried a brussels sprout was when i made the brussels sprout risotto from yotam ottolenghi's plenty more. it's the most beautiful bowl of lemony, parmesan-y, brussels sprout-y rice but i couldn't help myself from eating most of the fried brussels sprouts before they even made it into the mix. so i decided that i needed a whole dish of them cause yolo. i kept the lemon and parmesan components of yotam's recipe but then flung the sprouts onto a little bed of yogurt for a nice cool contrast and finished em off with breadcrumbs for texture and harissa powder for heat. and they're fried in olive oil, so you feel less bad about deep frying. i mentioned this in my sweet potato chip post, but trust that i'll never let you forget that you can deep fry in good olive oil since, as i learned at olive camp last year, it has a smoke point well above the temperature that's needed to fry. i'm using california olive ranch's everyday olive oil, which comes in nice big bottles and deep fries beautifully. you'll use a lot for this recipe, but whatever's leftover can be saved and used for future frying or to grease the pan for an omelette. a brussels sprout infused omelette, is that weird sounding?

fried brussels sprouts with lemon, parmesan, and breadcrumbs

ingredients

califorinia olive ranch everyday california extra virgin olive oil

12 oz brussels, halved and completely dry

kosher salt

plain full fat yogurt

a fresh lemon

a handful of panko breadcrumbs

chopped fresh parsley

parmesan

black pepper

harissa powder or paprika

clues

heat 2 inches of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. clip on a thermometer and heat the oil to 375ºf. working in batches, fry the brussels sprouts for a couple of minutes until browned and the outer leaves are crisp. be careful because the oil will splatter.

transfer the sprouts a wire rack, and sprinkle with kosher salt while still hot.

spread a large dollop of yogurt onto a shallow bowl or plate and top with the fried brussels sprouts. add a large squeeze of lemon and top with breadcrumbs, parsley, freshly grated parmesan, black pepper, and harissa powder, or paprika.

serve and enjoy!

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-yeh!