E is for Everything

Eat.

My favorite verb.

Lately it seems I have been eating...Everything. So I thought, why not make everything to eat. Everything bagels I mean. I have been baking my own bread for some time now, and I have decided to expand my carbohydrate cookery. Maybe some muffins, I thought. Or I could roll out some rolls. But no, no "Bring me bagels!" said my stomach and bagels I brought it. To go with my everything bagel, I had to bake an eggplant. It was a scrumptious supper. This is how it was made.

Everything Bagels

For Dough:

• 1 1/2 cup of warm water
• 2T sugar
• 1 packet of yeast
• 4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1T salt
• 3T melted butter

For poaching:

• 12 cups water
• 4T sugar

For topping:

• 1T sesame seeds
  
• 1T poppy seeds
  
• 1T minced onions
  
• 1t salt
  
• 1/2t fennel seeds
  
• 1 egg
  
• 2T cold water

Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water. Mix in 1 1/2 cups of the flour. Slowly add in the rest of the flour 1/2 a cup at a time. Add in salt and 2T of the melted butter. Grease a bowl with the remaining Tablespoon of butter. Turn out the dough into the greased bowl and kneed in the bowl for 5 minutes. Roll the dough into a large smooth ball and put in the bowl. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let sit for 1 1/2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

Punch down the dough and divide dough into twelve equal dough balls. There are two ways to form the bagel at this point and I tried both.

The first being, take the small dough ball and roll it into a log. Wrap the dough around your hand and pinch the dough ends together. Place on a greased baking sheet.

The second is, stick your finger in the center of the small dough ball to make the hole. Stretch the dough by spinning it around your finger and then place it on a greased baking sheet. (It was hard to take a picture of dough spinning on my finger by myself...)

Once you have formed all your bagels, cover with a clean towel for 15 minutes.

In a large pot, bring 12 cups of water and 4T sugar to a boil. Drop the bagels in the boiling water and poach for 1 minute. Turn the bagel and poach the other side for another minute.

Place the bagels on a wire rack and let them cool and dry. Brush bagels with egg wash and sprinkle toppings on them. Bake for 25-30 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Baked Eggplant

• 1 Eggplant
  
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
  
• 2T oregano
  
• 1t garlic powder
  
• 1 egg
  
• 3/4 cup corn meal
  
• 1T black pepper
  
• 1T salt
  
• 2T olive oil
  
• sliced provolone cheese

In a large casserole dish pour tomatoes and mix in oregano and garlic powder. Cut your eggplant in thick slices. Mix corn meal and salt and pepper in one bowl. In another bowl, crack and lightly beat an egg. Dip the eggplant slices in the egg and then into corn meal mixture. Place eggplant slices on top of the tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

After 30 minutes place a slice of provolone cheese. Put the eggplant back in the oven for 7 more minutes.

Slice open that bagel and put in the eggplant, and eat it up!

-J