Egg, cottage cheese and watercress bagels
The Jewish deli egg-salad bagel with an Israeli café touch: a toasted bagel filled with mustard-creamed yolks and drained cottage cheese, diced egg white, lemon zest and za'atar, with peppery watercress and crisp cucumber.
Method
- Bring water to the boil over a high heat in a small 16 cm saucepan. Meanwhile, put the cottage cheese in a fine sieve over a bowl and leave to drain. Pick over the watercress, keeping the leaves and fine stems and discarding thick stalks. If it is not certified insect-free, soak for 3 minutes in a bowl of water with a few drops of washing-up liquid and agitate. Rinse small handfuls under a strong stream of water, on both sides, then hold a few leaves up to the light to inspect. If you find an insect, repeat with the whole batch. Dry in a salad spinner, then pat with a tea towel.
- Lower the fridge-cold eggs into the boiling water one at a time with a spoon. Reduce to a lively simmer and cook for exactly 9 minutes: the yolks should be set but still soft and orange in the centre, without a green ring. Immediately plunge into a bowl of very cold water with a handful of ice cubes for 5 minutes.
- While the eggs cool, lightly press the cottage cheese with the back of a spoon to remove the remaining whey. Finely grate the zest from the half-lemon, then squeeze it. Finely snip the chives with scissors. Split the bagels horizontally with a bread knife and toast the cut sides for 2–3 minutes in a toaster or dry frying pan over a medium heat. They should be golden and crisp, which keeps them from becoming soggy.
- Roll the eggs on the worktop to crack the shells and peel under a trickle of water. Roughly separate yolks and whites, then cut the whites into 1 cm dice. In a bowl, mash the yolks with the mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper using a fork, until smooth and creamy. Mix in the drained cottage cheese, chives, zest and 10 g lemon juice, then fold in the diced whites with a spoon. Taste: the mixture should be well seasoned. Adjust the salt, mustard, lemon or pepper.
- At the last moment, thinly slice the cucumber and pat dry with kitchen paper. On each toasted bagel base, lay a barrier of watercress, then half the filling, a generous pinch of za'atar, the cucumber slices and sliced radishes. Close and press gently: the bagel should hold together in your hand without dripping.
On your plate
Recipe
569 kcal · protein 32 g · carbs 52 g · fat 24 g
Quantities per person
- 100 g Plain pareve bagels
- 110 g Eggs
- 75 g Plain cottage cheese, 5% fat
- 25 g Watercress
- 50 g Cucumbers
- 7.5 g Hot Dijon-style mustard
- 5 g Extra virgin olive oil
- 30 g Lemon
- 3 g Chives
- 0.5 g Fine salt
- 0.25 g Ground black pepper
- 1 g Za'atar (hyssop, sumac and sesame blend)
- 15 g Radishes
Cooking tips
To take away, make the filling the day before with well-drained cottage cheese; it keeps in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Toast the bagels in the morning and cool uncovered before wrapping, separately from the filling. Carry the dry watercress wrapped in kitchen paper and the whole cucumber in a separate bag. Slice the cucumber and assemble just before eating, otherwise it releases water and the watercress wilts against the filling. If the bagels are small, keep two spoonfuls of filling aside instead of overfilling, which would make them impossible to eat by hand. The active time includes checking the watercress; allow 5 minutes less with certified insect-free watercress.
The egg-salad bagel of Ashkenazi Jewish delis, in an Israeli café version with cottage cheese and olive oil replacing mayonnaise.
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