Smoking is whole nuther thing. Not that easy in this case, you need to be prepared to cold smoke, and traditionally the salmon is prepped to form a … wtf is that word … whatever, it’s a skin that keeps fluids from oozing out during the smoking.
Lox often refers to cured, unsmoked salmon, so I went by the definition. Still I’m surprised smoked salmon is not available to you. It’s a major export product on both sides of your country.
Every bagel shop I’ve been to has slathered the bagels I’ve ordered with at least a quarter-inch of cream cheese. So, like the OP, I figure that’s the way it’s supposed to be done.
Every bagel shop I’ve been to has been willing to toast my bagel medium-dark, as I request it. The one that wasn’t willing was Einstein Bagels in downtown San Diego. When I asked for my bagel to be toasted dark, the guy behind the counter kind-of frowned at me, literally turned his nose up, and said, “We don’t do that here.”:dubious: and I felt like I’d asked him to mix blood into the spread.:eek: So when I got to work and asked a coworker whom I knew was Jewish if there was some kind of proscription I had unknowingly tried to violate, she said, “No. I’ve had toasted bagels there before – but I think their restaurant-grade toaster is broken this week.”:smack:
–G!
Cinnamon Raisin, Toasted Dark, with Honey-Almond Cream Cheese.
Awesome stuff!
Pellicle.
Thanks.
Oh no, smoked salmon IS readily available, hence my use of it. I’ve never bothered to try smoking my own as the tail is too hard to light.
I meant that I had never tried making lox. The thing is I really like the flavour that smoked salmon gives to the whole assemblage vice lox or gravlax.
Take your hub to The Bagel Factory in Ann Arbor, MI, and see if he admits that he may not have the only recipe for bagel preparation. Unless things have changed, they’ll slice it and smush a whole (one-serving, but sizeable) packet of cream cheese between the halves, putting it back together as a sandwich.
As mentioned above, a fresh bagel needs no toasting, but after that, it’s open season and no holds barred.
(For a real treat at the Bagel Factory, order a Fragel. Half bagel, half donut, all yum. Deep-fried and then rolled in cinnamon sugar. No cream cheese required.)