Bagels seem really complicated to make at home, but secretly couldn’t be easier. Homemade bagels taste fresher and are cheaper. This easy homemade bagels recipe proves that you can make deliciously chewy bagels in your own kitchen with only a few basic ingredients and baking tools!

Yield: 8 bagels

• 320g                 lukewarm water (between 100-110°F, 38-43°C)
• 1 tablespoon     instant or active dry yeast*酵母
• 432g                    bread flour, plus more for work surface and hands, bagels require a high protein flour. Largely using bread flour is a must.高筋面粉
• 48g                      wholemeal flour全麦面粉
• 1 tablespoon     brown sugar (or barley malt syrup)*红糖
• 1 teaspoon       salt
• coating the bowl: 1 tablespoon olive oil
• egg wash: 1 egg white beaten with 1 tablespoon water

For Boiling

• 2 quarts         water
• 60g                 honey (or barley malt syrup)

Method

Prepare the Dough

1. Whisk the lukewarm water and yeast together in a big mixing bowl Allow to sit for 5 minutes.
2. Add into the bowl the bread flour and whole meal flour, brown sugar, and salt. Mix well. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. With lightly floured hands, knead the dough for 4-5 minutes.
3. Lightly grease the mixing bowl with olive oil. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel.  Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 60-90 minutes or until double in size.
4. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Shape the Bagels 

5. When the dough is ready, punch it down to release any air bubbles. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. (Just eyeball it– doesn’t need to be perfect!) Shape each piece into a ball.
   

   
6. Press your index finger through the center of each ball to make a hole about 1.5 – 2 inches in diameter. Loosely cover the shaped bagels with kitchen towel and rest for 15-20 minutes as you prepare the water bath.
   

   

   
7. Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C).

Water Bath

8. Fill a large, wide pot with 2 quarts of water. Whisk in the honey. Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-high. Drop bagels in, 2-4 at a time, making sure they have enough room to float around. Cook the bagels for 1 minute on each side.

Bake

9. Using a pastry brush, brush the egg wash on top and around the sides of each bagel. Place 4 bagels onto each lined baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. You want the bagels to be a dark golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow bagels to cool on the baking sheets for 20 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

10. Slice, toast, top, whatever you want! Cover leftover bagels tightly and store at room temperature for a few days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Notes

1. Overnight Make Ahead Instructions:Prepare the dough through step 4, but allow the dough to rise overnight in the refrigerator. The slow rise gives the bagels wonderful flavor! In the morning, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let the dough rise for 45 minutes at room temperature. Continue with step 5. I don’t recommend shaping the bagels the night before as they may puff up too much overnight.
2. Bagel Varieties: Note that the toppings are added after the egg wash in step 9. You can use this bagel recipe to make 100% bread-flour bagels or adding more wholemeal flour by replacing 10% to up to 20%.

When thinly-skinned Asia eggplants are difficult to come by, I turn to their American cousin to make this simple yet irresistible salad. It makes a fine appetizer, or a perfect little side salad when you’re serving Asia food. Sometimes, at lunch, I’ll just eat the eggplant over rice.

Serves 2-4,

1 ½ pound           (650g)              Baby Eggplants or long, thin Asian eggplants

Dressing

• 1.5 tablespoons                brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons                    fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons                    Lime juice
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 big or 2 small   shallots, thinly sliced
• A few Thai Bird Chili, finely sliced
• A few cilantro or mint leaves for garnish

 Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400°F (or 200°C)
2. Cut the eggplant into half, prick the eggplants all over with a fork and place them in a baking tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes till the flesh becomes soft and the skin is charred.
3. In the meantime, let’s prepare the dressing. In a mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients except cilantro.
   

   
4. Carefully peel the skin from the eggplant (this can be fussy, and you want to get the skin off.) Pull the eggplant into strips and lay them in a shallow bowl.
5. Pour the dressing over the eggplant and marinate in the fridge for a few hours. When ready to serve, garnish with a few leaves of chopped cilantro or mint.

An easy, different and quick way to enjoy the bone-in beef short ribs. Different from the time-consuming braising method, the flavourful Asian recipe requires little effort in both cooking and after-cooking cleaning. The key to the dish, is to marinade the beef ribs long enough to help tenderize the meat and allow the flavour to infuse. The fat is largely rendered while the flavour and moisture of the meat is retained.

Serves 3-4

• 3 to 4  pounds (1.5 to 1.8 kilograms)  bone-in beef short ribs
• 1 teaspoon     sea salt
• 1 teaspoon       freshly ground black pepper

Marinade

• ½                      medium-size yellow onions, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon      ginger, thinly sliced
• 2                       garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tablespoon    light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon    dark soy sauce (optional)
• 1 tablespoon    sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon   Japanese sake or high-quality Chinese cooking wine
• 1                       large Asia pear, core and chopped into cubes (optional)

Dipping sauce (optional)

• 2                      Spring onions, minced
• 1 tablespoon    Korean chili powder
• 1 tablespoon    rice vinegar

Method

1. Pat dry the ribs with kitchen towel. Generously season the short ribs with salt and ground black peppercorn and let is stand for about 10-15 minutes. Place the beef ribs in a large bowl.
2. Place the ingredients of the Marinade into a separate bowl. Mix well. Pour them into the large short ribs bowl. Make sure each piece of short ribs is coated with marinade ingredients/sauce. Leave the ribs rest for at least 2 hours to allow flavours to permeate and tenderize the meat.
3. When ready to cook, remove the marinade ingredients from the ribs. Broil the ribs in the oven (use double aluminium foil lined baking tray) or grill them in a barbeque grill. Cook two sides of the beef ribs respective 6 and 5 minutes for medium rare, or 8 and 6 minutes if you prefer medium/well done.

An easy cucumber salad or an appetizer that’s a little spicy, slightly sweet and tangy. It’ll be an excellent complement to any of your barbeque dishes. You’ll need to lightly salt the cucumber slices first and let them stand for a while to draw out water. This process gives the cucumbers an extra crunch.

Serves 3-4

• 4-5 Aka Kirby Cucumbers (about 400g)    remove both ends and thinly sliced (use any Persian, English, Chinese or Japanese cucumbers. These varieties are less seedy, very crispy and tasty.)
• 1/2 teaspoon     table salt食盐
• 150g                   Kimchi韩国辣白菜, minced， for better taste, try homemade kimchi
• ½ tablespoon     garlic, minced (optional）
• 1 tablespoon      spring onions, minced葱花
• 1 teaspoon          rice vinegar 米醋
• 1 teaspoon           sesame oil 香油
• 1 teaspoon            caster sugar白糖
• 1 teaspoon         white sesame seeds, toasted ideally

Method

1. Thinly slice the cucumber (1/8 to 1/4-inch thick). Place slices in a salad bowl. Toss gently with salt and set aside for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, toast the white sesame seeds over medium heat for about 10 minutes. 
   

   
2. Drain excess liquid from the salad bowl. Avoid squeezing them because they will bruise. Mix well with all of the remaining ingredients. It is ready to serve.
3. Or you can place the salad bowl in the fridge and let the salad sit for about 30 mins.