[2] An actual Jackson Pollock painting.

[3] Sorbet and poached fruit with whipped cream from Matthew Kinney Cuisine. Fling the whipped cream above the plate with a spoon, then layer the dessert on top of it.

[4] A cucumber roll appetizer—not the most glamorous fare—gets sophistication from a splash of sauce, flung from a spoon above the plate. From Matthew Kinney Cuisine.

This plate, covered with drips of house-infused basil oil from Botanica LA, inspired us to layer sauces like Jackson Pollock dripped and layered his paints.

For almost two decades, creative chefs have been dripping, splashing, dotting, smearing, swirling and zigzagging sauces on the plate before adding the food, both savory and sweet.

Today’s tip is to apply the sauce or condiment of the dish to the plate first, instead of spooning it on top of the protein or dessert.

While photo #1 shows a one-color drip, you can use different colors for other layers., use a squeeze bottle on others (best for dots, swirls and zigzags).

The world may be your oyster*, but the plate is your canvas.
 
 
DRIPPING TIPS

1. Match both the colors and flavors to your dish. You may want something pink, but does Russian dressing go with your scallops? (Maybe it does?)

2. Limit yourself too three colors and space them out. When you layer too much, you’ll get a plate resembling photo #2.

3. Use sauces or condiments with texture. The thinnest condiments don’t work. For example, teriyaki sauce, unless it’s reduced, will not keep its shape on the plate. Tabasco may not work but gochuchang will. Fresh salsa has too much texture to be used for plate painting, but many brands of pasteurized (shelf-stable) salsas are just right.

4. Experiment with different tools. Pollock used a brush; you can use silicone basting or pastry brushes. A squeeze bottle is your friend. To make a splash like photos #3 and #4, put the sauce on a spoon and fling it onto the plate from above.

Watch this video: You’ll love what you see—and don’t worry about the “Make Sushi” logo at the beginning. There’s no sushi involved.
 
 
SAVORY “DRIP” SAUCES & CONDIMENTS

 
You can make a vegetable coulis or purée in any color you need; for example, orange bell pepper for a bright orange purée, or purple bell pepper for a purple sauce.

The difference between the coulis and purée is that a coulis is strained for a finer sauce with no seeds. Here’s more about it.
 
 
SWEET “DRIP” SAUCES & CONDIMENTS

Another option: melted ice cream in your color of choice. We discovered this years ago, when we accidentally placed a pint of mango sorbet in the fridge instead of the freezer.

Ready to have fun?

One…two…three: fling! drip! splash!

________________

*The first form of the phrase, “The world is your oyster” first appears in print in Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” in a discourse between Falstaff and Pistol, one of his followers:
Falstaff: I will not lend thee a penny.
Pistol: Why then the world’s mine oyster, Which I with sword will open.

The interpretation of the phrase is that Pistol will use his sword to steal money, referring to the pearl one finds in an oyster. The phrase evolved to mean that the world is yours to enjoy.
  

Perhaps we should have saved this post, published a few months ago, for today, because…

July 26th is National Bagelfest Day, the perfect day for that article, which features delicious bagels with different savory and sweet spreads and toppings—including those off the beaten path.

So if you want a true bagelfest, check out the article. Today, we’ll make the record clear on the history of bagels.

Bagel lovers: In addition to National Bagelfest Day, National Bagel Day is January 15th. National Bagels & Lox Day is February 9th.

> A recipe for Sweet & Crunchy Cream Cheese Spread is below.

> Also below: more bagel holidays.
 
 
BAGEL HISTORY

One legend traces the history of the bagel to the shape of a stirrup, to commemorate the victory of Poland’s King Jan Sobieski over the Ottoman Turks in 1683’s Battle Of Vienna. This is not true.

It mirrors another legend of the creation of another popular bread that allegedly commemorates this battle: the croissant.

The story is that the croissant was shaped for the crescent in the Turkish flag; that is to say, to symbolically eat the Turks. Here’s the real history of the croissant.

What is it with these legends regarding bread and the Battle Of Vienna?

The bagel was actually invented earlier the 17th century in Kraków, Poland, as an alternative (some would say, improvement) on the bublik, a traditional Polish-Russian roll that’s also very close to the Turkish simit (photo #3), and which some historians call the ur-bagel.

It looks like a sibling of the bagel, but with a much bigger hole and a recipe to make it even denser and chewier than the bagel that emigrated to New York.

The bublik was originally designed for Lent, but in the 16th century began to become a staple of the Polish diet.

The bagel was an evolution, not a revolution. Other countries also had round, individual-serving breads with a hole in the middle (the hole was used for convenience in delivery (strung through with a string) and space-saving at stores and homes. They were also stacked on poles and hawked in the marketplace).

Examples include Greek koulouri (with sesame seeds), Finnish vesirinkeli, and ciambella in Puglia, Italy.

The first documentation of the bagel is in a 1610 list of sumptuary laws.

Many food historians believe that bagel originated from the German word beugal, now spelled bügel, which has numerous meanings, including stirrup and ring.

But why? Two explanations:

 
 
How Bagels Are Made

Yeasted wheat dough is traditionally shaped by hand into a ring shape, around four inches in diameter. In the U.S. today, they are supersized. Measure the next bagel you buy!

With true bagels, the rings are then boiled in water for about a minute. This sets the crust, resulting in the firm, shiny crust of a true bagel.

The longer the boil, the more dense and chewy the interiors—along with the use of high-protein flour to make the dough.

They then get pressed face down in the seeds or other toppings. These days, bagels are also made from other dough types such as bran, gluten-free, oat, pumpernickel, rye, and whole-grain.
 
 
What Did Bagels Have To Do With Pregnancy?

Some of the earliest references to bagels are in the context of gifts to women after labor. Why?

Their shape is circular like the round challah eaten on the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah. A round challah (instead of the everyday oblong shape) signifies good luck: the hope that endless blessings (“goodness without end”) will arrive in the new year.

Likewise, in 17th-century Krakow, the round bagel signified the circle of life and longevity for the child.

Community records in Krakow also note that bagels could be bestowed on expectant mothers as well, and as gifts for midwives.
 
Bagels Arrive In America

Bagels came to the United States with Eastern European Jews, who began to immigrate to the United States in significant numbers after 1880.

However, they didn’t eat them with cream cheese and lox, but with schmaltz (rendered chicken fat—here’s a recipe) and herring. Modern cream cheese wasn’t invented until 1872, in the U.S. (cream cheese history).

[2] We love a sprinkling of capers Photo © Good Eggs).

[3] A comparison of bagel and simit, the latter considered the ur-bagel (photo by Elvira Kalviste | © THE NIBBLE).

[4] In addition to green bagels for St. Patrick’s Day, some bakers make seasonal colors, like these for autumn: pumpkin bagels and red orange and black twisted colors (0photo © Rodnae Productions | Pexels).

Bagel bakeries thrived, and by the early 1900s in New York City, they were controlled by Bagel Bakers Local 338, which had contracts to supply bagel bakeries in and around the city for the workers who prepared all the bagels by hand.

Bagel bakeries were soon found in major cities with large Jewish populations, in Canada as well as the U.S. They became a mainstream food in the last quarter of the 20th century, partly due to the efforts of the second generation at Lender’s Bakery in New Haven, Connecticut.

The son of the founder, Murray Lender, pioneered automated production and distribution of pre-sliced frozen bagels in 1960.

[NOTE: We don’t know what Lender’s Bagels were like before the frozen variety, but these bagels are nothing like New York bagels. The consistency was/is more like a white bread roll in a bagel shape. They are soft and doughy, and lack true bagel flavor. Unfortunately, this style became the template for many bagels produced in America, and what many Americans think of as bagels.]

While early bagels were plain or poppy, they evolved in the 1960s to other popular flavors, like garlic, salt, and sesame. The cinnamon-raisin bagel appeared in the mid-1950s.

Can’t decide? Have it all (mostly) on an everything bagel (here’s the history of the everything bagel, which debuted around 1980).

Cream cheese rose to the occasion, appearing in flavors like pimento, olive, and smoked salmon.

And bagels became not just breakfast bread, but sandwich bread for lunch. Not to mention that double-comfort food, the pizza bagel.

By the turn of the 21st century, you could get a blueberry bagel, cheddar bagel, a jalapeño bagel…any bagel your heart desires. And just about any flavor of cream cheese, too.

More recently, bagels headed into space with Canadian-born astronaut Gregory Chamitoff, who took a batch of bagels on his 2008 Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station. What did he take? Eighteen sesame seed bagels. The record does not say if he brought cream cheese or lox.
________________

*It is made in most of Central and Eastern Europe.
 

If you like raisin bagels, or raisin and walnut cream cheese, here’s a spread to match from Eat Wisconsin Cheese.

It’s made lighter by substituting cottage cheese for part of the cream cheese. Or, you can substitute cream cheese for the cottage cheese.

Ingredients For 2-1/2 Cups

1. COMBINE all ingredients in a medium bowl, using a spoon or electric mixer. Blend well.

2. COVER and chill 4 hours or overnight, for the flavors to meld. Serve with toasted bagels, toast or muffins.
 
 
BAGEL HOLIDAYS

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Don’t let National Ice Cream Month (July) pass without doing something special.

A year ago, Baskin-Robbins sent us ice cream and beer pairings of their favorite flavors, We found the article in our drafts folder, which inspired today’s tip:

Love beer? Love ice cream? Don’t hesitate to serve them together. Beer floats like the Guinness Float have been popular for several years. The recipe is simple:

Add ice cream to the glass and top with beer.

If you prefer hard cider to beer, this tip works for you, too; maybe even better, given the sweet succulence of some ciders.

You can experiment with other types of beer floats, as well as open a beer to serve with a dish of ice cream, plain or à la mode.

Beyond floats, have a dish of ice cream or a sundae. You could have a cone, but the idea of a cone in one hand and a beer in the other is too much of a balancing act for us. (Perhaps that’s where a beer drinking helmet comes in handy.)

In fact, have a pairing party with some basic flavors (chocolate, coffee, vanilla). The pairings go far beyond lambic and fruit ale. How about:

 
The pairing concept works with sorbet, as well. We just polished off an Angry Orchard Summer Honey Cider with some Lactaid vanilla ice cream.

We’ve previously covered beer-and-ice cream articles, such as:

 
You can make those recipes, but why not strike out on your own to find the pairings you like best. You can pair beer with ice cream or sorbet. Just follow three simple rules.
 
 
HOW TO PAIR BEER & ICE CREAM

1. Start with basic flavors. Once you know what you like, you can go for the more complex.

2. Avoid beers that are bitter, crisp or dry. Instead, choose those with some residual sweetness.

3.Look for a beer with notes that match the ice cream. Different beers can have notes of chocolate, citrus, coffee, fruit, spice. For fall, e.g., there’s pumpkin ale to go with pumpkin spice ice cream.
 
 
BASKIN-ROBBINS PAIRINGS

These pairings were recommended by John Holl of All About Beer Magazine. with his comments in quotes. They’ll give you more ideas on how to pair.

[2] A coffee stout ice cream float. Here’s the recipe (photo © Beautiful Booze).

[3] A vanilla ice cream sundae with salted caramel and honey peanuts, served with brown ale. Here’s the recipe (photo © Somewhere Over The Kitchen).

[4] If you’re not a beer lover, try hard cider instead. Angry Orchard’s seasonal Summer Honey Cider is a good start (photo © Sanura Weathers).

[5] Strawberry ice cream with a Hefeweizen? Who knew? (photo © Baskin-Robbins).

*Gose is an old, top-fermented German sour beer that originated in Goslar. An unfiltered wheat beer, cloudy gose beers have a spiciness from the addition of ground coriander seeds, a sharpness from the addition of salt, and a lemony tartness. Some are also flavored with syrups.\

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[2] A tequila-watermelon cocktail. The recipe is below (photo courtesy Milagro Tequila).

[3] After harvesting, piñas are roasted in a stone oven (photo © Casa Noble Tequila).

[4] Pulque: what the Aztecs drank before the conquistadors taught them how to distill (photo © Mexico News Network).

July 24th is National Tequila Day. How about some tequila trivia?
 
 
THE AGAVE PLANT

 
 
THE TEQUILA

 
 
DRINKING TEQUILA

 
 
TEQUILA SALES

 
 
OK, you’ve earned your drink. Happy National Tequila Day!

If you are multiplying this recipe, consider pulsing the watermelon in a blender instead of muddling.

 
Ingredients For 1 Drink

 
Preparation

1. MUDDLE the watermelon and agave in a mixing glass. Add the remaining ingredients and shake with ice.

2. STRAIN into a martini glass and garnish as desired.
 
 
MORE: TEQUILA COCKTAIL RECIPES, HISTORY &: MORE

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August 31st is National Trail Mix Day, but we’re jumping the gun with today’s tip.

Trail mix is a popular grab-and-go snack. Leave out the chocolate chips (substitute toffee chips or M&Ms), and it’s a great hot-weather grab-and-go.

It’s also fun to make your own creative blend of ingredients.

12+ USES FOR EXTRA (LEFTOVER) TRAIL MIX

Turn trail mix leftovers into:

 
 
RECIPE: SPICY TRAIL MIX POPCORN

This recipe is adapted from Walnuts.org. Here are more recipes incorporating cheese, peanut butter and other ingredients.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 325°F. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper or no-stick aluminum foil; set aside.

2. COMBINE the egg whites in a large bowl with the Worcestershire sauce, paprika, cayenne, cumin, curry, salt, and pepper. Whisk until very well combined.

3. ADD the trail mix and toss well to coat thoroughly. Add the popcorn and toss until the popcorn is well-speckled with the granola mixture. You will still see much of the white popcorn, but that’s O.K.

4. TRANSFER the mixture to the prepared baking tray; spread it over the entire sheet. Bake until the coating is dry and the popcorn is crisp, about 15 minutes. Allow to cool.

5. ADD the raisins and mix well. You can store the popcorn in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.

[2] Top a smoothie. Here’s the recipe for this chocolate breakfast smoothie from Natural Comfort Kitchen.

[3] Here’s the recipe from Natural Comfort Kitchen (with homemade yogurt).

[4]Is it trail mix popcorn, or popcorn with trail mix. Here’s the recipe from Delicious Meets Healthy.

Mix and match:

 
 
THE HISTORY OF TRAIL MIX
 
 

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