First of all, a bagel with cream cheese is awesome don’t get me wrong. That with a good cup of coffee in the morning is a winner. But a while ago, I was having a bagel from the coffee shop and I thought “there could be so much more in this bagel. So why not expand on this idea?”. And that is how the bagel burger came to mind.
I personally didn’t like the idea of adding a HUGE amount of food in my bagel. Although the idea of a bagel burger is to add more than just cream cheese. I still wanted to keep it fairly light because I personally do not like the idea of filling it up with big heavy stodgy meats and making it one big epic stack. However, the other great thing about making a bagel burger is that you can personalize it. Therefore you can experiment and design your own fantastic version of a bagel burger.
Now let’s talk about fennel. Very fresh and fragrant, often described as having a similar scent to aniseed. If you go to a place where fennel is grown and then you rip it out of the ground. You will find that it has a bulb, with stalks attached and a lot of little delicate leafy tips that are fantastic to use as herbs. In a lot of supermarkets, however, you may find that fennel is sold with half of the stalk cut off and the tips are removed as shown in the image below.
Although a few of the tips are still attached. A lot of the time, the fennel bulb and the fennel tips are sold separately in the supermarkets. But of course, if you get hold of the fennel with the stalks and tips still attached, that’s great! So keep an eye out. Now I will just show you a few pictures of how I prepared the fennel just in case you get confused when reading the recipe.
First, cut the stalks off:
Then cut in half:
After that, slice the core off:
Then slice the rest of the fennel bulb:
As you can tell by the title I used smoked trout in this recipe. I find it slightly lighter and more subtle in flavour. In fact, it seems to hold its shape better than smoked salmon however, I am not quite sure if that is just my imagination. Don’t worry if you can’t find smoked trout though. Smoked salmon will also give a wonderful result.
Thank you all for reading through my post. Please feel free to subscribe if you want to stay updated on new posts and recipes. Stay updated in the meantime because I will be posting a Cajun chicken recipe which will be amazeballz. Then prepare to have your mind blown for what I am about to post for Easter in the near future. Love you all!
Super Awesome Smoked Trout Bagel Burger
Ingredients
- 2 bagels
- 100 g smoked trout smoked salmon is a great alternative
- 1 bulb of fennel
- Approx. 2-3 tablespoons of fennel tips
- 30-40 g cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons of capers
- 2-3 pickled gherkins finely diced
- 15 g of butter
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
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First, lets start with the fennel. Give the fennel a good wash, making sure it is free of any dirt. Then slice off the stalks. Cut the bulb in half, cut the core off then slice the rest of the fennel bulb (if you are confused you can look at the sequence of pictures on the blog post).
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Pre-heat a frying pan to about medium-high heat, then add a good dash of olive oil. Add your sliced fennel and fry for 3-4 minutes tossing/stirring occasionally. You want the fennel to be tender on the outside but still have some crunch on the inside. Lastly, add you butter and a pinch of salt and pepper, then stir through once last time. The butter will give the fennel a nice sweetness as a result. Turn the heat off and transfer the fennel onto kitchen paper to drain.
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Cut your bagel in half length ways with a serrated knife.
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This is the order of how I like to stack my bagel burger. Cream cheese, sauteed fennel, smoked trout, gherkins, capers, fennel tips and then top it with the other half of the bagel.
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Finally, it is time to serve it and get it in ya gob.
Recipe Notes
- This recipe can work with any other kind of fish. Smoked salmon, any kind of cooked fish, tinned tuna etc.
Another beautiful post Nick– and I loved the fennel info. I haven’t used it, but want to give it a try now! Love you photography!!
Thank you Rhonda! Always appreciate your lovely comments (:
Beautifully done.
Thank you Liz!