Sable Bagel

🐟 🥯 Sable Bagel 🥯 🐟

Often overshadowed by the ever-popular smoked salmon, smoked sablefish is an under-the-radar gem, prized for its silky buttery texture and savory smoky depth of flavor. A Sable Bagel is a great way to showcase the sable. It offers an indulgent combination of flavors and textures that make it a standout among smoked fish bagels.

This toasted sable bagel features a layer of cream cheese topped with red onions, tomatoes, sliced new pickle, and capers, creating a refreshing and contrasting open-faced sandwich. A touch of horseradish and jalapeño rings add a spicy kick.

We brought home a couple great bagels, take-out smoked sablefish, and new pickles from our favorite deli here in Vegas,  The Bagel Cafe. All their hand-sliced smoked fish are flown in weekly from Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sable Bagel Recipe

Ingredients:

• toasted bagel
• regular cream cheese
• prepared horseradish
• red onion rings, thinly sliced
• tomato, sliced, drain on paper towel, season salt and pepper
• new pickle, thinly sliced
• smoked sable, sliced
• jalapeño, thinly sliced
• capers, drained

Method:

Spread cream cheese on a toasted bagel. Spoon horseradish to taste onto the cream cheese then press the horseradish into the cream cheese with the back of a fork. Arrange red onion, then tomato, then pickle on top of the cream cheese.  Cover that with two layers of smoked sable. Top with jalapeños and capers.

Tips:

Bagel must be toasted to get the contrast of silky sable and crunchy bagel.

Serve the bagel open-faced, or there would be too much bread in relation to the other ingredients.

Regular cream cheese is thicker, richer, and creamier than whipped, which is filled with air. A generous portion is smeared on the bagel.

A “new pickle” is a type of pickle that is very lightly brined, for a shorter period compared to fully fermented pickles. They have a bright, crisp, and fresh flavor. They retain much of their cucumber taste, with only a mild tanginess from the brining process, making them a little bit more interesting addition than simple sliced cucumber.

Capers are placed on top of the sable for presentation. But a great way to keep capers from rolling off the bagel when taking a bite is to press the capers into the cream cheese instead.

Caper Facts:

Do you ever notice white dots on your capers? They are much easier to see on an enlarged photo.

The white dots on capers are typically harmless crystallized caper salt, called tyrosine crystals. Tyrosine is an amino acid that can form crystals during the curing or pickling process, especially when capers are preserved in brine or salt. As the capers age, these crystals can appear on the surface, creating small white spots.

These crystals are safe to eat and don’t indicate spoilage. In fact, they can be a sign of high-quality capers that have undergone proper fermentation and aging. If the capers are stored properly and smell fine and show no signs of spoilage, the white spots are just part of the natural process of curing.

More Smoked Sable:

Smoked Sablefish and Watermelon Radish Platter here