Now this Choux Pastry Bagel makes for a most precious little hors d’oeuvre and since I showed you how to make the choux pastry profiteroles some months ago, half the battle is already won; the only difference is the shape, which is precisely what I am going to demonstrate and teach this time around, in addition to a prawn cocktail …
… Frankly I am not much of a fan of cocktail sauce, whether with prawns or anything else, but my fellow citizens in India love it, and so I am grudgingly obliging, whilst making it a little more fun for myself by using it as a filling for a choux pastry bagel; that said, one can fill these little gems with whatever one wishes to.
Please refer to the Profiterole recipe for the making of the choux base, (the recipe will yield 3 bagels) and as for the basic mayonnaise recipe that will be used as the foundation of the cocktail sauce, please refer to the Chicken Caesar Salad on Toasted Sourdough recipe. Both the aforementioned recipes may be found on DiyaSethi.com, section ‘Treat of the Week’.
Once you have made the choux base, filled your piping bag, preheated the oven and placed the silicone mat on your baking tray, all of which is shown in the profiterole recipe, you will place an open ring mould of a 2 ¾ inch diameter on your mat (STEP 1), and pipe a ring, the same height (½ inch approximately) and using the same method as the profiterole, inside the mould (STEPS 2 TO 4). Then you will level out the hollow and the surface of the ring using any ordinary teaspoon (STEPS 5 & 6). Then brush with egg wash (i.e. one whole egg whisked together with 1 tablespoon cold water) (STEPS 7 & 8), sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds (STEP 9) and into the oven they go in the same position and for the same duration as the profiteroles (STEP 10).
After exactly 25 minutes, pull them out and place on a wire rack to cool (STEP 11). Then take a serrated knife (STEP 12), and slice right across the centre as shown below (STEPS 13 & 14). Set aside until use.
Now onto the filling, for which you will need 200g of prawns, any size you like, for enough filling for 3 bagels. You can simply poach the prawns in simmering water for approximately 3 minutes for a small to medium size, or else steam them for 3 minutes for small to medium, and 5 minutes for a large size.
To steam without a steamer, I simply fit a wire mesh sieve over a pot of simmering water on low heat (there should be a gap of 2 inches between the bottom of the sieve and the water – STEPS 15 TO 17), cover with a lid and let it steam empty for a couple of minutes (STEP 18).
Then add the prawns and steam for the duration corresponding to the size (STEPS 19 TO 21). Then let cool, pull of the the tails and chop up into roughly ¼ inch pieces (STEPS 22 & 23), and refrigerate until use.
Cocktail Sauce
YIELD: Enough for 160 to 200g prawns / 3 Mini Choux Bagels
- 2 tablespoons homemade mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons Flanders sour cream
- 1½ teaspoons Worcester sauce
- 4 drops tabasco
- 1 teaspoon brandy
- ¼ teaspoon lemon
- Salt and pepper to taste
First gather all of your ingredients (STEP 1), then start with placing the mayonnaise into a mixing bowl (STEP 2), add the rest of the ingredients one by one and whisk together (STEP 3 TO 7),then fold into the prawns (STEPS 8 & 9) and refrigerate until use.
Serving The Mini Choux Pastry Bagel, Prawn Cocktail Filling
And now at last onto the final round and assembly of the ‘Mini Choux pastry Bagel, Prawn cocktail filling’, for which one will first bring the choux bagels to room temperature – if they have been refrigerated – and then refresh them on a silicone mat lined baking tray on centre shelf of oven preheated 90°C (bottom heating convection setting), just for them to heat and ‘freshen up’, for 1 to 2 minutes (STEP 1), then take them out and butter the insides of each half immediately (STEP 2), then add a thin layer of mustard on the bottom side (STEP 3), then fill generously with the prawn cocktail (STEPS 4 & 5), place top layer on filling (STEP 6), garnish with micro-greens (STEP 7) and serve immediately.
Above: Final Image