Mama Bross and the Holy Heebster

Born in Montreal, Larah Bross is the founder and owner of Bross Bagels in Edinburgh. She’s taught the Scots the beauty of the bagel, telling everyone to to FILL THEIR HOLE. Her five shops are a fun and lively marriage of a Montreal bagel shop and NY style deli. Aside from her absolutely delicious bagels, she is totally HILARIOUS and so much fun on a night on the tiles.

Larah was a guest on The Shift Show, where we had a bit of a bagel-off. We both made the ‘Holy Heebster’ - her’s is the original, and ours was our own sort of NY twist - gotta have that American cheese in there :)

If you missed the show listen to it here.

And give the bagel a go! We’ve been playing with different NY style bagel recipes - the difference between a Montreal bagel is the preparation and size of the hole. We love the fluffy and doughy texture of a NY bagel over a Montreal, but they are both excellent vessels for a multitude of toppings. This recipe was really easy and they came out perfect on our first go!

INGREDIENTS

1 sesame seed bagel (we made ours with poppyseed)

1 fried egg (we substituted for an omelette with 3 slices of American cheese)

Smashed avocado

Kimchi hot sauce - we used Dalston Chillies Bajan Hot Sauce instead

Potato latke - Larah has a secret recipe from her Bubbe, so we used this one. Don’t worry about the matzo - just make sure you hand grate those potatoes! As Larah’s Bubbe said, “It’s not a good latke unless there is a little bit of blood in there” - lol.

METHOD

Toast your bagel

Add hot sauce to both sides of your bagel

Add your smashed avo - Larah had a great tip for this - scoop out your avocado and THEN smash it on the bagel.

Place your latke on the smashed avocado

Fry your egg or prepare your omelette. The omlette should be folded over to make a square so it fits on your bagel. Place on the bagel.