Monday, February 05, 2007

Donut fritters





Its Saturday evening. Hubby and I are driving around, running random errands at the same time recuperating from the events of our respective schedules. He from a busy day at work and myself, like a good docile desi wife, housecleaning. And then, as if a test of endurance, Fate lodged a nail snug in the warm comfort of our car's front right tire which we notice in the Indian store's micro parking lot. Ever so optimistic hubby, assures me that it is only a 15 minute impediment, but adding the reality multiplicative factor turned it to almost an hour plus semi-chilly weather. Not letting this minor hitch deter us, we completed ALL our chores for the day EXCEPT my favorite, dinner. It was almost 9.30pm and we were starving, so with little thought our resolve of eating a healthy home cooked meal was flung out the window.

Comfortably seated at the local TGIF, waiting on our food, we browsed through the dessert menu. And what do we have here... donuts! Not the glazed ones, not the jammy ones, not even my favorite custard filled Boston cream. Just plain cake donuts, the kind (I soon found out) both our mom's used to make growing up. Theres something strangely comforting in the thought that hubby and I share nostalgia inspite of growing up on opposite ends of the globe! Bonding over food is beautiful as bonding gets...famous words, will be surprised if I don't kill myself overeating at this rate. Anyhow, the next day, I just had to try my hand at donuts. Of course I don't have the 3 hours my mom would take, on a good Sunday I might have one sixth of that! So, I hunted and found a fritter recipe that I saw Giada once make--Zeppole. Now , this is nothing like the real deal but with sufficient manipulation, a dash of nutmeg and a sprinkle of sugar, it was a soft, mushy and more importantly hasty mamma's-donut-craving-satiator!

You will need:

1 stick of butter
3 tbsps of sugar
1 cup of water
1 cup of flour
4 eggs
2 tsps of powdered nutmeg
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
Sugar for sprinkling over fritters
Oil for deep frying

Method

Bring butter, 3 tbsps of sugar and water to boil in a saucepan on medium heat. Remove from heat and add flour. Mix till a ball is formed, if this doesn't happen bring heat saucepan till a ball is formed. Transform this dough ball into a bowl, add one egg at a time and mix till completely incorporated into the dough (now slowly becoming batter). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate till ready to fry.
In a seperate pan heat oil in medium heat. Oil is ready when the tiniest bit of batter dropped in rises to the top. Once warmed up, drop spoonfuls of batter into oil. Turn over fritters once or twice till golden brown. Remove fritters, drain out excess oil and sprinkle with sugar while still warm. Serve immediately.

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