Washington Irving wrote of eating beignets fried in bear fat in A Tour on the Prairies, a memoir of his adventures in the wilderness of America in 1832. An outstanding example of a classic food being adapted to locally available ingredients, don’t you think? Bet they were darn good, too. It’s safe to assume that […]
READ ONI don’t mean beignets as they’re known in France. I mean beignets as they’re known in New Orleans. Proper French beignets are more like what we know as fritters, batter-dipped items of various kinds, often fruits but sometimes vegetables. However the fruit was long ago disposed of in the cafés of New Orleans, and today […]
READ ONI admit that compared to past restaurant shows I’ve been to, this year isn’t a barn-burner, but there’s still more than enough good stuff to make it worth the trip. Given the topic of the past week — doughnuts and frying — I was particularly interested to see this new piece of gear: The new […]
READ ONIn order to excel at things like doughnuts, fritters and cannoli, it’s important to understand the process of frying. As I’ve mentioned previously, good frying is really more like steaming, but why would that be so? It all comes down to this simple maxim: oil and water don’t mix. In the case of frying, the […]
READ ONInstead of a frit-ter you mean? No, it can’t. I know, there’s a certain contingent of food alarmists out there that is forever seeking to de-joy life’s most elemental pleasures, but there’s simply no cooking technique out there that rivals frying for things like fritters or doughnuts. Oh yes, I can just hear some of […]
READ ONAll that talk of drinking made me think, well, why not do a beer batter? They’re as good for sweet fritters as they are for savory fry-ups like fish. All you need is a little sugar in the mix, and to replace the herbs with spices. Like so: 1 cup all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons sugar […]
READ ONWhy not indeed? Ever since friend and reader Kristin wrote in to suggest I employ my bread starter to make onion rings, I’ve been battering everything in sight with Kentucky sourdough. Of course, not being made of San Francisco critters, my Midwestern starter can’t properly be called “sourdough”, but “sourdough apple fritters” sounds a lot […]
READ ONHaving just finished a rustic, though still rather refined, French treatment of apples, I think I’d like to do something a bit more…oh, I don’t know quite how to say it…”folksy”. Fall weather seems to bring that out. So what about some apple fritters this week? Oh yeah, that’s the stuff.
READ ONThe thing about starters is, they’re incredibly easy. If they weren’t, human beings would never have invented bread. The only trick is remembering to care for it. The vast majority of starter failures come from forgetting to feed one on a regular basis. If you can do that you won’t have any problems. Begin a […]
READ ONHe’s at it again. Mark Bittman of the New York Times, who in cooperation with the Sullivan Street Bakery’s Jim Lahey set the world afire with no-knead bread last year (in fact almost a year ago to the day), has published another insta-bread recipe in this week’s Dining & Wine section. This time it’s no-oven […]
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