deep-fried goodness?

long time no update! i've gotten back into the swing of things, cooking-wise; currently our kitchen is spotless, which certainly makes me very happy. it'll be hard moving back into the messy, less-clean dorms this fall... this week, i've really only cooked on wednesday and thursday. wednesday, v and i made a chicken curry (and a veg curry for mika), and empanadas from v's filipino cookbook. thursday, i made ginger doughnuts and we made milkshakes. theoretically, we made watermelon milkshakes, but we really made regular milkshakes and ate the watermelon because it's been 80+ degrees, hot, and humid in the city.

the chicken curry + veg curry went pretty well; they were essentially the same thing, except that the veg curry had more vegetables in it (both number of vegetables and number of types of vegetables), with potatoes, peas, zucchini, carrots, and tomatoes. oh, and onions. never forget the onions, and always use more than the recipe says, 'cause you can never have too many onions... ;) we were supposed to use a food processor to process garlic, ginger, green coriander (ie, cilantro), and a bunch of spices, but instead we used the blender, which, to our surprise, actually worked. it looked pretty gross though; it was the color of brillo pads, but slightly brighter - essentially it looked like vaguely radioactive/sinister spinach. anyway, there was not one spice mix, but three...we fried some black mustard seeds (which later turned a gorgeous shade of reddish brown, when the curries were done) with turmeric in some oil, then added onions, then the other two spice mixtures. then you add the meat/vegetables, add coconut milk, and simmer for a good long while. nice and easy, once you finish the mise-en-place (this is another recipe where that actually matters). i accidentally added water to the veg curry, where "accidentally" means that i thought the stuff in the pot wouldn't cook through if it wasn't covered with liquid, so i added water. unfortunately, that watered it down...i attempted to thicken it after boiling off some of the liquid, by pureeing part of the mixture, but it only worked to a lower degree. ah, well, can't have everything.

the empanada filling was pretty good, but i think that it needed a little more liquid to moisten the inside of the pastry dough, and to bind it all together (kind of like cream in a potato-onion filling for a pastry like this). the veg version - corn and potatoes with onions - was a bit garlic heavy (and i have a fair tolerance for garlic). the pastry dough was disappointing - it was flour, sugar, water, oil, and salt. it both needed more fat, or maybe butter instead of oil, and to be rolled thinner. rolling the dough thin was a problem because we have no rolling pin, it was really hot, and the dough had a fair amount of gluten in it - it was pretty reluctant to stretch out. still, the empanadas were pretty good. i think we'll end up trying them again sometime, to work out the kinks.

anyway, i was more like v's cooking lackey on wednesday (as much as i can be a cooking lackey), which was relaxing, but of course i needed to cook something on my own as well. enter the doughnuts. i can't remember how i came upon this recipe; i believe it was while looking for recipes to make crystallized ginger, which is really quite expensive ($4 for 12 ounces at Trader Joe's, and that's as cheap as it gets...it's $8 for a spice bottle's worth at your regular supermarket). anyway, it's on epicurious.com. not only do the doughnuts look really pretty, well, ginger doughnuts sound pretty good to me...the last time i deep-fried something sweet was when i made german doughnuts - yeast-raised, jam-filled doughnuts. what were they called? jessica was excited when she found out they were german. :) (if you're reading this, jessica, hello!) anyway, the ginger doughnuts are your typical cake-y doughnut, a la Dunkin Donuts rather than a la Krispy Kreme.

well, let me tell you, it's a bad idea to make doughnuts on a hot day. or maybe it's just these doughnuts. i chilled the dough (which is really, really easy to make...just mix and stir) for an hour and a half, and took it out to roll it (with a wine bottle) on the table...wow, it got sticky in about 3 seconds. doughnut holes it was! even then, my hands got pretty sticky and i'd have to wet them down periodically. back into the fridge they went, until people arrived (because i wasn't going to eat an entire mixing bowl of doughnuts myself). the recipe states that one should use a mixture of oil and shortening for the frying substance. personally, i find shortening to be really gross, and i'm frightened by the idea of trans fats, so i've stopped using it, but i gave in for this time, when i saw organic, non-hydrogenated, trans-fat-free shortening at harvest. i'm not sure how it became shortening if it wasn't hydrogenated, but the sole ingredient is "mechanically pressed palm oil." perhaps i should write a letter to the manufacturer. (waseem? josh?) anyway, frying these doughnuts is like frying anything...the baking powder in them caused the doughnuts to make funny shapes - kind of like a slightly dry cookie dough when you roll it in balls and flatten it - it fractures. however, they still tasted good...i thought they looked pretty soggy when they came out of the oil, but i guess it was just the large amount of oil...doughnuts are just not good for you. however, they crisped up quite a lot after cooling and being rolled in ginger-sugar. incidentally, the ginger in the doughnuts comes from chopped crystallized ginger, as well as ground ginger. i'm sure you could steep the cream in fresh ginger if you wanted, to add even more ginger flavor, but that's overkill.

so, the doughnuts were quite good. i liked them more than regular doughnuts, and the real proof is that ray, who doesn't like eating things that have egregious amounts of fat in them (these are only unhealthy because they're fried; the actual ingredients are not that bad), ate several throughout the evening, while we watched 8 femmes and 101 dalmatians (and then the last 20 minutes of the fifth element, another excellent movie). allie took one for the road, too. :)

i had also bought a watermelon, intending to make watermelon milkshakes per my Gourmet magazine, which had finally arrived from mail forwarding via New House. however, the first people to come by didn't feel like watermelon milkshakes, so we made chocolate-cherry ones, and people ate the watermelon separately (which was better, since it was colder by the time people started eating it). this whole convoluted story goes towards the simple fact that i also tried making a chutney out of the watermelon rind. this is a situation where i judged a recipe by its picture, which, though more reliable than choosing a book for its cover, is still fairly hit-or-miss. but the picture! it was a glass bowl full of this gorgeous, translucent yellow stuff. how could i resist? anyway, i had the watermelon rind and i was just going to throw it out. so, i scraped off any pink stuff, peeled away the green part, and cut up the resultant white part. mix that with ginger, garlic, pepper, salt, cider vinegar, sugar, and water, and you've got your chutney (after about an hour on the stove). yes, it does turn a lovely, gorgeous yellow color, even when you use white vinegar instead of cider vinegar, and ground ginger and garlic powder instead of fresh because you're too lazy (and too broke) to go back to star (i can hear its siren call...). but, wow - take a whiff and it smells all heady, full of vinegar, even though it's all boiled away...i have to admit i was too afraid to taste it. i'll try it today, and let you know...

ginger doughnuts
doughnuts:
3 1/2c flour
1T ginger
1T baking powder
1t salt
3/4c finely chopped crystallized ginger (~4 oz)
2t lemon zest
1 1/4c sugar
3 eggs
1T vanilla
1/2c whipping cream
2T unsalted butter, melted and cooled to lukewarm

topping:
1 1/2c sugar
2t ginger

3c vegetable oil
3c vegetable shortening

[1] for doughnuts: whisk first 4 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. stir in crystallized ginger and lemon peel.

[2] whisk sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract in large bowl to blend well. stir in cream and melted butter. add dry ingredients and stir to blend well (dough will be sticky). cover bowl with plastic wrap; chill at least 1 hour.

[3] for topping: mix sugar and ground ginger in medium bowl to blend.

[4] to make regular doughnuts: roll out dough on generously floured surface to 3/4-inch thickness. using floured 2 1/4-inch cookie cutter, cut out dough rounds. using floured 1 1/4-inch cookie cutter, cut out hole in center of each large dough round, forming doughnuts. repeat process, cutting out more doughnuts until all dough is used up. place doughnuts on baking sheets covered with plastic wrap. to make doughnut holes: grab about 2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. refrigerate until ready to be fried.

[5] heat oil and shortening to 350 degrees. you can shorcut this by putting a bit of dough in the oil; when it's hot enough it'll start cooking. fry each doughnut until golden brown on both sides, turning with a slotted spoon to cook evenly. let drain briefly on paper-towel lined cookie sheets or plates, then roll in ginger sugar while still warm.

[makes 30-40 doughnut holes. store in an airtight container]