I’ve always wanted to try making some kind of sweet/savory bacon-studded fritter using pâte à choux, also known as that stuff you make cream puffs with. It’s such beautifully rich, eggy dough, yet fries up to a surprisingly light, puffy texture.
Today is National Doughnut Day, as you know if you’ve been on Twitter in the last 48 hours, and so I decided to give it a go, and called it a "doughnut" in a cheap attempt to garner extra National Doughnut Day web traffic. That's also why I keep mentioning National Doughnut Day.
I went full breakfast theme, and topped mine with a little maple syrup, but feel free to get your beignet on, and cover them with a pile of powdered sugar. That’s not my preference, due to the mustache issue mentioned in the clip, but people with hair-free lips seem to like it.
Whether you’re going to surprise dad with a plate of these for Fathers Day, or you just want to tell your friends and co-workers you made bacon and egg doughnuts, I hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 8 to 10 small Bacon and Egg Doughnuts:
(this is a half a recipe, so I would highly recommend doubling everything)
6 strips bacon, sliced, browned, cooled, and chopped (save some for the tops)
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp cold water
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/8 tsp salt
1 tablespoon sugar
pinch of fresh nutmeg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
vegetable oil for deep frying
maple syrup to garnish
- Fry at 350 F. for about 7 minutes, turning often, until puffed and well-browned
Big doings in The Republic of Korea as a much hyped boy band releases its first single and mini-album. Those of us who are secretly twelve-year-old girls and followed the progress of One Direction on The X Factor may recall the excitement leading up to the premiere of their long-awaited single. (Full disclosure, I set an alarm for the middle of the night so I could be awake to listen to the live BBC broadcast of What Makes You Beautiful's unveiling. I didn't regret it.) That excitement is exactly what millions of K-Pop fans must have felt when a group called Seventeen burst forth into the world in the past week. That's mostly where the similarity ends. Mostly.
Whereas American and European boy bands usually top on at about five members, Seventeen (세븐틴) consists of thirteen young men (thirteen!) from Korea, China, and America between the ages of seventeen and twentyone . They are Josua, Dino, Jun, Seungkwan, Wonwoo, DK, Mingyu, Woozi (who wrote and produced the song), The8 (really), Vernon, Jeonghan, Hoshi (who also their in-house choreographer) and S. Coups. Sneezey, Grumpy and Doc can't be too far off. Believe it or not, at one point the band had fifteen members. For all I know they may have had seventeen members; it would just make sense.
Seventeen has been in developement for three years, but not just that, they have been promoted to the public for three years. They have videos on their YouTube chanel dating from December of 2012. Most recently they have been the subject of a TV series called The Seventeen Project. Putting that into perspective, it was almost only a year between the time 1D as individiuals showed up on The X Factor and when their first record was released.
So here's their first official music video, Adore U, and I have to say it has everything one could ask for from a K-Pop video: matching outfits, bleach blond hair, hot nerd glasses, tight choreography, slo-mo horseplay, random use of English (in fact, completely random everything) boys who weigh no more than ninety-eight pounds trying to appear badass and urban while wearing more makeup than a pageant contestant. All these things make me happy. The song is a real earworm. And the boys are beautiful. And there are a lot of them. Who could ask for anything more?
Now that we all have our very own culinary herb gardens, I thought I’d post a recipe that takes full advantage. This grilled garlic and herb shrimp recipe is very easy, IF you can just walk out into the backyard, and pick a handful of your own fresh, green sprigs.
Without that luxury, you’d have to buy four different bunches, and probably only use a little of each. What a waste. However, these are so amazingly delicious, if you don’t have a garden, you should do exactly that. Then plant the herb garden.
While you're out buying stuff, pick up a mortar and pestle, if you don't already have one. A blender or food processor won't produce the same intense flavors as this primitive tool. It's all about the compounds released by the crushing, or at least that's what I've been told.
Try to get the largest shrimp you can find, since that will allow for maximum grilling time, which equals maximum caramelization, which is where so much of the flavor comes from. So, whether you have an herb garden or not, I really hope you give these great grilled shrimp a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 6 servings:
*Note: I just guessed at these amounts because it’s that kind of a recipe.
2 pounds 16/20 peeled and deveined shrimp
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp lemon zest
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
1/2 cup of fresh picked and chopped herbs
I used basil, Italian parsley, oregano, and lemon thyme (everything works, but be careful with rosemary, as it can be over-powering)
About 4 to 6 tbsps of olive oil, or as needed
- Use 2/3 for the marinade, and save the other 1/3 for the sauce
