A Spin on Gougeres

Old Dogs, New Tricks: Buñuelos

I have been making gougères (those crispy little puffs from Burgundy made with Gruyère cheese) for decades. It never occurred to me to change the ingredients – until I was reading a Spanish recipe for essentially the same thing into which they put bits of Serrano ham or chopped green olives, or slivered almonds, or anchovies. Wow! A whole new world. Old Dog, New Tricks.

Well the Spanish version uses all kinds of wonderful things in addition to cheese The Spanish usually fry these, but they also work when baked like Gougères — especially if you are frying seafood afterwards! I mean even I can only push this Frying Is Good For You theme but soooo far! Here’s the scoop.

Put 3 Tbls. butter, 1/2 tsp. salt, 4 fl. oz. milk in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup flour, sifted. Stir until ball forms, then beat in two eggs until incorporated. Grate some Manchego cheese; chop up some anchovies, green olives, Serrano ham, or whatever you want. Divide dough into as many little bowls as you have ingredients. Mix. Using two teaspoons, put smallish balls on greased sheet and bake at 350 degrees until golden (+/- 15 minutes). That’s it. Of course, you could fry them if you really wanted to!

It's Not Mrs Paul's

Batter Up!

I have been frying (yeah, you know, like DEEP FRYING) food for 50+ years and, by and large, I think the hoopla about fried food is exaggerated — if you do it right! I recently came across a batter recipe that sounded intriguing in a book called Recipes From A Spanish Village.

It is the lightest, most flavorful frying batter I have ever used. Plus, to my mind, it is pretty healthy. The other night, for example, I fried two pounds of shrimp, two octopus tentacles, and a filet of cod. We had a net loss of less than four tablespoons olive oil — and that was for three people. That is 130 calories per person — less than a puny sized martini. Try it. My only modification to their recipe is to use Wondra flour which has a nuttiness to its taste that I like.

Recipe: Combine 100 grams (3/4 cup) Wondra flour with a pinch of salt. Gradually work in 3 Tbls. olive (or other) oil and 6 fl. oz. water. Work to a paste and then a smooth batter. Add a pinch of cayenne if you wish. When ready to fry, whisk an egg white to soft peaks and fold in. Heat olive (or peanut) oil to 350 degrees and fry baby, fry.

It’s not Mrs. Paul’s

On Grapefruit and Boy Scouts

Memories Of Things Best Forgotten

When I was a kid, I was not only a kid, I was also a Boy Scout — different animal. So we used to go camping and study comparative religions and other things that Boy Scouts do. On one of these camping trips, there were about 40 of us in a log cabin somewhere in the wilds of Pennsylvania near Gettysburg.

Even then I was an early riser, so the night before, the Scoutmaster asked me to please (actually he didn’t say “please”) start the fire and cut the grapefruits in half for breakfast when I got up. I did, only I cut 20 grapefruit in half the wrong way!

The Scoutmaster was not a happy camper. He didn’t even say “thank you.” I thought I was in deep trouble.

The Scoutmaster also had no idea what to do with 40 grapefruit halves cut the wrong way.

The scouts did though. They took them outside and threw them as far into the bushes as they could. I was a hero. I mean, who the hell had the dumb idea to make a bunch of pre-teen boys eat grapefruit in the first place? Probably the same guy who brought the oatmeal for the next morning!

Adults like grapefruit (until the get on certain medications). Kids don’t like grapefruit.

Disaster averted. Whew!