Look good, don't they? This is a shot of David filling one of a batch of jelly donuts that we made to bring to my mom's on the last night of Chanukah. They poofed up nicely (after some doubt as to whether the yeast was alive), and fried up a nice golden brown. Unfortunately, they turned out dry and somewhat cardboard-like. The recipe sounded wonderful (it was from the New York Times)--it has orange zest and sour cream in it--but I'll just chalk it up to experience, and return to another, more successful jelly donut recipe I made a couple of years ago. I just have to remember which recipe it was. One side note: the leftover donuts were yummy the next morning toasted up and spread with a little butter. Butter on donuts? Someone get Paula Deen on the horn!

 

It was actually a few weeks ago that I made these, but I remember I had some leftover chicken breasts and decided to try to make pulled chicken empanadas. I looked up the recipe for empanadas in The Joy of Cooking, and used that for the dough. Here's the recipe: process 3 cups a.p. flour, 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, and 1 tsp. salt. Cut in 10 tbs. cold butter, cubed, and 1/2 cup shortening, cubed (or cut in small pieces) until mixture resembles coarse crumb. Transfer to a large bowl and drizzle with 11 to 13 tbs. ice water. Mix gently until dampened to gather into a ball. Shape into a disk and refrigerate wrapped tightly in plastic for at least one hour.

    This recipe was for beef picadillo, so I looked up pulled chicken, but there was only a recipe for pulled pork, so I improvised, starting with the switch from using a 4 pound hunk of pork butt to a couple of boneless chicken breasts (about a pound). Basically, this recipe called for coating the meat with the Southern Dry Rub for Barbecue listed earlier in the book (cumin, brown sugar, paprika, chili powder, ground red pepper, mace, salt and cracked black pepper) and then browning the meat in a pan, then covering it and placing it in the oven 'til tender. Then shred the meat with a fork, and mix with barbecue sauce (I used Annie's brand). I then rolled out the dough, cut into circles about 6", and put a few tablespoons of chicken in the center, folded it over and crimped with a fork. Brushed the tops with egg wash and baked in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.

     As you can probably imagine with all that butter and shortening, these were some damn flaky empanadas. And mighty tasty, we thought. We like the empanadas at the local empanada store in our neighborhood, but I always think the dough's a bit dry and that they skimp a bit on the fillings.

 

I mean honestly, who wouldn't love to have a big pan of simmering homemade meatballs on their stove (unless they're a vegetarian, of course)? I found a recipe in a cookbook Gail gave me by Arthur Schwartz called "Naples at Table". The recipe is called Polpette alla Napoletana (Neapolitan Meatballs), and with the recipe comes a story about how Neapolitans always used to use moistened bread in their meatballs, a practice which was frequently forgotten once they came to the new country, where meat was cheaper, and using bread to extend the meat reminded them of their peasant days. Unfortunately, Schwartz says, using all meat makes a very dense meatball, as does toasted dry breadcrumbs, which also eventually became popular. So, I used his soaked-bread recipe, which Schwartz assures makes a light, crusty and juicy meatball, and is as follows (I cut the recipe to about 1/3, but I'm including the original measurements here): Soak 3 cups dried crustless bread cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes before measuring in cold water. Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine 3 eggs, beaten, 2 large cloves garlic, finely minced, 1/2 cup loosely packed pecorino cheese, 1/4 cup loosely packed parsley, 1/3 c pine nuts (optional), 1/3 c raisins (optional), 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper. Add meat and the bread, which has been squeezed out. Mix everything really well (Schwartz says not to worry about working the meat too much), then form into balls (he says 1 1/2 inches is traditional, but I like smaller meatballs). Then fry them up in a pan coated with oil until their brown and crusty on the outside and almost done inside, and if you're using sauce, add it and simmer for about 15 minutes.

     I have to say that they did turn out yummy...light, crusty and juicy (in fact, David questioned briefly with his first bite as to whether they were fully cooked). I didn't have any pine nuts, and we don't like raisins, but we did have a bag of dried fruit, so I added a couple of diced prunes and an apricot, which sounds strange to me, as it might to you, until I thought of the time we had dinner at Kim and Todd's and she made a delicious pork stew with prunes and onions http://www.walkernewyork.com/eats/archives/2005_03.html#000936 so I thought it might work, and it did: it added just a bit of sweetness that helped, with the bread, to break up the dense meat.