American Style

Last week was the 1st of May, which here in Finland is known as Vappu, and celebrated mostly by the students, especially by the high school graduates. In most families on May 1st it is a tradition to make doughnuts, and we got inspired by this to try it by ourselves also. We were under the impression that it would be somehow very difficult, but it was actually surprisingly easy.

When you think of doughnuts, people often start thinking about the USA, the promised land of all junk food. We decided to stay within the lines of that idea, and tried to imitate the KFC deep fried chicken. To prevent it from becoming that overly fatty, we enjoyed the fried chicken dipped in Greek Tzatziki and  next to some marinated tomatoes with mozzarella and onion. Since America is sometimes considered as the melting pot of different cultures and nationalities, it was probably acceptable that we mixed in some Greek impressions too.

Homemade KFC

~ 400-500g of chicken pieces of desired size

~2,5 dl of wheat flour

curry powder

pepper 

salt 

dried herbs of your desire (oregano, thyme, tarragon, parsley...) 

a few chopped garlic cloves (we left this out, since there was garlic in almost everything else on the table)

an egg (which we forgot to add... but it still was good and crispy, just quite not the same) 

Lastly, around a liter of vegetable oil to fry them in

Just add together the dry ingredients, garlic, and the egg. Roll the chicken pieces in the mixture. The result something something quite dry, even with the egg. Then just heat the oil up in a wide pan up to around 180-190 degrees Celsius. If you don't have a thermometer to measure the oil with, you can throw a piece of white bread in the oil. If the bread rises to the surface the oil is hot enough to start deep frying. Lift all the chickens in the oil and fry under a lid, though occasionally turning them around, until the surface is deliciously golden brown. Take the done chicken pieces out with a sieve and roll in paper to get the extra oil away from the surface, otherwise they will turn soggy when the oil gets absorbed. 

The Tzatziki 

150 g Greek yogurt 

~½ cucumber

a few garlic cloves 

dill 

vinegar or lemon juice

olive oil 

Peel and grate the cucumber, squeeze the water out, and place on a sieve to drip in peace. Chop the garlic cloves until very fine. Add the garlic to the yogurt along with dill and around half a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon, and a tablespoon of olive oil. Mix in the grated cucumber and put in the fridge for at least half an hour so that the garlic taste can develop in peace. 

The Doughnuts 

100g melted butter

2½ dl full fat milk

1 pack (7g) dry yeast (or a corresponding amount of normal yeast) 

1 dl sugar

1 tsp cardamom

1 tsp salt

1 egg

7½ dl wheat flour 

Around a liter of oil to fry 

Some sugar to roll them in when they're done 

Melt the butter and put it aside to cool down. Warm the milk a little warmer than body temperature, and pour in a bowl. Add sugar, cardamom, salt, and egg (if you are using normal yeast, add it to the warm milk and stir well. If you're using dried yeast, mix it in the flour). Add most of the flour in small portions to the milk mixture. Before adding the last part of flour, pour in the melted butter. Finish the flour, and knead well with hands. 

Let the dough rise until twice the amount

Make small buns out of the dough and make a hole in the middle to make the desired kind of doughnuts. Notice that the size will still increase when fried, so make them smaller than what you want them to be when they're done. After,  start heating the oil and let them still rise while the oil heats up. When the oil is around 180-190 degrees Celsius, deep fry them. Look at the recipe of KFC to see the tip of measuring the right temperature if you don't have a thermometer. The doughnuts cook done very fast. It takes only around a minute per side or less, so don't do anything else while deep frying, concentrate on what you're doing. Lift the doughnuts up from the oil with a sieve, and roll with spoons in sugar all around.

 Enjoy the fatty, sweet treats without feeling bad, it's alright to treat yourself well every once in a while! 

Notice, that you can use the same oil twice or thrice to deep fry. We used the same oil for both KFC and the doughnuts, but we fried the doughnuts first, because they don't leave a taste in the oil. It would be quite unpleasant to eat chicken-tasting doughnuts, or what do you think? 

To complete the evening American style, we spent the rest of the evening watching the Bad Boys II. Awesome entertainment when you don't feel like using your brain! Highly recommended.