Yesterday's cooking lessons: doughnuts, shtraubi and pads

 The doughnuts, the crunchy shtraubi and the lunch meat variety, pads. 
Firstly, donuts.

Featuring:

Mats. :)
Hehe. Okay, so I've never made donuts before. (I prefer the 'dough nut' version of the word, btw. It's so cool.) Mum made them once and they didn't work out - they were burnt on the outside and runny on the inside. Still good, though, so we are them anyway and then we were really sick. 

         I had three different recipies, trying to make sure stuff made sense. Like, there's almost no sugar and  wanted to double check that. Or one said no salt and that makes no sense either. It would have been a waste of a lot of mats if I messed up :) Mum helped by being nervous, fussy and over-all pesimistic, which is usualy a good sign and stuff then works out perfectly in the end. 

 

  

Then they are bounced around into a neat cushion, left to rise, then spread rolled around 2cm thick and cut out with shapes, and left to rise again, covered someplace warm. Both times they kind of double in size, but if they don't, it didn't seem to matter much, as they popped into shape as soon as they hit boiling oil. 

Yeah. I know. They are all over the place in shapes and sizes, because I never did them before, had no idea how I should shape them before and wasn't sure if they'll get puffy and if they didn't, how well will they actually be done in the center. Oddly enough, every single one was delicious. Tastes in the household vary, so some prefer them more done, others less and some just use them as an excuse to get to jam.

 

 ~

The second version of the shtraubi was more to my memory of them - they were without yeast, a lot more done, crunchy, sweeter and somehow tasting of winter. They usually go with mashes apples, but we ran out. Again, this was done mostly from an idea what they ught to be like, but they were a total success. Mags adored them and Piček annihilated them and dogs literally drooled all over kitchen when mum was teasing them with crumps. If you've ever seen a Rottweiler drool, you'll know how serious that gets :p

  

Tricky bit is knowing just how hot the oil ought to be. If it's too hot, they burn within seconds, but only on the outside. If it's not hot enough, it foams like a fountain that someone dropped a detergent in.

Ultimately, though, this is what they're like,

This is what is left

And this is why. Dad complained about them until he finished them off. :P

And for lunch, because you have to have some normal food before such  dessert, we made bready pads.

You need: some herbs, such as parsley, onions, some spices, old bread in bits, dipped in milk and minced meat. 

 That green thingie in the middle is blitva. Not an ingreadiant, but a sidedish. Anyboo, you mix the lot, make pads and fry it. Ultra yum.