Thursday, February 19, 2009

Beignets and soup

Today's recipe test for the FS cookbook produced these tasty beignets - the French word for doughnuts, so says wikipedia. To me, they're reminiscent of the fried doughnut pastries my German great aunt would make - I wish I remembered the German name for them. This is happy food - deep-fried dough doused with powdered sugar, and I probably ate more of them in one sitting that I should have. My deep-fryer's basket suffered a serious injury a while back, so my deep-frying is now done in one of my soup-pots on the stove top. I went off script for the recipe, because it was an excuse to use my new dog bone cookie-cutters to make the beignets. I have big plans to start making my own dog biscuits, and picked up these great cookie-cutters at the local True Value, of all places. Even though these beignets are probably not ideal for dogs, my taste-testers were fired up to try a few bits and pieces.

I picked up a couple of new cookbooks, Donna Klein's The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, and Vegan Italiano. In both of these books, Klein focuses on dishes that are naturally vegan in their traditional context, rather than veganizing meat and dairy based recipes. That's a pretty cool approach, as much as I like tempeh meatballs and seitan burritos and stuff like that. The first thing I made was a gigantic pot of minestrone, with loads of fresh veggies and white beans.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

hahaha deepfried foods are bad. i eat more than i should of them too...sshhh don't tell anyone.
but one thing i do not like is donuts...not a fan of deep fried dough. french fries and tempura yes!

nice soup ...looks very hearty and comforting!

Lisa said...

I've been sitting on a doggie biscuit recipe too! But Scout likes store bought treats so much I haven't been very motivated to bake our own. I look forward to what you come up with. And the soup looks scrumptious.

Tami said...

That soup would so hit the spot right now...and it's not even 10 in the morning here!

Bianca said...

OMG! I love beignets, and every time I go down to New Orleans, I go to Cafe du Monde and watch other people eat them...not in a creepy way, but my friends or family or whoever I'm with always insist on going there. And I cry a little on the inside cause they're not naturally vegan.

Last time, my parents and I went to Cafe du Monde, my mom snuck me in some vegan muffins and a powdered sugar shaker so I could pretend like I was eating beignets while they ate the real thing. :-)

Tara said...

That soup look delicious! Definitely make your own dog biscuits. I make up batches for the dogs in my family all the time, and it's really easy. It's nice knowing exactly what we feed our canine friends!

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

Your beignets look SO delicious! I haven't eaten anything deep fried in so long, I've been deprived!

Great recipe choice, the minestrone looks heavenly. Enjoy your new books and your cookie cutter!