I don’t mean to brag, but back in culinary school, my friends and I were the shit. We were smart, could handle a knife and were creative to boot. We knew how to nick bacon from the cafeteria, who to partner with for a bread baking project, and just how much we could joke around in class before the chef would kick one of us out. Oh yeah, we were THOSE annoying kids. The ones who knew everything, thought every last dish they made was kick-ass, and the ones who cracked loud jokes in class. But most important, we all were really good cooks who loved food…and we had no problem drinking the boxed wine in the school produce cooler. As part of my preparations to move to San Francisco, I wanted to catch up with all the people that are important to me. One of the biggest things I have missed out on in past few years is cooking with some of the greatest people I have ever known: Kevin, Lynsi, and Evan. My culinary peeps. So we decided to have a reunion to cook and eat together. Everyone contributed some sort of food that was made in a communal kitchen, significant others drank wine, and any one who had made an adorable baby in the past few years allowed said baby to play the drums with kitchen utensils all night long (Kevin).
My contribution was a lamb curry I had made a week before and froze, mainly because I was still pretty sick from the terrible flu I caught in SF. I even convinced Lynsi to stuff and wrapped my dates with camembert and bacon before roasting them.
Evan hooked us up with some delicious bruschetta to hold us over until dinner was ready(and yes, tomatoes were still in season when the dinner occured. For reals.).
Lynsi had already started her stuffed pork belly by the time I had arrived. You gotta love a big old hunk of pork!
Kevin contributed a braised brisket with potato dumpling and brisket jus.
The meat was tender and very smoky, and it gave the sauce just enough umami flavor to make the potato dumplings really stand out.
Then Kevin announced he was going to make homemade jelly doughnuts, and him and Lynsi gave a cheer: hurrah!
So making jelly doughnuts are pretty similar to making a basic bread or pizza dough with yeast. It is not difficult, but it does take a bit of time. First, you mix the dough together, let it rise, then roll it out and cut into circles. Then the circles rise a bit more before you fry them, cool, and fill with jelly. I don’t have the exact recipe on me, but I know Kevin used our old culinary school book, On Cooking, published in 2002 or 2003.
After much debating, we attempted to fill the dougnuts using a “food injector”, which was basically a syringe filled with jam. The chunks of fruit and seed kept getting stuck in the hollow needle, and se realized about two minutes in to this that it was way too messy, but there was no turning back. In the future, I would use a pastry bag with a decent-sized tip–much less mess and hassle.
Thanks for a great night, guys. Can’t wait to do it again! ~LTG!
