I’d like to start by saying that we do, in fact, eat a very
healthy diet. We love main dish salads. There are always fruits and vegetables
on hand. My kids have never eaten a Twinkie in all their lives. We cook from
ingredients on the regular, fast food has never been a thing, etc etc etc.
Something about the kids hitting puberty made us revert to
buying chips and snack foods, and thus we stepped upon the slippery slope. At
some point we dusted off the deep fryer we got (unrequested, btw) for our
wedding. And – not gonna lie – homemade fried stuff is really damn excellent.
We started with the occasional, relatively innocuous fried chicken; how bad can
it be if you have it twice a year?! And then I found those excellent shrimp and
sweet potato fritters. Well, and David’s fish tacos. And there’s always falafel,
of course.
As we were washing dishes tonight, my daughter said, “I love
it when we’re slaves to the fat. You know, when we stand around the deep fryer
as a family and eat all the stuff as it comes out.” And I know that she was
talking about a really epic night last year when we discovered onion bahji (we
ended up being too full for actual dinner) and the funnel cake night recently
and tonight’s apple fritters…. And I know that my cholesterol is high and my
family doctor is going to be really unhappy when she runs my bloodwork again…. And
I can’t actually disagree with Anna. While I wish it was something healthier,
there really *does* seem to be something particularly comforting about the
shared experience of watching the food cook and laughing as we burn our fingers
and tongues, standing shoulder-to-shoulder and singing bits of whatever music
Alexa has inflicted on us. Hot pot comes close; fondue might be a close second;
but lordy do we love our deep fryer.
**
We don’t normally celebrate Easter, not being Christians.
When we were first married we tried to make both families happy, but once the
kids came along it was an orgy of chocolate and sugar and ham and trying to
keep fancy clothes clean, and we were exhausted at trying to celebrate all the
things in all the ways when it wasn’t a holiday that held personal meaning. For
years we skipped town and went to hotels with waterparks or visited people with
no expectations of us; it was delightful. The year I was studying for a wine
test, we invited my study group over for grilled lamb and a truly stupendous
amount of wine and called it Fake Easter – still one of my favorite
non-holidays ever. With this being a quarantine year, nobody expected anything
and I really hadn’t even planned a meal.
In the way of such things, we had a lovely day. We slept in
much later than usual. We had a long, laughter-filled video call with friends
from Canada that we haven’t seen IRL in years. We lounged on the couch and read
good books. Pam did a drive-by with a few bottles of wine I wasn’t expecting
(and am enjoying very much, thank you). Anna and I cooked dinner together. David
and I went for a walk and met some great new neighbors. And then we came home
and made these, which were so, so delicious and bad for us and a completely
perfect way to end our lovely non-holiday full of unexpected goodness.
If I’m learning anything from this time of enforced quiet,
it is to appreciate the little bits of grace that populate our days. I think we
overlook or rush through them much of the time, and I’m hoping that a silver
lining to all of this is the ability to stop and recognize the homey beauty
that comes to us in the ordinary course of our days.
Adapted from A Real American Breakfast by Cheryl AltersJamison and Bill Jamison. I was so happy to find this at our local used
bookstore; I really like trying new breakfasts at restaurants and this has
enough new ideas for a lifetime worth of Christmas breakfast experiments. I
halved the original recipe based on how queasy we all felt after shoveling in
twice as much of this as we should have.
Slaves to the Fat Apple Fritters
2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
(alternately, chop them coarsely – we tried both ways)
3 tbsp applejack, brandy, rum, white wine, or rose
1 ½ tablespoons sugar
1 egg, separated
1 tablespoon nut or vegetable oil (we used pistachio)
½ cup flour (we used a cup-for-cup GF blend from Namaste Foods)
Generous pinch salt
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
Confectioners’ sugar and/or a mixture of cinnamon sugar (I
suggest both)
Put the apples in a shallow dish. Sprinkle with the
applejack and sugar, toss to combine, cover, and let sit 30 minutes.
Whisk the egg yolk with the oil until it’s light yellow in
color, then stir in 1/3 cup of water. Stir the flour and salt together, then
add the yolk mixture and stir to combine. Drain off the liquid from the apples
and add that as well.
Beat the egg white until stiff but not dry and fold into the
flour mixture.
Heat at least 1 inch of oil (if you’re using a pan instead
of a deep fryer) to 350.
If you’re using wedges, blot them lightly with a paper towel
so they’re not too wet and the batter adheres. Dip the apples into the batter
and fry in batches until golden brown and crisp, about 3 minutes. If you’re using
apple pieces, stir them into the batter then drop the batter by tablespoons
into the hot oil. Don’t make them too big or the inside will be undercooked
when the outside is on the border of being too crispy.
Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar and/or cinnamon sugar. It
might be tempting to think that this is gilding the lily, but I assure you that
it’s an important step and you shouldn’t skip it. You’re already eating
something deep-fried so there’s no use skimping now, is there? Eat while hot,
ideally standing shoulder-to-shoulder over the deep fryer. This would also be
excellent with vanilla ice cream.
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