My friend Valeria had given me a recipe a few days ago and the recipe said:
1 Egg Yolk
1 Cup Olive Oil
2 Cups Water
Sugar (for toppings)
Flour (as much as you need)
Anyhow I had just woken-up and wasn't really thinking when I put the 1 egg yolk into my bowl and proceeded to put the oil and water into it.
I started stirring and putting flour in it little by little and this was when it kind of dawned on me that I'd need a s***load of flour to get any kind of a dough that I could roll and cut. Of course, I ran out of flour before it got to this stage and I ended up with this bowl full of Cenci-Gone-Wrong.
So did I throw this out? I kind of wanted to - but no! If you ever had a grandmother and grandfather who survived the Great Kanto Earthquake and two World Wars and a mother who was a starving adolescent during World War II, you were taught to NEVER throw away food and so I just went right ahead and let the oh-too-soft batter rest for 15 minutes and then deep fried them anyway.
'Cenci' as it's called in Tuscany is called by different names. In Lombardy they are called 'Chiacchiere' and in Spain they're called 'Cuchiflitos'. They are supposed to look like this...so you can see why it was a problem that I didn't have enough flour to harden the dough enough to roll it out.
...and last but not least...I wondered as I spent more than an hour frying these things what happened to 'a few' Cenci.
This is how much we had left after I nibbled on at least 10 of them:
WARNING: Makes enough for 10 people or a few hungry kids.
9 comments:
Hey....these don't look bad! They look like little mini fritters....just add raisins and they would be like portzelky...a traditional New Years 'cookie' that Mennonites make. Well, enjoy the fruit of your labor and you are right...one can always find use for those 'flops'. Grin. Wait til I post my zwieback yesterday. The boys took me out for a birthday dinner in the midst of a rising so it had two extra 'punch' downs. The result....a bit hard and grin...well...wait til you see the post...they look like little duckies all in a row. Do you know what zwieback is? It means 'two buns'....one on top of the other. Grin....Happy Easter way over there....have a very special day.
Trish: I've really got to try some of your Mennonite recipes one of these days and post it too. Will look forward to seeing your 'zwieback'. :)
That is only 100lbs.... how tall are you? You are truly thin!!!! I don't think I was ever below 115 = ) I can not wait to hear all about Easter?
They look quite delicious - fluffy, sugary and ... fattening :-)
I could not afford to eat too many of these - I don't loose extra kilos very easy anymore.
Girl Japan: I am a short person even by Japanese standards and I am not 'well-endowed'...lol The truth is that when my weight goes over a certain figure I start to experience knee problems which are not there when I'm lighter. That's the real reason why I'm being strict about getting my weight back to normal. ;)
Dorte: I am not too much younger than you. It's probably only by a few years. btw, I gained 1 kg from eating those already so it's back to a meager diet again!
I haven't heard of cenci before, but they do look good.. and addictive! I will not waste even a bit of food either.
OMG MURASAKI,
what was it before ? ooops, sorry, I know you are not suppose to ask a woman how much she weigh... lol.
I want to tell you so much about my weight, but I don't want to offend your reader. Too bad you don't have e-mail.
This Cenci sounds really delicious, I never had it before, pretty tempting!
Answering your question about lemon preserved, maybe you'll like this method/recipe way way lot better:
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2006/12/moroccan_preser_1.html
I'm not that good at explaining/writing a recipe, that's why I got you confuse.
Cheers,
elra
So glad that you didnt throw it out. As a daughter of parents who went threw the United States Depression and WWI and II with all the rationing etc, I have learned not to throw stuff out. Even now, if I see something useful in someones garbage I will stop and pick it up. Some people may see shame in this but I dont. I am saving it from another thing in the land fills. I picked up a baby gate for my daughter when she was little. A little bleach and water and it was as good as new. Saved myself some money. Whew you can tell this is a big subject for me. All the waste in this country makes me sick. is it like taht in Spain or are people thrifty and frugal?
Oh and yes you saved them and they came out beautiful.
Natashya: I hope you looked at the cenci in my link. lol Also pleased to hear that there are some people out there still who have similar values with me about food. :)
Elra: I'll bet you're as skinny as a stick. Are you one of those people who have such high metabolism that you have to keep eating like a horse to stay alive? Thanks for the link. Will try this once I get my hands on some organic lemons. :)
Lori: I feel relieved to be among like minded people with regard to this. They are quite wasteful here too these days. Don't know what they were like 50 years ago but people just throw things out very casually these days.
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