Pinisi - Twisted Donuts

This is a Filipino dessert and it is one of the best. My mom used to make this when I was a kid and here I am making it myself. It's the awesomest cycle ever. Another thing to mention, making this beats buying them from the store. One, they have better ingredients because you won't skimp out on anything and you can customize it if you feel that its lacking sugar or salt.

However, for the sake of this dessert, the sugar and salt proportions are good. This bread is sprinkled with some form of sugar therefore it does not need any other modifications. It's fried too so adding more butter is not necessary. Oh, if you haven't noticed, the bread recipe is very similar to other bread recipes I posted. That is because, this recipe is super easy and super versatile so look forward to other bread recipes that have this as the main ingredients or even the same recipe just with a twist.

Pinisi

1 package of active yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
7 1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup milk
4 tbsp butter (the way I did it was, I used my two fingers and measure it that way)
1/8 tsp salt
3 cups flour and some for kneading (about 1/2 cup)

Take the warm water and add into it the active dry yeast and sugar. Set aside to activate. This'll take about ten to 15 minutes. For me, the doubling in mass is the indication is good. The important thing is that it starts forming foam because
that's how you know that the yeast is viable.

Add the milk, salt and melted butter to the yeast mixture and lightly mix. Add your liquid mixture to a large bowl with exactly 3 cups of flour and mix for five minutes with a wooden spoon. Now, keep in mind that the dough is going to be very sticky but that's ok. In fact, it's good because the bread won't be so tough. Instead, it will be soft and great. Another thing to note is that you have to work with this dough very fast. Sprinkle some flour on your work surface and place a portion of the dough (about a palmful) to which will have to roll between your hands and long stretched dough. Once long enough, hold the center and grab one of the end piece and spin around the other. Place this on a greased pan, cover with a wet towel or wet paper towel and let it rise in a warm area.



This should take about an hour. If you're wondering who those two are, they're my brothers. The one wearing green is Mark while the smaller one is Matthew.


Once doubled in size, deep fry until golden brown and sprinkle some white sugar, a mixture of white sugar and cinnamon or parmesan cheese.

Fried Chicken

I bought these humongous chicken legs at .99 cents a pound from the grocery store. From the look of things, these chicken legs are almost the size of turkey legs. I had to make some cuts on the meat because the last time I cooked these chicken legs, they were cooked on the outside but the inside was still bloody.

Did I mention I perfected this recipe. My mom makes this type of fried chicken with the simplest ingredients. It was so depressing to find out that the chicken was crunchy and delicious without any complicated stuff in them. Plain old flour, and spices are needed and I couldn't make it right. The chicken always came out funky but not anymore.

Fried Chicken

7-8 large chicken legs
1 1/2 cups of flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp lemon pepper
seasoned salt
msg

Combine the flour, cornstarch and cayenne pepper. Put all these ingredients in a resealable bags

Prepare a pan with enough oil to deep fry the chicken. The rule of thumb is the chicken has to be submerged in the oil as stated by deep frying. If you have a deep fryer, great, but I don't. So, if you don't have a fryer, then I suggest using a narrow pan.

Take the chicken and place them in a bowl. If the chicken legs are large, then create some deep cuts to insure that the inside is fully cooked. Sprinkle in the salt, black pepper, garlic salt, lemon pepper, very little seasoned salt and an even smaller amount of msg. Yes you read it correctly. I use msg. Personally, I think it's fine in small amounts. We've used it for a very long time and it hasn't led to any fatalities, so I'm guessing it's not as bad as most people think.



Today, I almost over salted this batch of chicken, so be careful. Another thing to add, you can change the spices used to flavor the chicken. I am using spices that we have at home. Plus, I value the amazing flavor that can come from simple ingredients. The important factor here is to coat the chicken in the flour mixture and later deep frying it.



Put the chicken in the flour mixture, seal the bag and mix until the meat is well coated. Make sure the oil is hot enough and put the chicken in carefully. Cover and cook until the chicken is golden brown.

Here's what it looks like...

Tortilla Chips

I think this is more of an idea than a recipe, but it's a really good idea. No more wasting old tortillas. We used to throw away tortillas that were to old or too hard to eat. Then, today, I realized that tortilla chips must be just tortillas fried in some oil. Cooking hard old tortillas was amazing. Turning them into edible chips that were topped with cheese opened up a whole new world for me. Imagine all the nachos I could make, or just the simple fact that instead of throwing away tortillas I can turn them into amazing tortilla chips. It seems with this recipe, the older the tortilla, the better.

Tortilla chips
10 old tortillas
oil for frying



Cut the tortillas in half and than a fourth and even 1/8. It seems the 1/8 size is manageable. Fry them until golden brown. Top with some cheese, salsa and ground meat cooked with taco seasonings for nachos. Or you can add some guacamole or some sour cream and enjoy.