Lángos-Hungarian Fried Bread

Lángos literally means "flamed", originating from  láng, the Hungarian word for flame. "Lángos" is closely related to the Italian focaccia (both originating from the Roman panis focaius, which literally means, "flamed bread"). Originally, just like its other cousin, pizza,  lángos would be made from leftover bread-dough, and baked in the village's common open flame oven. Since hardly anyone makes their own bread any more, lángos is no longer baked, but almost always fried, and traditionally, it would be fried in lard. Lángos, although is available from street vendors all year long in Hungary, is basically a summer feat. As you can imagine,  lángos is not a diet food, but I can assure you, every bite is well worth the calories consumed. Besides...in a gypsy kitchen, no one counts calories.



"When cooking, follow your own taste. When baking, follow directions."-Laiko Bahrs

Ingredients (roughly....)

1 pocket of instant yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

4  cups of all-purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

2 cups of warm (not hot!) water

3 cups of vegetable,canola or sunflower oil (for frying)

1/3 cup of oil in a small bowl

big pinch of salt (about a teaspoon)

Topping variations:

-grated cheese

-sour cream

-garlic

-chopped onions (green onions, red onions)

-bacon bits

-coriander

-chorizos sausages, chopped

-chopped dill

-crushed garlic

-anything else and everything else you would put on a pizza......

Preparation:

1. Mix flour, instant yeast, salt in a big bowl. Add the milk and the water slowly to form a soft dough. Knead well, until bubbles form. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen cloth, and let it rest for about 20 minutes (or until it doubles in volume).  
2. Heat oil in a large skillet. Test the temperature by dropping a small ball of dough into it: if it fizzles up and doubles in size almost immediately, the oil is hot enough.
3. Dip your fingers into the oil (NOT the hot one, silly, the one in the small bowl) and scoop up a handful of dough, forming it into a round ball. Flatten the ball, and work it with your fingers round and round, spreading it into a flat round, about the size of a pancake.
4. Drop the flattened dough into the oil. It will spread and rise, so fry them one at the time. If you have enough oil in the skillet, there is no need to turn the dough: it will fry to a golden brown on both sides quickly.
5. Remove from the oil with a tongue and let the oil drip well.

Serve piping hot, rubbed with a garlic clove, and salted to taste, with or without any or all of the toppings above.

Sopapillas Chilenas-Fried/Baked Bread Chilean Style

Chilean Sopapillas are traditionally prepared and eaten on rainy winter days, and since we are likely to have a lot of those kind of days and nights, here is a recipe that will warm up a person's spirit, no matter how is the weather outside. Although Sopapillas are traditionally fried in hot oil or shortening, they are just as delicious, and healthier baked. Sopapillas can be served as bread, as a side dish, or as a pastry. If you can find "chancaca", (hard and dark cane sugar) in your local ethnic stores, your sopapilla will be even more authentic, but they also taste great dusted with brown sugar, or confectioner's sugar. I also tried confectioner's sugar mixed with ground cinnamon, and had  no complaints!
Sopapillas are distant cousins of Lángos (Hungarian Fried Bread).

Ingredients:

1 small  pumpkin  or squash

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

4 tablespoons butter, melted

3 cup dark brown sugar, or grated chancaca

2 cinnamon sticks

3/4 cups water

1 teaspoon allspice

Preparation:

1. Slice the pumpkin or squash and roast on a cooking sheet in the oven until golden brown. Scoop out the pumpkin and mash.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, the  baking powder, baking soda, 2 tablespoons of sugar (or chancaca). Add the mashed pumpkin, the butter (melted) and one or two tablespoons of warm water (one tablespoon at a time)  until a smooth dough forms.
3. Roll out dough on a floured surface to 1/2 centimeter thickness, and let it "sit" for about ten minutes.  Cut out with a large round cookie cutter, or a floured, tea cup, and prick each rounds with a  with a fork several times
4. For fried sopapillas, heat oil in a deep skillet (enough to fully cover the sopapillas) and fry them in batches, until golden brown on both side. Drain on paper towels.
5. To bake, preheat oven to 475 degrees, place sopapillas on a greased cookie sheet, brush each sopapilla with melted butter, and bake for about fifteen minutes, or until golden brown.

Syrup (For pastry style sopapillas)

Combine one cup of water with  2 tablespoons of dark brown sugar or grated chancaca, the cinnamon sticks and allspice. Stir, and simmer on medium high for about ten minutes. Strain the syrup and stir in one tablespoon of butter. Keep warm.

To serve as pastry, dip each fried or baked sopapilla in the syrup, and serve syrup on the side. Alternatively, dust with brown sugar, confectioner's sugar, or powdered brown sugar mixed with powdered cinnamon. They also taste great with maple syrup or pancake syrup.