I first got my chops around these when I was about 14. We were living in Texas and had gone through to New Orleans for new year’s eve. We went – as any tourist to the big easy does – to the Cafe du monde for a cup of joe and plate of beignets. Served hot, straight out of the fryer, the crisp pillows of fried dough, are sweetened with a diabetes inducing dicht of icing sugar. This is one of the most memorable food moments of my early life, and probably the site of my first “food-gasm”. Fast forward nearly 20 years and I’m on the beach in Kenya about to get on an old wooden sailing dhow and the crew are frying up some little triangles of dough and pouring hot sweet milky nescafe into some dubiously brown mugs. These are not beignets, these are mandazi. Served straight from a boiling cauldron of oil, they are sublime. I’m transported back to N’Awlins.
There are a few differences, but for all intents and purposes, both parties are frying bits of dough in hot oil, and washing them down with coffee. Fast forward another few years and it’s breakfast time on day two of my first ever wild cookery course on the banks of Loch Grant in the Highlands of Scotland. the bacon is sizzling and the sausages are getting some nice colour. There’s also still a little of the flatbread dough left over from last night’s feast. So we dust a board with flour, and roll it out to around the thickness of two pound-coins. Then it gets cut into triangles, which are carefully dropped into the hot oil. The dough puffs up, and once the sides start to go golden, they are flipped, the second side taking less time to cook. Carefully the crispy triangles are lifted onto some kitchen paper, and tossed with sugar. A fresh pot of coffee is poured, and the Mac Beign-Dazi is born.
Ingredients
3 tablespoons Sourdough starter
3 cups flour
1 5/8ths of water
Teaspoon of salt
A large, high sided pan/ cauldron for frying in (high sides and a slow flame on your fire will help stop you having a chip pan disaster- extreme caution is required as hot oil is flammable and can give you a nasty burn- ok guys this is a health warning, actually please don’t try this at home. It’s really dangerous.)
