Just like Nana does it: Cullurielli Attempt 1

Alright, so Cullurielli are a traditional Calabrian potato doughnut, and one of my absolute favourite things in the world to eat. In our family, however, for some reason we call the gulluti's (no idea how to spell it, since my mom's not even convinced it's a real word...but sounds like a combination of the word cullurielli and gluttony so works for me).

Living so far away from Nana, I've been craving these bad boys and ventured to make them myself, with only the knowledge that they're bassically just mashed potatoes, flour and yeast.

Ingredients I used:

3 medium russet potatoes
     -peel, boil in salted water, mashed with 1tbsp butter and 1/3cup milk cause they seemed dry to me
2 cups all purpose flour
1 egg (just felt like adding it)
2tsp dry activated yeast
pinch salt

I used my bread machine on the dough cycle to do the kneading and the first rise. During the kneading the dough was waaayyyyy tooo sticky, and so I probably added another 3/4 cup flour. Next time I'm going to skip on the milk going into the potatoes, and trust that they will be moist enough on their own.

Once the dough rose, I knocked it down and shaped it into ~20  loop shapes.

And let them rise again under a tea towel for as long as it took me to wash my dishes.

Turns out I should have just cooked right away... I ended up re-shaping all of them before they went into the pan.

Alright, tips for frying things (Italian style)

1. If you haven't used about half a jug of oil, you're not doing it right.
2. Deep fryers are for mungiacakes, be fearless and do this stove top in a frying pan.
3. The oil needs to be hot...but not too hot...I like 7 on my stove... but I also think my stove runs to hot. these guys should cook in like a min per side...maybe even less
4. To avoid oil splashes on your hands... I like to use two wooden spoons to manipulate things in the oil.
5. Everything that comes out of the oil goes right onto paper towel... do not skip this step.

So how does this look?

 Oh I know.... I reaaalllyyyy need to clean my stove top.

Anyways, drop them in to oil, flip when you can start to see the sides getting golden, cook the other side, then right back out of the oil.

When you're done it'll look a little like this

Now I like to eat these guys hot, with small pieces of cheese, but some people think they're a desert item and will sprinkly cinamon and powdered sugar on them. To each his own.

You can keep them in the fridge (wrapped in paper towel and bagged) or freeze em.

If you freeze them, pop them in the oven real quick to get them all toasty before you eat them.

Did they taste just like my nana's?

• the have the right look and feel
• they were a little bland.... I think I should have used brewer's yeast instead of bakers... it's supposed to give a unique taste
• Also I think I should have used a heck of alot more salt...must consult Nana

Enjoy! Ciao

oh if you want to see how it should be really done, check out this video!