Loukoumades

These golden little balls of fried dough are roughly like Greek doughnuts, Loukoumadesthough they are lighter and crisper than doughnuts, and covered with a light honey syrup and a sprinkle of cinnamon. They're often served, piping hot, from street vendors' carts in Greece. What makes these different from other sorts of fried-sweet-dough confections (I think that every culture has something like this and something vaguely like Swedish meatballs) is the slightly sweet and slightly crisp texture of the honey syrup after it has been applied to the piping hot balls; the syrup crystalizes. These are also usually hollow, so they're light, and crisp, and lovely—especially served with piping hot Greek coffee. These are a yeast-based confection, so you do need to allow the dough to rise.

I note that the first time I had loukoumades , the woman making them used a hand-cranked apparatus to create the balls of dough; they dropped directly into a large pan of very hot oil. You don't need a special device; a spoon that is dipped into ice water works quite well. A slotted spoon, or small wire mesh strainer works well for removing the loukoumades from the hot oil. You'll want several sheets of paper towels for the oil from the cooked loukoumades. You do need to have the honey syrup prepared in advance, and a shaker of ground cinnamon handy to apply after the syrup. One reason that I think they're so popular as an offering from street vendors, is that, like beignets, loukoumades are best eaten as soon as possible after cooking.

There are several different recipes for loukoumades; they are all very similar. While olive oil is the traditional oil for frying them, you might fare better with cotton seed oil since it's easier to cook with when it's very hot.