It started at 3:08 a.m. It is not unusual for me to make a trip to the small room around this time of day. Unfortunately getting cozy back under the covers did not lead to the immediate resumption of sleep. Which my body craved. But the mind. Ah, the mind, she has a mind of her own.I started thinking about stuff, or rather I started mentally roaming the small realm which is my universe. Unbidden and with no recall of the trail that led me there, I was thinking of croquignoles. Now I have eaten this delicacy at least once, perhaps twice in my lifetime. In order to properly order my thinking, I attempted the spelling of the word. (The time may now be about 3:42.) I came quite close, dropping the "g" and endowing the word with a second "l" to make up for it. Not too bad for morning's wee hours, but still sleep eluded me.
This part I have to relate, because it is true, and after you read a bit further you may think I made this up. But no, it actually happened this way. I was thinking about the restaurant in which Maizie is employed, and decided, in the state I was in, to have the chef, or cook, or whoever controlled the kitchen, to make croquignoles. When we enjoyed this gustatory creation, I found it to be wonderful beyond my memory of any other such confections. Louie, I had named him "Louie" by this time, explained that the deep frying process was done in his French fry oil, thus imparting a vague potato flavor to the goodies. By now, I have decided that I can make my own little Frenchy donut thingies.
So there I am in my bathrobe, coffee brewing, I seat myself at the computer at 4:45. Search: "croquignole." Now we account for the first picture. The first couple of pages of results were all about hair styling. Say what? Hair styling? There were even articles directed to wannabe cosmetologists on prepping for their state boards. It seems that a croquignole is a certain type of wave, or the technique used in setting such curls in which the hair is wound on a rod from the tip toward the scalp. Who knew? Well, BBBH, for one, but she was still sound asleep at six in the morning. And seven o'clock, and . . .
And finally! Voila! Recipes for croquignoles of the delicious variety. The first one I clicked on was by Emeril Lagasse, which I chose mostly because I had heard of him. And guess what he used as a primary ingredient? Potatoes. I kid you not. Now connect that back to what I told you above. I am a genius and did not know it.
Reading further, I found a critic, a lady who apparently is the world's authority on croquignoles, and she asserted that Emeril's recipe was unlike any she had ever encountered, and the product, she averred, should rightly be called a beignet rather than a croquignole. Then she launched into an essay on the origin of the pastries in question. When I tell you I found it interesting, you need to put things into context: the sun was not yet up. So now I know the difference between Cajun cooking and Creole cuisine, and so on and so forth.
And I went back to bed, having decided that the manufacture of croquignoles, no matter how delicious, is beyond my pay grade.
And I slept!
15 comments:
I'm a veteran of having the brain switch on in the middle of the night. I wish it were on behalf of deliciousness. Alas, it is usually on behalf of something happening at work that I can't fix.
Oh, the mind is an evil beeyotch in the middle of the night. Been there....far too often. The worst part is that I worry about things or I think of stupid things I've done or said. Either way, I crawl out of bed feeling horrible. Ugh.
I was thinking beignets--what is the difference? I mean, if you went through all that trouble to research in the wee hours....
We went to a crawfish boil Friday night and had beignets for desert. There must have been a 1/2 inch of powdered sugar over them. YUM!
We stick to desserts and such that are easily pronounced and prepared. Very deprived here! But that does not mean there are no times during the night when the switch on the mind is locked in the "on" position.
The brain refusing to behave and rest itself is a common thing in my world. The brain rooting around in it's deep dark recesses and making connections I would never have made when fully awake - that's always a lovely gift.
As for croquignoles, when I googled them I did not get any references to hair styles. I only clicked through 12 pages, so who knows when it might have turned up. I did see a web site that lists the words that would rhyme with croquignoles...and the majority of the pages were in French! The Merill LaGrasse reference was in the middle of the first page of links.
So that's kind of interesting, why did your google search have different results than my google search?
Okay - that's *Emeril LaGasse*
Jim, I know what you mean about the night thoughts turning in less than delicious directions. Guess I was lucky this time, eh?
Lin, you would ask; and you ask of one who is no expert in anything cuisine. Briefly, as I understand it, the pastry for beignets contains only flour, butter, eggs and water. Pastry for Croquignoles may contain other ingredients, including a rising agent sometimes. So anyway, if one handed me one to eat I might well not know the difference.
Beignets are of French/Creole origin; croquignoles from Cajun cooking.
Vee, don't you just hate when the switch is stuck in the "on" position?
Croquignoles is not hard to pronounce: kroken-oles. Or go to an online dictionary and listen to the reader.
Grace, yes, some night-time mental wanderings yield "lovely gifts" as you put it.
As for search engine results, who knows? I got the same thing this morning: lots of hair cranking.
My references did not use a capital "G" in Emeril's name. Anyway, I have had fun with this; any errors in my article are mine, either through faulty understanding on my part, or less-than-accurate material from the supplier of the information. lol
Readers: I do need to make a correction. The Emeril recipe online is not the one that was critiqued by the "expert" I mentioned. Rather it was a recipe next in line in the search results on a site called "Yesterdish."
What a compelling read! I was eager to learn the connection between hair and pastries. Now that I know, I don't really feel much smarter. (Not your fault) I do feel satisfied to know that there is a link . . . or is it missing?
Chuck, that may qualify as the missing link.
The first thought that comes to mind is Tums. The original peppermint ones sit next to my bed, and for whatever reason, they are the ticket that most often puts me back to sleep. My insomnia seems to be precipitated by heartburn from eating too late at night. Perhaps eating deep fried pastries at bedtime or dreaming of croquignoles is depriving you of sleep.....Tum ta Tum Tum, Tums!
Ilene, thank you for your thoughtful concern. I think, though, that indigestion is not the problem. Maybe acetaminophen, though I really try to avoid using pain meds.
I hate the side effects of medicines. Cure one problem, create another. :(
Ilene, entirely too true. We are dealing with some of those very issues in this household.
Since I do not like fried pastries, whether the humble do-nut or your fancy night-time wishes, I will take your word for all of this. But the spelling lesson was interesting.
Sharkey, spelling. At least there was some take-away for you! In truth, I am much less inclined to go for the fried sweets than I was in my younger days. But I do think I am going to try my hand at croquignoles one day soon.
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