Savoury doughnuts to stay
THIS week we will take a look at one of the world's biggest food trends and how it can be adapted with our flavours and tastes.
It's been a few years since sweet doughnuts overtook cupcakes as the dessert of choice in many overseas restaurants and even at banqueting events. So many, in fact, that it's no longer surprising to see a couple forget their wedding cake in exchange for towers of tiny frosted creations, or parents celebrate their little one's birthday with a pegboard covered in iced dough rings on hooks.
Doughnuts, or doughnuts, helped keep many of us sane during the COVID lockdowns, with many home bakers turning their gooey creations into a lucrative business. There is just something naughty and nice about the fried dough that has many finding hard to resist. Is it the soft and pillowy inside, or its sweet jammy stuffing, or is it because it is fried that this bad boy allow us to live dangerously for just a few minutes.
All that fat and sugar is so bad for us, yet we already know that. Despite its gooey and oily reputation, a whole new crop of doughnut shops is taking the torch and frying up innovative flavour combos that are testing palates and winning hearts in many international cities. Enter the savoury doughnut — more a meal or snack than a dessert, and packed with unexpected flavor.
DONUT OR DOUGHNUT?
According to most dictionaries, doughnut is the original, generally preferred spelling of the word. It is less common in the United States and vastly more common internationally.
Donut is an Americanised, shortform version of doughnut that isn't incorrect, but it is much less common when used in grammar. However, think of most doughnut shop brands and they are spelled the short way like Dunkin' Donuts and Donut King. However, most publications opt for doughnut as the accepted standard.
GLOBAL LOVE OF DOUGHNUTS
Nearly every culture has some sort of fried dough as a sweet or savoury snack or dessert. In France they're called beignets, bánh rán in Vietnam, bomboloni in Italy, churros in Mexico and Spain, malasadas in Hawaii and Portugal, youtiao in China, hotteok in Korea, the gulab jamun in India and of course in Fiji, it is the babakau.
It seems that whenever humans learned how to fry dough in oil, the thought was universal - fry it, coat it, stuff it or dip it. So much so that there is a special day set aside for International Doughnut Day in many countries where lovers of the fried dough are encouraged to indulge and celebrate.
SAVOURY DOUGHNUTS ARE BORN
In recent years, this love of doughnuts has crossed over into the savoury-meetssweet combinations like doughnut breakfast sandwiches, grilled cheese doughnuts and doughnut burgers replacing the traditional bread or bun with something a little sweeter and exotic. Across the globe, savoury doughnuts are enticing foodies out of their comfort zone to try something new.
The COVID lockdowns also probably helped perpetuate this trend as many of us saw these creations on TikTok and YouTube as we waited at home to find out when it was safe to come outside. Food TV shows such as Netflix's ‘Is it Cake’ and ‘Chef's Table’ further helped to push the boundaries of eating doughnuts with savoury toppings and fillings even though classic American savoury-sweet breakfast dishes like bacon, maple and pancakes have been around for decades.
Despite the savoury doughnuts trend kicking off around 2016 and throughout the pandemic, they are here to stay. The concept of sweet-salty doughnuts has been around for a long time, but it's how you put those flavours together that can make or break a combo. Creative foodies, bakers and chefs are constantly pushing the envelope with flavours and textures. This trend is a natural culinary evolution. We universally love doughnuts, so how else can we enjoy them?
FIJIAN FLAVOURS ARE PERFECT
When I crave babakau, of course I think about hot fluffy dough tossed in cinnamon sugar, or even stuffed with jam and cream, but what if we combined babakau with savoury Fijian classics like vakalolo, curry, rourou moci, or even tinned meats.
Some might think this as sacrilege or crazy but savoury babakau is as natural as eating roti with curry with a contrasting fruit chutney, long loaf with corned beef and butter with onions and lemon, or sliced bread with tuna, onion and chilli. At KANU, we've been playing with a few new stuffed babakau creations and to everyone's surprise - they work really, really well.
One of my staff explained that her village does the same with vegetable curry stuffing, a creation invented when they had leftover babakau and a pot of leftover curry. But pairing the doughnut with the right sauce is critical to the success of a good savoury doughnut — whether it is a side dip or glazed on top.
The savoury doughnut can't be too sweet or too salty, a delicate balance must also be found. So, this past week we have been trialling a vegan babakau with curried brown lentil and eggplant choka filling, glazed with a fresh passionfruit and turmeric curry glaze. The glaze looks like traditional icing but it's not. It's a thickened turmeric curry with fresh passionfruit mixed through to give the glaze a shiny, tart and curry flavour.
In the immortal words of cartoon character Homer Simpson, ‘Mmmm...doughnuts!’ — savoury doughnuts.
CHEF LANCE SEETO is the chef owner of KANU island-fusion gastropubs located in Suva and Nadi.
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