[Molly Yeh] I'm making next-level nachos for dinner,
because it's always a party on the farm.
It's time to get out the stretchy pants.
Tender brisket meatballs coated in sweet barbecue sauce.
These are baller.
Pizza -- wait for it -- latkes.
Smells like pizza. [sniffs]
Smells like potatoes.
My nose is a little confused, but I like it.
Carby Caesar salad loaded with deep-fried garlic knots.
This is a bowl of happiness right here.
And for dessert, my strawberry sprinkles sprinkle struffoli,
sticky bite-sized balls of donut hole deliciousness.
Nothing says party like a bunch of sweet balls.
L'chaim, let's eat.
I'm making some of my favorite party noshes for dinner
because a party supper is the best supper.
For something sweet,
I'm making my take on a Neapolitan struffoli,
which is a bunch of deep fried little donut balls
coated in a sweet, sticky glaze.
They're sort of like inside out sufganiyot, and they get
squished together into a wreath shape
and finished with sprinkles.
I'm starting on my donut dough with a quarter-cup
of melted unsalted butter.
I'll add two thirds of a cup of sugar,
and then mix this together in a stand mixer.
I'll add three egg yolks, which will provide incredible
richness to this dough.
Struffoli is an Italian dessert that is traditionally eaten
around Christmas time, and it consists of a bunch of
little balls of fried dough stuck together
in a wreath shape with a honey syrup.
But I figured in kind of a nod to sufganiyot, which are
Hanukkah donuts that are filled with jam, I would use jam in
place of the honey, and make it so that the jam is
on the outside of the donuts.
It is a true interfaith dessert.
A couple of tablespoons of vanilla extract,
three quarters of a cup of sour cream,
which makes for a super tender, moist crumb.
The more fat you can pile into a cake donut dough,
the better it is.
And also, I always have sour cream around.
And then the zest of half a lemon.
Between the tanginess of the sour cream and the lemon,
and the vanilla, you get some of that
old-fashioned cake donut flavor.
[whirring]
This is super smooth and combined.
I'll add my dry ingredients now,
right on top of the wet ingredients.
Two cups of cake flour,
along with one cup of all-purpose flour
is the perfect combination to get a tender, light crumb.
If you were to use all all-purpose flour, it would be
a little bit too heavy.
And if you were to use all cake flour,
it would be a little bit too sandy.
So I think a combination is really nice.
Two teaspoons of baking powder will help these puff up
in the fryer.
A teaspoon of kosher salt,
and then four tablespoons of finely ground freeze-dried strawberries,
which will get amplified
by the strawberry jam that coats these.
This is not traditional of a struffoli, but it tastes good
and it's really fun. I love this natural pink color.
I'll give these dry ingredients a whisk before incorporating
them with the rest of the batter just so that
they can all get evenly distributed.
OK, I'll get this back into my stand mixer and then mix
until it's just combined into a dough.
[whirring]
Now comes the fun part, rolling this dough into
a zillion little teeny tiny balls.
I'll pat this out into a square
about three quarters of an inch thick,
and then use my bench scraper to cut
three quarter of an inch strips.
And then I'll cut little nubbins from there.
So I'm essentially just making three quarter of an inch
cubes all the way around.
And I just like cutting them all at first as opposed to
pinching off little bits and rolling.
So you can kind of get a uniform size.
It just makes dividing this up easy.
This is what I like, turn the TV on and watch ice skating,
because it's just gonna get more tedious.
So I have all of these little squares.
I'll roll them all into balls,
like little marbles, just like that.
This is a perfect dessert for a party because it looks as
festive as it tastes.
They're easy to eat with one hand.
You don't have to sit down with a plate and a fork and a knife
and commit to it.
You could just pluck off a ball and pop it in your mouth.
It's sort of like eating monkey bread.
I'll tell you, I am having a ball with these balls.
I'm ready to fry.
I've got a few inches of neutral oil heating in my pot
here to 350 degrees, and I'll fry these in batches.
It's safest to lower them in using a slotted spoon,
or a spider like this, rather than dropping them in because
you don't want oil to splatter up at you.
I'll lower these in, and these are so small,
they just take about a minute and a half to fry.
I'll fry them until they're golden all over.
I'll keep a close eye on my thermometer to make sure that
the temperature doesn't drop too much.
And you can adjust the knobs on your stove if you need to,
because sometimes when you put the dough in,
the temperature of the oil will drop a little bit.
That's normal, that's OK.
Just increase the temperature a bit on the stove.
They're starting to float.
These are getting some gorgeous brown color.
I'll place these onto a wire rack so that they can cool.
They're just like a miniature old-fashioned donut.
All right, I'll keep on frying and then get going on
the jam sauce.
Oh, these look so cute and good.
This is the glue that holds the balls together.
It's dead simple, just equal parts strawberry jam and sugar.
This is seedless.
And a squeeze of lemon juice to brighten everything up.
I'll mix this around and cook it until it's hot
and the sugar has melted.
And I'm using strawberry because I wanted a reason to
wear this strawberry sweater.
I also just really like strawberries.
You could honestly use any jam here.
Mm-mm-mm. Smells so good.
OK, the syrup is ready to receive the balls.
I'll pile them in and get them totally coated.
Ah, get back in there.
I'll toss these to coat them fully.
This is definitely the type of dish that you want to serve
the day that you make it. I'll grab my serving plate.
I also have a glass, which will help me make that wreath shape.
I'll spritz the glass with a little cooking spray
so it doesn't stick.
Put it in the middle, and then pile them on.
Oh my gosh, balls are everywhere.
And then pile on the rest.
It's about to get jollier.
I'll remove the glass.
Per tradition, you've got to sprinkle on nonpareils.
So fun!
This one's sticking out weirdly.
I think I should just take care of it.
Mm.
My mouth is so happy.
It's so sweet and buttery and cakey.
Nothing says party like a bunch of sweet balls.
[bright music playing]
[playful popping sounds]
Since one ball-shaped food at the party dinner is simply not
enough, I am making my brisket meatballs.
They are tender morsels of fatty rich meat slathered in
a sweet barbecue sauce that makes your taste buds bounce.
I'm starting with one and a half pounds of ground brisket,
which is quite a bit fattier than your typical ground beef,
so you get more richness and [smacks lips]
melt in your mouth texture.
I'll season it with one and a half teaspoons of kosher salt.
I'll sprinkle in a little onion powder for that slightly sweet
flavor, some chopped scallions.
They lend that delicate onion flavor, as well as some really
pretty pops of green, some fresh thyme leaves for
those earthy, herby notes, a bunch of black pepper.
it's looking pretty already.
I'll bind these together with a couple of eggs.
And three quarters of a cup of breadcrumbs, which will allow
these balls to hold nice moisture
and have that great tender texture.
A quarter cup of ketchup, inspired by the age-old Jewish
tradition of slathering brisket in ketchup.
A tablespoon of Dijon, that great bright zingy flavor.
And then a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce brings
everything together with its savory notes.
Ah -- smells really good, especially the ketchup.
I'll mix this up and just like any meatball,
I don't want to overmix it.
There's so much flavor in these meatballs.
I'll roll this into balls.
The donut balls were just a warm-up.
Just about the size of golf balls.
I'll get this onto my baking pan, keep on rolling,
and then bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 14 minutes
until they're golden all over.
And in that time, I'll make my sauce.
[playful popping sounds]
This sauce is darkly sweet from molasses and zippy and fun,
thanks to my one true love --
next to mayonnaise, and Nick -- ketchup.
I'll start with a cup of it right in my braiser.
I love it so much.
Nick hates ketchup, but he likes barbecue sauce.
So just don't tell him that there's ketchup in
barbecue sauce. Two tablespoons of molasses.
It's a nice dark contrast to the bright ketchup.
Half a cup of brown sugar, which will caramelize and allow
the sauce to glaze the meatballs so beautifully.
Half a cup of apple cider vinegar.
You gotta have something acidic to balance out all
this sweetness. Tablespoon of Dijon.
A tablespoon of Worcestershire.
So a lot of the same ingredients that are in
the meatballs as well. A little bit of hot sauce.
And this can really just be to taste.
I like a little bit of heat, but mostly I like the sweetness
to shine through as the central mood of these meatballs.
That is what I remember about the briskets growing up
that I had.
They were always super duper sweet
in a really delicious way.
Couple of good pinches of kosher salt and half a teaspoon
each of garlic and onion powder.
This sauce will be super smooth.
There won't be any chunks of chopped onion.
I'll just whisk this together and simmer it for a couple of
minutes until it's thick.
Meatballs are such an ideal party food, not just because
they're delicious and everybody loves them
and they're easy to eat,
but also because they're so easy to prep.
You can make them fully in advance, keep them in
the freezer, and then the day of the party, just dump them
into a slow cooker from frozen along with the sauce and allow
them to heat up.
I did that for both Bernie
and Ira's birthday parties this year.
It makes the day of the party so easy.
You have more time to do your hair
and get the perfect outfit on.
Sauce looks great, let me get the balls.
Those look good. They smell so meaty.
I'll pile these right into the sauce.
So bouncy.
I'll fold these all together and simmer just for another
couple of minutes that that sauce can caramelize and really
glaze these balls.
This is the smell of a good party.
Those are some shiny balls.
The last thing we need is a sprinkle of scallions.
So pretty. This smell is calling my name.
I've got fun toothpicks. Ding.
Oh, how good does that look? The perfect big party bite.
Mm.
Dang.
Those truly just melt in your mouth.
These are so awesome.
I love tasting the thyme in there.
It's so cozy.
These are baller.
[playful popping sounds]
[whirring]
[playful pops and crackles]
For a scrumptious bite that combines two fun party foods,
I am making pizza -- wait for it -- latkes.
They are classic crispy golden brown potato pancakes topped
with tomato sauce, fresh mozz, and dollops of herby pesto.
They are so addictively good.
I've already got my potatoes, garlic and onion shredded
and in my cheesecloth,
and I'm doing a super crucial step for
potato pancakes, which is that I've tossed everything in salt
and allowed them to drain to get rid of any excess moisture.
And now I'm just squeezing as much moisture as I can out of
the potato and this is gonna ultimately make for a perfectly
crispy latke. Don't skimp on this step.
I'll pour all this water out of the bowl.
And then what's left here is this fun layer of
potato starch.
I'm going to leave it in the bowl because when that gets
incorporated in with the potato pancake mixture, it actually
helps the crispiness. I'll dump in the potatoes.
I'll squeeze in some lemon juice, which will add some nice
brightness as well as help prevent
the potatoes from oxidizing.
Four whole eggs to bind these together.
I know some people who only use egg whites in their latkes to
make them even crispier, but I kind of like a little bit
of richness from the yolk.
My ideal latke is still a little bit soft
and creamy on the inside.
Two thirds of a cup of panko breadcrumbs, gives some nice
structure and helps bind everything together.
Black pepper.
[quiet grinding]
And then because I'm pizza-fying these latkes, I'll add in some
pizza seasoning, dried oregano, and crushed red pepper.
I love these two sprinkled on top of my pizza.
I'll stir these around to thoroughly combine.
Growing up, we usually used the box mix to make latkes.
I was never that wild about them, and it wasn't until
I tasted my ex-boyfriend's dad's recipe in college
that I realized what a latke could taste like at the height
of its potential.
These things were hockey pucks that were golden and so crispy
on the outside. They had this shell.
And then on the inside, they were soft and creamy.
They were so good.
they just totally raised the bar for a latke in my mind.
And a few years ago, I was looking for things to do with
leftover latkes because I made so many of them.
I started reheating them in the oven with pizza toppings on
top, and they were so good. This is combined.
This mixture looks great.
I'll get my ice cream scoop and portion out heaping mounds
into a quarter inch of oil that I have preheating
on medium-high, pressing down gently to compact them.
I'll drop in a few more.
I'll fry these for a few minutes per side until
they're deeply golden and so crispy.
I'll address the elephant in the room, which is to say that
I pronounce it lat-key.
If you're from Chicago or parts of Boston, you're probably
nodding your head, saying like, yeah, of course, lat-keys.
If you're from anywhere else in the country, you're probably
like, what the heck are you even talking about?
Because it's a lat-kuh.
But listen, tomato, tom-ah-to,
this is how I say it.
I'm very sorry, not sorry.
They're all delicious, no matter what.
Let's just be friends.
This one's ready to flip.
I can see its golden brown edges all around.
That is a perfect golden brown surface of a latke.
This one's ready too. All right, flip this last one.
Oh yeah, so golden.
That's the gold standard, no pun intended.
I'll get these out of the fryer now and I'll transfer them to
a wire rack, which allows them to stay crispy on the bottom.
While they're still hot,
I'll sprinkle with a little more salt,
and then fry up a few more batches,
and be ready to pizza-fy.
[playful pops and crunching]
Pizza time!
You can top these however you want.
The options are endless.
I'm going classic with red sauce.
And I'm not going all the way to the edge because I want to
still have a lot of those crispy edges, as is the essence
of a good latke.
These will be like cute handheld pizzas.
And mozzarella. I love fresh mozzarella.
The way that it just drapes itself over the latke
It's going to be so nice. This will get so melty.
With the crispiness of the latke,
it's gonna be heaven.
I'll get these into the oven at 450 degrees
for about seven minutes
until the cheese is melty and splotchy.
I'm dreaming of cheese pulls already.
[sniffs] Smells like pizza.
[sniffs] Smells like potatoes.
My nose is a little confused, but I like it.
Ooh,
they're so melty, and I'm loving the splotches.
I'll finish with some dollops of pesto, packed with flavor,
so herby and fresh.
[cheerful whistling music playing]
Crushed red pepper,
loads of Parmesan, which not only adds that umami Parmesan
flavor, it also seasons the mozzarella, which is so
important since the mozzarella is so mild.
Lastly, some torn fresh basil.
I am loving the colors of these.
Oh, it smells so good. OK, I'm diving in.
Here I go.
Mm.
It's melty, it's herby from that pesto.
It's crispy and salty.
This is potato pizza perfection.
[upbeat music playing]
To round out our nosh party, I'm sneaking in a pile of
greens, but I'm balancing them out with savory donuts.
I'm making a Caesar salad, but instead of typical
croutons, I'm frying up pizza dough and dressing it up like
a garlic knot.
So you've got crunchy greens, creamy dressing,
and the doughiest, butteriest, most garlicky
nuggets of your life because why not?
Also because once I get my oil going, I like to fry a lot of
stuff and really get as much bang for my buck.
All right, I'm starting with a pound of pizza dough here
and I'm just chopping it into little nuggets
that I'll fry up into croutons.
You can use any pizza dough, store-bought, homemade.
Go to your local pizza parlor and buy a ball of it.
So satisfying. They're like little pillows.
My oil is hot.
I've got a couple of inches of neutral oil here heating to
350 degrees.
And I'll lower a batch of these guys in.
They immediately float to the top.
And I'll fry these just until they're golden all over.
It'll just take about a minute or two.
I always used to get garlic knots from my favorite little
pizza place in New York when I was in college.
So much garlic breath, but so worth it.
And they would just soak up all the booze that I would have
later that night.
Honestly, why toast a crouton when you can
deep fry a crouton? These are lightly golden.
They look awesome already. I'll get them out of the fryer.
I'll fry up another batch and then get going
on my garlic butter.
To turn these nuggets into a legit garlic knot situation,
they've got to get drenched in garlic and butter and oil.
Start with my butter right into my saucepan, and combine it
with some olive oil.
I love a butter-oil combination because you get
both flavors and the oil helps to coat everything.
Whereas sometimes I feel like the butter just soaks right in.
A lot of loads of garlic and some crushed red pepper.
I'll sizzle this for just a minute or two to allow
the garlic to cook and the butter and the oil just get
infused with the garlic and the crushed red pepper.
Smells really good. I'll drizzle this all over.
I love seeing the big pieces of garlic.
And pile in the Parmesan.
It's got to be the powdery stuff so that it sticks both to
the nuggets and to your hands when you touch them.
Some parsley, a little salt.
I'll toss these all together.
This is a bowl of happiness right here.
OK, I'll grab the greens.
I've got a bowl of crisp romaine
and my go-to Caesar dressing, but store-bought will work too.
I like a heavily dressed Caesar salad.
Loads of Parmesan
and lots of black pepper.
I'll toss this so the greens are thoroughly coated
in the dressing.
I'll toss in some of the garlic nuggets and then leave some to
go on top so you can see them.
Oh yeah.
This is a pretty color palette right here.
The rest of the nugs.
It's like half greens, half croutons.
Gotta find a good one. Oh, yeah, baby.
Mm.
The contrast between the cooling, refreshing greens
and the hot, garlicky knot makes for a perfect bite
of food. Zoinks, this is good.
Let's eat.
[playful popping and clinking]