Fried potato donuts

The cajincí arestis, translated into English fried potato donuts, are one of the most typical dishes of Val Badia’s cuisine. They are not easy to prepare, but they are really delicious.

When at the time of our grandmothers it was “cajincí day", the countrywomen were busy for a long time. They made a relatively large number of donuts, usually with two different fillings, with spinach and curd cheese, and with sweet poppy seeds. The potato donuts were also eaten cold the following day.

Ingredients
500g of flour
500g of boiled potatoes
50g of yeast
1/2 l of milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of sugar
a pinch of salt

For the filling
½ kg of spinach,
300g of curd cheese,
1/2 onion
some butter
a pinch of salt, pepper (to taste, a pinch of nutmeg and garlic)

Preparation
Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm milk. Leave to rest in a warm place for approx. 10 minutes. Add half of the flour and prepare a dough. Let it rest for another half hour. Then add the other half of the flour, the boiled, mashed potatoes, eggs and salt. Knead with your hands until a soft dough is formed. Roll out the dough quite thin. Cut out rings of approx. 6 cm in diameter. Fill them with the spinach filling (see turtres recipe) and fold in half. Close tightly with your fingers and let rest again for approx. 40 minutes in a warm place.
Fry in hot oil.

Suggestion
The "cajinci arestis" also taste delicious with poppy seed filling. The filling is easy to prepare. Boil the ground poppy seeds in water, refine with honey and some liqueur (for example rum).