Matcha Donuts

New York City is full of great grocery shopping opportunities to make just about any recipe you’d come across. There are the West African markets in Harlem, the Chinese, Indonesian and Thai markets in Chinatown, the palatial Indian grocery store in Jackson Heights and the foodie’s field day that is Kalustyan’s in Murray Hill. They’re also spread out across the city, so it’s not always an option to make some last-minute Chinese hot pot when all the Chinese produce is below Canal Street. But in the past year or so, I’ve discovered several amazing Japanese markets located right in midtown, and one is almost directly caddy-corner to my office.

The store is tiny, but mighty. At lunchtime it gets packed – think line winding through all of the 4 narrow aisles – with cubicle-dwellers looking for quick and fresh sushi, sashimi and prepared lunch sets to go. On days when my lunch from home doesn’t make it to the office, I often find myself here sorting indecisively through the massive prepared food section. But my favorite time to come to the store is in the early evening when the rush has died down, and I can wander the aisles and take in the rows of miso, the noodles, the fresh produce in the back, the entire aisle of rice. It’s like doing anthropological research in midtown.

Nowadays matcha is a trendy ingredient, and you can easily find it at your local Whole Foods. But this market has a whole shelf of matcha powder, for ceremonies to cooking and everything in between. So when I saw these donuts, which I’m not even going to try to pass off as Japanese, I knew just the place to go for the cheerful green topping.

I cheekily made these one weekend when I was also whipping up my first attempt at Japanese hot pot (while a definite failure, I did enjoy the looks I got carrying a 3-foot long burdock root home after work). And for donuts, these are dead easy. They’re cake donuts, which means no yeast, and the buttermilk makes them nice and tender. They fry quickly and easily, and you can put together several different takes on a matcha topping (I did a glaze and granulated sugar, but I’m including the powdered sugar recipe too). They’re springy, striking and, most importantly, really, really tasty.

And speaking of all things green…I’m off to Ireland tomorrow for a week of countryside walks, seafood and room temperature Guinness. As usual, recommendations to come upon my return. See you in two weeks!