DEEPLY FRIED - How Guy Fieri Influences My Eating Habits...

While I find other avenues to keep abreast of pop culture, I don't watch much television. The limited tv I do watch usually has something to do with food and/or travel.

But I must cop to watching the occasional episode of The Real Housewives Of New York because I find myself often educated and enlightened by that countess gal who's always showing us poor people how to be classy - like talking about yourself in the third person, referring to all your friends as *daahling* in the most condescending manner possible, hanging on to your countess title when your count husband has left you for another woman, and also calling yourself classy. That last one is especially effective, I think.

This is deeply fried and therefore deeply delicious...

But most days, if it's food related, it's Top Chef, Chopped, Iron Chef - that is, shows that have at least as much to do with cooking as with drama or personality schtick. Most recently The Next Food Network Star mainly because the whole family can get into it, and, a perennial favorite of the Man and the Monsters - Diners, Drive-ins & Dives.

While I'm not much for greasy spoon and truck stop grub, the show covers a lot of smaller mom and pop type eateries that serve some really delicious looking food I often find myself salivating over. Last night, they showcased a little place on Route 66 where they serve fry bread tacos that looked pretty *money* to me, so I went to bed with visions of fry bread fairies dancing in my head.

And then when I woke up this morning to an empty belly, not much left in the fridge (Saturdays are usually our grocery shopping days), frying oil left on the stove from last night's Monster-requested midnight snack of fresh potato chips (which were also pretty money, btw), and fry bread fairies still lurking somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind, it made perfect sense to make these Funnel Cake-ish Fry Breads with a little dusting of powdered sugar and the occasional teaspoonful of strawberry plum jam to go with my hot, lightly sugared, and black (because we're S.hit O.utta M.ilk) coffee.

To make these fry breads more of a sweet than savory deal, I took a fairly standard fry bread recipe and added some sugar, melted butter, and a dash of distilled white vinegar to tenderize the flour, which resulted in a tender in the middle, crisp around the edges fry bread that tastes a lot like funnel cake if funnel cake came in one, big piece rather than all squigglylike as funnel cake tends to be...

FUNNEL CAKE FRY BREAD
Makes 4 fry breads the size of a grown man's face, but I could see making 5 or 6 smaller ones from the same amount of dough

- 1 cup plus 1 Tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 Tablespoon butter, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
- 1/2 cup water

- extra bench flour for working with the dough

- about 3 cups of oil for frying (or enough to have about 1.5 inches of oil in the pan). I like corn and/or soybean oil (which is often labeled *vegetable oil* here in the US) best for deep frying.

- powdered sugar for dusting and a little jam for spreading if you'd like

1) Preheat your oil over medium high heat until it reaches 375F (if you have a thermometer). I check my oil by throwing a pinch of flour in to see if it sizzles immediately. If the oil starts smoking, it's too hot, and the heat needs to be turned down. But if the bread doesn't bubble and sizzle as soon as it hits the oil, it's not hot enough.

At this point, you might also want to prep your serving plate/platter with a couple layers of paper towel to absorb the excess oil. I hate when I forget to prep the dish and I'm scrambling to find a plate while my food is fixin to burn...

2) Put all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and give them 7 to 10 good whisks to aerate and evenly distribute them.

3) Then add the butter, vinegar and water and stir with a fork until everything is just incorporated. You don't want to overwork the gluten in the flour, because if you do, your dough will get tough and chewy.

4) Once all the ingredients are incorporated, give the dough a light sprinkling of flour, dust your hands with a little bit of flour, and work the dough just until it forms a ball. It's tempting to keep working the dough and turn the ball into something prettier than it is, but don't.

5) If you want large fry breads, separate the dough into 4 equal segments. 5 or 6 for smaller ones the size of an adult hand. Add a little flour as you go if needed to keep the dough from sticking.

5) You can use the palms of your hands to form the dough into roughly 5 to 7 inch diameter patties. Because I've tenderized this dough with vinegar and butter, what I found easier was to flour the bottom of the mixing bowl and just gently pat and press until you have a nice, round 5 to 7 inch disc.

palm method - not so pretty

bowl method - much bettah...

6) Gently shake or dust off the excess flour and fry the discs, one at a time, 3 to 4 minutes per side until golden brown. Again, make sure the dough bubbles and sizzles as soon as it hits the oil. If it's not hot enough, give it another minute or so to come up to temp.

This is a really tender and somewhat moist dough, so if you find that it overlaps as you put it in the oil, not to worry - just take a pair of tongs or a fork and unfold the flap.

lumpy, fried, frittery goodness... 

7) Dust with a little powdered sugar and enjoy while it's still nice and piping hot.

Or dab a little of the strawberry plum jam you made last week on top, and ride that deliciously deep fried puppy all the way to Flavor Town...

shinae

From Dogs To Fish Tacos...

The other day, I read an article somewhere about how Maria Shriver's dad advised her to make the Governator get a dog early on in their relationship - and to scrutinize his treatment of that dog - because it would be a good indicator of his aptitude as a husband. Growing up, my mom also used to say that, no matter the personality, there is something redeeming in the character of a good dog owner.

Last night's tropical fish tacos...
And by that I mean tropical AND fish tacos
not tropicalfish tacos.

I think there's something to that line of thinking because, whether the ability to care is the chicken or the egg in that argument, I observe this truth in the Man every day. Buried beneath what appears to be an incredibly simple generalization is the understanding that it takes a decent and caring person who is capable of

• being selfless in moments, 
• anticipating the needs of others, and 
• having empathy and compassion (for a creature unable to speak your language, no less) 

to be concerned with the welfare, comfort and pleasure of another being, and ultimately to be a good partner in life. 

lo-carb version...

Whether it's waking up 2 or 3 times a night to cover the whiny wiener dog with her blanket, or surprising me with a slice of chocolate cake because I posted my hormonal cravings on facebook, or taking my son to BevMo to buy a 6 pack of some artisanal root beer just because he's enamored with root beer, the Man  proves my mom's (and Maria's dad's) point through lots of little kindnesses every day.

And though I often fall short of his thoughtfulness, I do try to remember to return the favor from time to time by making a meal I know he'll love. He generally loves deep fried things. And if those things happen to be beer battered fish wrapped in a corn tortilla with some crunchy cabbage, other fresh veg or tropical fruit, and one or more super hot sauces (he's a chili head), I can find a way to dethrone the Man's best friend, if only while we're eating dinner. 

Some folks like a thicker batter on their fish, which is not a bad idea if you need to stretch the fish out. But barring a shortage, I like my batter on the thin side, and I like it really crisp. I find that mixing starch (in this case corn) with the flour, using a light-flavored and golden-colored lager, and keeping the batter cold in the freezer between frying batches helps to achieve just that texture.

light, crisp, golden brown batter...

Yesterday, I served the tacos on corn tortillas (warmed stovetop) with some crisped red cabbage, my blended pico de gallo, a really hot habanero/lime/garlic "crema" made with sour cream and mayo, and some diced, supersweet mango to counter the heat from the chilis in the two sauces. It was simple, fresh and delicious, and I think it made the pooch jealous on multiple fronts. ;)

LAGER BATTERED FISH TACOS

Serves 4

• 1.5 pounds of flaky white fish (tilapia, snapper, halibut - whatever works. They all cook pretty quickly.) cut into 2-inch long, 1/2 inch thick strips and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper.
• 3 cups oil for frying (vegetable, corn or canola). BTW, you can save frying oil (refrigerated) and reuse a good 3 or 4 times before discarding. Just remember to keep the oil used for savory foods for the same purpose. Same goes for sweet/dessert stuff. Oil for fish tacos should probably be saved for another fish taco or fish & chips day.
• 12 to 15 5-inch corn tortillas

Batter

• 2/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1+1/4 cup of lager beer (Corona, Bud, Kirin - doesn't matter), no foam (just under a full American 12 oz. bottle)

Sauces

• habanero/lime/garlic "crema" - zap the following in a blender 20 to 30 seconds or until smooth.

• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 Tablespoons mayo
• 1 habanero, rough chopped (habis, as they're affectionately called in our house, are VERY hot. If VERY hot is not your thing, you might try using just an eighth or quarter of the pepper to start.)
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (about 1 very small clove)
• 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• blended pico de gallo (recipe here)

Garnish 

No hard and fast rules here. Just some suggestions.

• very thinly sliced cabbage (red or green) - I like to crisp the cabbage in a bit of ice water and drain well before serving.
• diced tropical fruit (mango, papaya, pineapple) to offset and balance the heat from the chilies in the sauces
• fresh avocados
• lime wedges
• cilantro sprigs

1) Prepare the sauces and garnishes first and refrigerate. You'll want everything else ready as soon as the fish comes out of the fry so you'll have nice, crisp fish tacos.

2) Slice and season the fish.

3) Prepare the batter by whisking all ingredients together in a mixing bowl just until smooth (and no more). Put batter in freezer to cool while oil is heating.

4) Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or Dutch oven to 375F (if you've got a thermometer) or until it's hot enough that drop of batter sizzles and rises to the top within a couple of seconds. Prepare a plate lined with a double layer of paper towels to soak up the excess oil from your fried fish.

5) Get the batter out of the freezer and batter 7 or 8 pieces of fish at a time and fry until golden brown, about 2.5 to 3 minutes per side. Put batter back in the freezer between batches.

6) When you're on your last batch, warm your tortillas per package instructions, or straight on a gas burner, like I do. 10 to 12 seconds per side, directly over high heat.

my favorite tortilla warmer

7) While your last batch is cooling, set out your sauces, garnish and tortillas. 

 

I like to use 2 pieces of fish per taco - just a logistical thing.

Delicious and versatile, perfect with a cold beer. And if you feed some to the dog, she'll be your best friend, too.

shinae

P.S. Those mango chunks up there are WAYYYY too big to put in your fish tacos. I just forgot to picturize the diced ones. Teehee!

DEEPLY FRIED - MILs & Empanada Wrappers...

When you believe that each person who crosses your path has a lesson for you, it's hard to regret their role in the play that is your life, whatever it be. Generally speaking, I think the bigger the part and the longer the scenes before the exit, the greater the lesson (or the more pigheaded we are about learning it)...

They say men tend to marry their mothers and women their fathers. And though I would have liked to believe this wasn't my truth, after 11 years of what some would call an *unbalanced* marriage, a nasty divorce in the aftermath of what I call a *LONG AND EPIC PERSONAL BREAKDOWN*, and a few more years of oft painful reflection, I have to admit that it was very much my truth. Staring me in the face for 13 years through the eyes of a hard-working, well-meaning, self-sacrificing but very passive aggressive and hugely enabling little Ecuadorean woman, were some of the biggest lessons I needed to learn before I could step forward into a mutually loving, caring, nurturing and respectful partnership - one that I would proudly model for both my son and daughter.

Picadillo empanadas.
As with almost everything deep fried,
they are insanely tasty. :)

In moments of judgment, I saw her as a self-made victim of Latino machismo who quietly went along with her Cuban husband's chest pounding only to turn around and curse it in whispers under her breath. I would wonder in frustration why she didn't just tell the man to his face that he was full of mierda when he made whales of some of the minnows he fished out of life. (To be clear, I have a lingering love and affection for both of these complex people who loved me like the daughter they never had.)

But in moments of empathy, I understood exactly why she didn't. She didn't because she, like I, came from a culture, nature and history that made us want to protect a man's ego, and our perception of that man (no matter how deluded), at all cost. Obviously at cost to the woman suffering a man who needs big praise for little deeds, but also not so obviously at the cost of true growth for the man too easily and eagerly resting on that praise. And so in my own marriage, save the contemptuous whispers, I often found myself doing the very thing for which I criticized my mother-in-law: preserving my husband's ego at the cost of my own sanity, well-being, and sense of truth.

No delusion here - just tender,
flaky, delicious pastry...

Lest I should be misunderstood, I don't think it admirable what we did. Understandable, perhaps even forgivable, yes. To be emulated, absolutely not. Because good intentions mixed with a bad case of delusion can create a vicious cycle within which the enabler unintentionally chips away at their own ability to respect the enabled. And the enabled, despite the natural urge to accept praise, presumably believes at their core that, being so enabled, they were never worthy in the first place.

I don't fault her the whispers. I think that if I'd stayed married, I would also have found a quiet way to process my feelings. I've never been much for screaming matches nor for Western psychology's notion that we can pay a disinterested (and likely uninterested) third party to somehow stoke the flames of lasting inner growth that we lack the desire to make on our own. 

But with due respect for the life the ex MIL continues to live her way, I like to think that I exited stage left from her son's life because I was fortunate and able to learn a lesson that perhaps her circumstances did not allow: that a painful severance grounded in reality is ultimately better for the soul than a lasting union based on delusion.

We don't talk very much any more, our relationship a casualty of the tension between me and the son she is compelled to continue enabling. But the last time we had a heart to heart, I told her why I'm not going back. She teared up momentarily for the loss of so many things I'm sure, but then nodded and said "I understand." And in that moment, it was as though we had both fulfilled our biggest purposes in each other's lives - both as mirrors of our selves and as windows offering a glimpse of what lay, or could lay, ahead, for the choice to see, and act on, things as they are and not as we hope or pretend them to be.

If I have rejected some part of her in walking away from a life with her son, I still remember fondly, albeit sometimes sadly, the many moments of real warmth and affection shared between us, mostly in the kitchen, that are not likely to ever happen again. But in addition to her blessing to move on to a better life, she gave me a rich legacy of delicious foods I never knew existed until I married her son.

Empanadas are my favorite of all of her dishes because they're such crowd pleasers. Savory picadillo with bits of salty, briny olive and a sweet surprise of the occasional raisin - all wrapped in a delicious, deep fried pastry. Too hot fresh out of the oil, so you chat and wait and chat a little more until they're ready to bite into...

She likes to use the frozen Goya wrappers, or discos, as they're called in Spanish. But one of those inspired, DIY, elbow-grease-y moments sent me on a search for a perfect empanada pastry recipe, and I found a near-perfect one on epicurious. Just a couple of modifications produced a lightly sweet and oh so tender yet flakey pastry that works well with both sweet and savory fillings.

It's not a difficult recipe, but you do have to commit yourself to the time and effort it takes to make, chill, and roll the discos. A lazy weekend afternoon with a nice, chilled glass of pinot grigio and some Gipsy Kings is probably not a bad way to go about it.

EMPANADA WRAPPERS (DISCOS PARA EMPANADAS)

Adapted from this GOURMET 2004 recipe. My additions in italics.

Makes 12 to 15 wrappers.

- 2+1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

- 1+1/2 teaspoons salt

- 1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

- 1 large egg

- 1/3 cup ice water

- 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

- 1 Tablespoon Sugar

- 1 Tablespoon cold (solid) chicken fat (or 1 extra Tablespoon butter - I always have chicken fat left over from making stock, but the chicken fat does give it a different flakiness. Worth the modification if you've got it, but not a huge biggie if you don't.)

1) Sift flour with salt into a large bowl and blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal with some (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. If you don't have a sifter, just grab handfuls of flour and sift them through your fingers from 6 inches above the bowl. Do this about 10 times, and your dry ingredients will be incorporated and aerated.

2) Beat together egg, water, and vinegar in a small bowl with a fork. Add to flour mixture, stirring with fork until just incorporated. (Mixture will look shaggy.)

3) Turn out mixture onto a lightly floured surface and gather together, then knead gently with heel of your hand once or twice, just enough to bring dough together. Form dough into a flat rectangle and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 1 hour. If you're in a hurry, 30 minutes in the back of the freezer will do.

If it's a warm day, I like to keep the dough I'm not currently working in the fridge. The butter can melt quickly and make the dough challenging to work with.

4) Cut dough into equal sized cubes (about 1+1/2 inches) and roll into balls. Leave 3 or 4 out to roll, and put rest in fridge.

A baker's dozen here, but I can actually
squeeze 15 to 18 (and get a less doughy center)
out of this recipe if I roll real hard...

5) Roll into 4"-5" discs, depending on how big you want to make your empanadas.

Roller is in storage. This worked swell.

Par for the course, I take measurements for one thing, and forget them for another. Will try to get some filling recipes up shortly.

shinae 

06.10.11 - Picadillo recipe posted here.

DEEPLY FRIED - Lemon Vanilla Fritters With Fresh Strawberry Jam

Living in a desert clime since January, I’ve been enjoying the past few days of relative cool, some clouds and even a bit of rain in the mornings. While most people seem to perk up with the rays of the sun, I find there’s nothing like a little gray to give me pep. Maybe it’s because I’m a water sign (Fish) that the prospect of precipitation always gives me extra ambition for the day.

 
These days, while *working* from home (that’s what we’ll call it for now, my little pipe dream of making a modest living as a literal hermit turned virtual cooking teacher without flashing my white meat and/or being a vapid famewhore) extra ambition often means an extra experiment in the kitchen to see if I can make something delicious with whatever I’ve got on hand. When a rainy day coincides with the experiment, I find myself thinking about what I’d like to make for my kids with the hot chocolate they love to drink on just such a day.

So yesterday, I set out to make a deep-fried something sprinkled with powdered sugar and came up with these Lemon Vanilla Fritters using my Can't Bake For Shit mix (aka Bisquick). The fritters fry up quickly and taste like a lighter, crisper, fluffier miniature buttermilk bar with hints of lemon and vanilla. I purposely made them lightly sweet in anticipation of the powdered sugar dusting.

Deep fried delicious...

A quick strawberry jam from a handful of reject berries in the basket made a really delicious accompaniment, the leftovers to top a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream some day soon.

LEMON VANILLA FRITTERS WITH FRESH STRAWBERRY JAM

Makes about 20 two-bite fritters

It’s a good idea to make the strawberry jam first, as you don’t want to have to wait too long after the fritters are done to eat them.

Strawberry Jam

- 1 Cup sliced strawberries (5 to 6 medium)

- 1/3 Cup sugar

- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

- 2 teaspoons water

- pinch of salt (a gentle shake’s worth)

1) Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

2) After 10 minutes, mash large strawberry bits with a fork. This will release more of the pectin from the fruit and help thicken the jam.

3) Simmer another 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is the consistency of thick syrup.

Fritters

- 2 Cups Bisquick

- 2 Tablespoons sugar

- 1 Tablespoon butter, melted

- 1 teaspoon finely chopped lemon zest (If  you don’t have a microplane or zester, just run your vegetable peeler over the lemon, removing 2 or 3 strips of the rind, and chop into fine pieces. Try to avoid getting the bitter pith (white part) with the rind.)

- 1/2 Cup + 1 Tablespoon milk

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 2 Cups oil for frying (canola, vegetable or light olive work)

- Powdered sugar for dusting

1) Combine all dry ingredients (Bisquick, sugar and lemon zest) in a bowl and stir to incorporate.

2) Add wet ingredients (milk, vanilla extract and melted butter) and stir just enough times to incorporate all the dry ingredients with the wet.

3) Preheat the oil over a slightly higher than medium flame until a small piece of batter thrown in fries and bubbles gently.

4) Using two teaspoons (the ones you eat with, not the dainty little ones that came with your mother's china set), form a heaping teaspoon of batter into a football shaped fritter, and gently lay into oil, frying no more than 4 at a time. (After 3 or 4, you need to start flipping.) 

These should take about 1 minute per side to reach a golden brown color and ensure the batter is cooked all the way through. If they are browning too quickly (which they did with my first batch), turn the heat down a touch and wait a minute or two before frying again.

5) Rest fried fritters for 2 to 3 minutes on a double layer of paper towels to absorb oil and cool a bit.

6) Dust with powdered sugar and serve with strawberry jam.

frittery...

...goodness.

Oh, and coffee. NEVER. FORGET. COFFEEEEEEE...

shinae