Deep-Fried Avocado

Yes mates, you can deep fry avocado. And it is oh so tasty too! It's really rather simple. So simple in fact that I wasn't even going to post this.

But since it turned out so great and I have great pictures then I figured I may as well inform you (my loyal readers) of Deep-Fried Avocado!

You'll need an avocado or 2 or 3. Some breadcrumbs. An egg or two. Some cornflour (cornstarch is what it's called in North America). A vessel for deep frying, I prefer a wok. And some deep frying oil --I prefer rice bran oil but peanut oil works great too.

Firstly, peal, pit, slice however many avocados you'll be using. 1 cm thick slices worked just fine for me.

Put some cornstarch on a small plate. Whisk the eggs in a small bowl. Put the breadcrumbs in another small bowl. Your kitchen cutting board should end up looking something like this:

Or at least the layout of the fixin's should be similar.

As the breading process only takes a minute or two, this would now be a good time to light a fire under your wok which should have some deep frying oil in it at around a 3 cm depth.

To bread the avocado slices just dust them in the cornflour/cornstarch, dunk them in the beaten eggs, then dredge through the breadcrumbs, no worries. Hopefully you'll end up with something resembling this:


And of course the requisite close-up:


Alrighty, time to deep fry them! You want the oil temp to be 380F-400F, yes that is rather hot so be careful.

When you deep fry the breaded avocado slices DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK ON THEM! They only take 60 to 90 seconds to fry nicely. You want the breading browned and crispy but the inside NOT turned to mush, hence the high temp and short time.

See what I mean?


As soon as I pulled them out of the oil to drain I sprinkled a bit of sea salt on them and a pinch of cumin powder. Very very tasty mates!

Mmmmmmmm, seriously yummy.

Deep Fried Zucchini Fingers

These are so easy to make and oh so tasty! Don't worry if you don't normally like zucchini, you'll LOVE these!

AND you don't have to worry about salting n "sweating" the zucchini fingers. Why? Since they are deep fried any bitterness that may be in the zucchini (if it's not fresh) is gone during the cooking, woo-hoo!

These are breaded, not battered. The battered ones come out a bit on the soggy side I've found. However if you do have soggy battered deep fried treats, you can chuck 'em in a hot oven for a few minutes to crispy them up, no worries mates.

Alrighty then, let's get to the breaded zucc's.

What you need:

one zucchini
bread crumbs (around a cup should do)
1 tsp cumin powder (cuz I LOVE cumin)
1 tbsp (or so) of freshly grated Parmesan (cuz I LOVE Parmesan)
sprinkle of sea salt
one beaten egg

The oil you want to use for deep frying is something that'll take a good hot temp of around 400 to 425F. The two best for deep frying, in my opinion, are peanut oil and rice bran oil. Both are very healthy, have a very high smoke point, and aren't GMO.

What you do:

Add the bread crumbs, cumin powder, Parmesan, and a pinch of sea salt to a bowl

and mix it all together!

Next, prepare your zucchini. Just cut each end off and rinse it, no need to peel it. Cut it in half, then halve each half lengthwise. Slice each halved half into finger sized pieces.

You should now have a bowl of seasoned bread crumbs, a bowl with a beaten egg (do I really need to tell you how to beat an egg? Thought naught) in it, and a small plate of zucchini fingers.




Hopefully you remembered to light a fire under your oil before you started all this so you should have a wok with an inch of hot oil in it.

Put one fourth of the zucchini fingers into the egg, move around to thoroughly coat, put them in the bread crumbs and make sure they are well coated in the seasoned crumbs.

Carefully plop the breaded zucchini fingers into the oil without splashing any oil on you. Cuz, well, like, you know, that kinda like HURTS!

After around 45 seconds or so, give em a stir and turn. I suggest using tongs instead of your fingers BTW.

Once they are nicely browned, take them out of the oil and drain on paper towels. Continue deep frying in batches till they are all cooked.

A little sprinkle of sea salt and they'll be perfect! No dips are needed for these, trust me.

And don't they look delicious?

Fried Parsnip Slices

Ah yes, the humble and venerable parsnip!





This veggie has been known and eaten since antiquity. The ancient Romans considered the ones from what is now Germany but was then called Germanica to be the best. They were also a staple diet of the poor in the Middle Ages --that means prit-near everyone in Europe back then ate 'em! Parsnips were also used as a side dish to salted cod or smoked herrings as they complimented the strong fish flavours nicely.

They fell out of fancy as the ole humble spud from the New World gradually replaced them. Even to this day there are many that hate parsnips, probably from ingrained thinking over the last few hundred years.

There's one Aussie TV chef/personality who caused quite a stir (Ha! "A stir" get it?) a couple of years ago when he went on a bit of a rant against parsnips as they are starting to come into fashion down here in Oz. Says he wouldn't even feed 'em to a pig!

Believe or not Ripley, but until recently I'd never had a parsnip nor even knew what they looked like! I got a few kilos of them at a ridiculously low price a coupla months ago and asked via twitter what I should do with them.

Quite a lot of great suggestions I did receive. Curry was one of the suggestions but I didn't want to make that first as I wanted something that let the parsnip flavour speak for itself. So I went with the by far #1 suggestion of parsnip chips (fries)!

I even baked one batch and deep fried another to find out the taste difference. Not surprisingly, the deep fried ones tasted better. Well, at least to us! I made the baked ones the first day and we all thought they were tasty, even BIL who is a very fussy eater and doesn't eat many veggies. But the deep fried ones the next day were waaaaay better! The whole platter of them disappeared in under a minute.

Not that I was timing it though, too busy eating!

The key to baking or frying the parsnips is to slice them lengthwise making sure all slices have the same thickness. Otherwise thin strips will be burnt before the thick strips are done. After peeling the parnsips I contemplated how to do this.

"Duh," my brain said, "use a cheese slicer you moron!"

Wouldn't you know it worked great? Yes, my brain can be smart at times. Here's proof (of the procedure working, not my brain being smart)




To bake them, toss the strips in olive oil, lightly salt them, and put them in a hot oven till they're crispy. They come out lookin', smellin' and tastin' good!




For even better ones: deep fry them thar strips! Use the same temperature of oil as you would for fries, no worries. I recommend rice bran oil as it has a very high smoke point of 495 F and the fried food comes out light and crisp.

The strips fry up very quickly so keep a close eye on them else you'll end up with burnt strips of crud. So don't go tweeting while deep frying!

Here's what the first round out of the wok (my deep fryer) looked like:


Just a quick sprinkle with salt and then EAT THEM!

Soup Fritters

Yes, I can hear the collective head-scratching from all the way down in South Oz.

Lemme 'splain it to ya! Firstly you have to understand that I am the undisputed Iron Chef of leftovers. That's right, I am.

Now then, how soup fritters came about. I made some soup the other day by boiling the dekerneled corn cobs and the husks in a lot of water. Plus 2 bay leaves and a large sprig of fresh rosemary from the garden.

I then diced up a spud (potato), half a leftover onion, and the last 2 rashers of bacon from a kilo pack. Quick fried them all up, then added to the strained soup stock. Simmered till spuds were done. Salt n pepper to taste. Served with a fresh, crusty, pull-apart loaf.

Very tasty. We all loved it.

Surprisingly enough, there were a couple of cups left in the bottom of the pot the next morning. Obviously I wasn't going to toss it. I thought about having it for brekkie but then I thought that just perhaps I could make a nice side dish out of it.

But what?

*insert light bulb here*

I know! I'll put it in the blender to liquefy it, then add an egg or two, then add enough self-raising flour till it's a batter. Then I'll deep fry small spoonfuls of the batter! Instant fritters! Wonderfully flavoured too.

That really is all there is to it. No, I can't give you amounts as this is definitely a "seat of the pants" type recipe. But to help you out, I do have pictures!

First though, if you have over 4 cups of blenderized soup then definitely use 2 eggs.

Here is the consistency of the batter you are aiming for:




Now just drop a small spoonful into some hot oil. You don't need a deep fryer, a wok over some flame will do fine. And make sure you use rice bran oil for your deep frying! Very high smoke point and very high in mono-unsaturated fats. It deep fries food wonderfully well!

They'll swell up to around twice their size so don't crowd them. They'll also practically flip themselves in the oil once the submerged half is cooked! Here's a pic of a batch of the them deep frying after turning.




Once they are nicely browned all over and are just about done "bubbling" you'll want to remove from the oil and drain on paper towels. Like this:




Give em a little sprinkle with salt and ENJOY! When you bite into one it'll be soooooo nice, light, and fluffy on the inside. See, look!




I found they are also very nice sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon powder! Like savoury donut holes! Try it, you'll like it.

Polynesian Fried Sweet Potatoes

I'm going to post some Polynesian type recipes for a while. Of course there'll be some times when I have to post something besides that, so the posts won't be 100% Polynesian --I'll (obviously) tell you when it's not.

This, however, is one of those times when the post IS about Polynesian food. I think the title would have given a clue, eh?

Did y'all know that New Zealand is officially part of Polynesia? Tonga is but Fiji (very close by Tonga) is not. However I will be including Fijian recipes. Also one or two from Papau New Guinea even though it's not Polynesian.

Why? Cus this is my food blog! Harumph. Grumble.

One of the hallmarks of South Pacific Island food is the freshness of the ingredients, the way it's cooked, and not overly seasoned. The taste of the fresh food really comes through.

This method for frying the sweet potatoes is a more traditional way than the modern way. The modern way is basically exactly how the Belgians cook Pome Frites. That's chips to the English and french fries to US'ns.

Fried sweet potatoes and fried taro are found all throughout the South Pacific, this recipe isn't from any one particular Island.


Authentic Polynesian Fried Sweet Potato

What you need:
One or two big ole sweet potatoes
Big pot with water
Something for frying (you'll need an inch of oil, I use a wok)
Oil for deep frying --I use sunflower oil.

What you do:
Scrub the sweet potatoes well. You don't need to peel them, no worries. Hack (I like to use my cleaver for this part --fun too!) the sweet potatoes into halves and toss them into a pot of boiling water. If you have a pot large enough then you won't have to chop them in half.

You may have noticed that raw sweet potatoes are much denser and tougher than other spuds. This means you can boil them for 20 mins and although they'll be well-softened they won't be totally cooked through.

Take them out of the water (don't forget to turn the heat off on your stovetop!), let them cool 10 minutes. Slice them into disks 5mm to 10mm thick (around 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick).

Heat up an inch of oil in a wok (or whatever you use for deep frying) and, ummm, deep fry them disks! Obviously, the longer you leave them in the oil, the crispier they'll get. I like to fry mine for about 2 minutes in hot oil (just before the oil starts to smoke), this makes the outer rim crispy and the center soft and SWEET.

Drain on paper towels, lightly (very lightly) salt, and fry the next batch.

This process really brings the sweet, sugary flavour out of the sweet potato.

You may want to fry one disk at a time (with a timer) and then test it for your tastebuds to determine whether you'd like to fry them longer or not.

Once you've made them once, you'll know exactly how long to fry them for your taste and then you can make them at the "drop of a hot". Very tasty, very sweet, very easy.

Fried Seafood Dip

Dippity-dippity-do-da! I likes me dips. I also like making them. And experimenting with different ingredients.

Battered or breaded fish just BEGS for a good dip. And I (being a good dip) am only too happy to oblige.

We had beer battered fish fillets, battered peppery squid rings, tempura battered crab, and homemade chips (fries). Yes it needed a dip. It also needed one I could make quickly.

I was out of horseradish so the ole ketchup n horseradish was out.

Hmmmmm, how's abouts ketchup, dark soy sauce, and wasabi paste? It worked! Delish!

Here's what you do: To a few tbsp of ketchup add a small splash of dark soy sauce (only a bit as it's very strongly flavoured) and wasabi paste to taste. I tend to use more wasabi than most westerners so be careful with the amount. You can always add more, but you can't take it out.

Ta-da. Quick n easy dip for fried fishy stuff.

Oh yeah, don't forget to stir it.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be putting up various Polynesian recipes as I get to plan a South Pacific Party Menu for a friend in the Berks. Once she's finalised the menu from all the options I've given her I'll write up each recipe and also post them here for you all to enjoy.

Onion Rings

I was thinking about starting a series of posts about pickling and drying, but I first decided to talk about one of THE BEST deep fried foods ever: The humble onion ring. I was reminded about onion rings not only from last weeks' post about deep frying, but from the death of a canoe story on my other blog.

There was, and I really hope it's still there, a restaurant in Los Anchorage called The Arctic RoadRunner.  They made great cheeseburgers and the worlds best onion rings.

I hope they are still there...

Anyways, I make my own onion rings. You can use batter if you'd like, but it doesn't stick to the rings very well and the oil gets in. So use breading! Many folks use buttermilk before dredging in the breading mix.



But there's a better way



Dingo Dave's Onion Rings:

What U Knead:

3 good sized onions (what? aren't you having company to enjoy these?)
2 cups flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp of cayenne powder (or less or more, your choice)
1 tsp mild paprika

and the secret... 2 cups of plain yog(h)urt

Don't worry if you don't like yoghurt, you won't even notice it's there. But it makes the breading stick GREAT and absolutely no oil gets into your onion rings.


What u due:

I think you can figure this out, but I'll go through it anyways. Slice the onions into rings (see, I told you you coulda figured it out). Mix all the dry ingredients. Give the yog(h)urt a good stir so it's not lumpy. Drag the rings through the yog(h)urt and then dredge in the flour mix. Notice how the breading REALLY stays on?

Deep fry in hot oil for 2 to 3 mins only, won't take long at all.

Now here's the really easy part: EAT THEM! Oh, they are best had with a light, hoppy, lager on a hot day.

enjoy


Oh wait, I just gotta tell you about my lunch today. Here's what I had:

sushi
cocktail prawns (shrimp)
dolmades
chilli marinated New Zealand Green-Lipped Mussels
fried squid rings
battered fish
veggie egg rolls (healthy!)
sliced roast beef w/horseradish (not sauce, pure horseradish)
honey chicken
sweet and sour pork

and for dessert:
chocolate truffles
chocolate mousse
banana cake
profiterolles

I then took a two hour nap, and am NOT planning on having any dinner tonight.

Deep Frying Fool

Yes, I know it's bad for you... but gosh darn it: it tastes GOOD!

Deep fried goodness! Oh, come on now, doesn't everything taste better when tossed in hot oil with or without some type of coating? Hell, I've even deep fried sushi --TRUE (personally, I like it better raw and yes, I make damned good sushi).

Today though, you get a wonderful batter that'll fry a variety of things. I was cleaning out the fridge the other day, and had a little of this and a little of that. I thought for lunch I should deep fry the bits and see which ones come out best --for some reason, no one else in the clan house was as excited about this lunch as I was... hmmmmm...

Anyways, I decided that a good, thick, egg batter would be best. Before I give you the batter recipe, let me list the things I was deep fryin':

pickled mussels
camenbert cheese
metwurst
brie cheese
crab meat
feta cheese
blood sausage (black pudding)
bleu cheese


Ahem, yes, I like to eat... As you can tell, I needed a versatile batter (definitely not breading). It turns out, the feta was BEST, followed very closely by everything else. Hey, I am a deep frying King --been doing it a while.

The batter:

half flour/half polenta (corn meal will do) --about 3/4 cup of each
salt
ground white pepper
milk powder (a tbsp or two)
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tsp powdered coriander
1 tsp powdered cumin
2 eggs
enough water to make a good, thick batter.

Mix it all together, then use.

Oh, if you use a good, wide wok, then you only need an inch of oil. I use olive oil for everything except deep frying, for that I use sunflower oil.

As I said, the deep fried feta was great, but so was everything else (the mussels were a close second).

Hmmmm, maybe I should tell you how to make deep fried, soft boiled eggs sometime (it's a vietnamese thing).