deep fried Archives

Squash Blossom Serenade

I’ve always been afraid of squash blossoms. I knew you could cook them–stuff them with cheese and fry them–but somehow that seemed difficult. Plus you have to search inside each flower for bugs and who wants to take a chance that you might miss one? “No thank you,” I used to say to myself. “No squash blossoms for me.”

But then on Saturday at the farmer’s market I’d purchased the obligatory heirloom tomatoes for an heirloom tomato salad when I passed $5 packages of squash blossoms at the stand near the subway stop. They called to me and this time I didn’t run away in fear: I purchased a box and brought them home. And boy am I glad I did, as you will soon learn…

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Elise’s Fritters & An Heirloom Tomato Salad

Do I hold the record for fastest re-blogged recipe? Probably not. Elise put up her recipe for spicy corn fritters on August 12th, I made them “today” (technically yesterday) August 13th, and now it’s 12:22 AM and I’m blogging about it on August 14th (my mom’s birthday: happy birthday mom!) But no matter. The point is, these corn fritters are truly excellent and a cinch to make. Head to your local farmer’s market to load up on corn and then do what I did: buy a basket of strange looking heirloom tomatoes and make a little salad to serve next to the fritters. Just add olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper and basil if you have it. That’s it! A perfect summer meal. Thanks Elise, your fritters make me twitter with joy.

Deep Fried Twix Bars

The other night at Chip Shop in Park Slope with Kirk, James and Diana we’d stuffed ourselves silly with fried fish, fried potatoes, and fried beer (ok, the beer wasn’t fried). Then Kirk tried to kill us. “Who wants to share deep fried Twix bars? They’re awesome.” In all my years of adventurous eating, I’d never had a deep fried candy bar. So I said I was game. So was James and, eventually, Diana. Here’s what they brought out, photo by James:

First of all, kudos to Chip Shop on their thoughtful presentation (notice how they’re stacked and dusted with powdered sugar?) Second of all, look at Kirk’s beer: he had a Monty Python Holy Ale. I took a sip and it made me say Ni! Ni! Ni! Ni!

Anyway, after staring for a bit we finally lifted our forks and dove in. And OH MY LORD: you have no idea what you’re in for when it comes to a deep fried candy bar. It’s not just sick, sweet decadence: it’s much more than that. The chocolate and caramel MELT within the crispy batter so that it becomes almost unrecognizable in its goodness, like a whole new category of sweets you never knew existed. Words fail me now. All I can say, is if you’ve never had a deep fried candy bar you really should. I plan to have one every day until I die which, if I really have one every day, may happen sooner rather than later. You’re all invited to say “Ni” at my funeral.