Deep Frying 102 – The beer battering

Tags

beer batter, deep fryer, deep frying, fish, fish and chips, fried, frying, rellenos

This is the final installment of ‘what happened to that first batch of oil in my new deep fryer.’  So far, I’ve made zucchini sticks, deep fried mac’n’cheese, some buffalo wings, and a batch of doughnuts.  Not too shabby.  After each day that I used the fryer, I strained that crud and lost little bits out of the oil and cleaned the fryer before returning the oil.  When I was done, I kept the fryer bucket covered and in the fridge.  (Any cool and dark place will do just fine though.) Cleaning everything out in between uses and storing it properly will make your oil last much longer.

The last things to be fried before the oil flew up to the great dump in the sky were some chili rellenos and fish and chips, both of which were beer battered.

Let me take a minute here to say that the fish was the last thing to be fried and also the last thing to be dipped in the beer batter before both the oil and batter were thrown out.  The batter because of the fear of germs and the oil because fish makes it smell funky.  Doughnuts with a hint of halibut?  No thank you.

To beer batter something, you just toss it gently in seasoned flour (just like Three Stage Frying!) and then dunk it into the beer batter.  Batter has a hard time sticking to moist items, like stuffed chilis or fish pieces, and the flour helps the batter stick to the ingredient to be fried.

These were just some roasted pasilla chilis that were stuffed with cheese, hot peppers, onions and corn.  A happy little vegetarian dinner.  Sorry, no recipe it was some windfall ingredients that I had a while back and popped into the freezer a month ago and I have no clue what it cost to make it.  Don’t be ashamed of your thrifty-ness and and creative ability; if your friends know about it, they will start giving you things they’re not clever enough to use up or don’t have the time for.

Here’s my fish and chips, made from some halibut that my Daddy slew up in Alaska.  Any white fish that you like would be great.  I did oven fries because shit was just getting a little to real around here with the new deep fryer.

Basic Beer Batter

Makes 3 cups, which is enought to fry quite a few things – cost approx $1.24 per batch

Ingredients

• 1 egg ($.16)
• 1 can cheap beer ($.58, yep I know, really cheap beer)
• 1 1/2 cups flour ($.25)
• 1 Tbs lemon juice
• Pinch salt

Just mix everything together until it’s almost lump free.  I like to store my batter in a tall, slim container so that I can get maximum dunkage and minimal waste.

This beer batter will keep in the fridge for a day or so, I wouldn’t push it more that 2 days though.

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Potato and Pea Samosas – delightfully indulgent while still being vegan on Meatless-Monday!

Tags

appetizer, cumin samosa, fried, indian, pea, potato, vegan, vegetarian

I don’t like to try to change recipes or dishes to make them vegetarian or vegan.  So whenever I’m looking to make a vegetarian or vegan meal, I always go first to my more exotic cookbooks.  My personal favorite being Indian food!

The great, unwashed, American masses tend to assume that vegetarian and vegan food is all painfully healthy rabbit food.  For cultures that have sizable vegetarian and vegan populations (or even lots of poor people who just can’t afford meat), you will find recipes that range from healthy to indulgent and from simple to complicated.  This recipe happens to be both indulgent and fairly complicated, but these delightful little spiced vegetable fritters are worth it!

nom nom nom

When I first became interested in Indian cooking when I was in high school, a friend’s mother taught me how to make these little guys.  This is Mrs. Sembhi’s recipe and one of the first Indian foods I learned to make.  They are great as an appetizer or part of an bigger Indian meal.  Aside from one little yogurt sauce, my meal was entirely vegan!  We had lentil dal, rice, naan bread (a bit overcooked, unfortunately) and a vegetable curry to accompany our samosas.

Potato and Pea Samosas

Makes 8 large samosas – cost approx $2.78 for all of it (less if you re-use your frying oil!)

Ingredients

• 1 cup and 1 Tbs flour, divided use – or pre-made pot-sticker wrappers ($.10)
• 1 Tbs and 2 cups vegetable oil, divided use ($2)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled, small dice ($.12)
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas ($.23)
• 1/4 cup onion, minced ($.08)
• 2 Tbs cilantro, minced
• salt and pepper

If you want to just buy your favorite sort of pot sticker wrappers, that would be fine too, just skip ahead to making the filling.  Start by making the simple dough for the wrappers.  Put 1 cup of flour and a pinch of salt into a mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment.  Add in warm water slowly, just until a dough forms and there’s no more loose flour, let mix on low for 5 minutes.  The dough should be smooth and uniform and not be sticky, feel free to add a pinch more flour or water to adjust your consistency on the dough.  Cover and let rest while you prepare the filling.

To make the filling, heat the 1 Tbs of vegetable oil in a saute pan and add in the cumin seeds.  Cook for 30 seconds or until the cumin seeds are slightly browned and fragrant.  Add in the potato and cook until the they are about 75% cooked through (they’ll finish cooking in the fryer).  Remove from the heat and then add in the peas, onion and cilantro.  Taste the filling and adjust the seasonings with salt and black pepper.

Now to assemble the little pockets of goodness!  This is kinda similar to making Chinese pancakes for Mu Shu Pork. (https://fullbellyfullwallet.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/mu-shu-pork-a-pork-revival/)

Start by cutting your dough into 4 equal pieces and rolling them into little balls.  Flatten them into little disks and spray them with whichever spray-grease you have on hand (or a few drops of oil)  Stack them all up evenly and roll out very thin, making a circle about 4-5 inches in diameter.  Now heat up a griddle or large saute pan over medium heat and lightly begin to cook the dough on one side for 30 sec – 1 minute, just enough to pull the sheets apart then repeat on the other side until all the thin sheets have been separated.  (There are pictures of this process in the link to my Mu Shu Pork recipe above, the only difference is that you’re not fully cooking the dough sheets, as they will finish cooking in the fryer.)

Cut each dough sheet in half, making 8 half circles.  Make a paste out of the 1 Tbs of flour and a little water, this will be the glue that holds your samosas together.  Make a little cone out of the semi-circle, sealing the edge with the flour glue.

Fill the cone with a scoop of the filling then seal over the top with the flour glue.  Really, any shape that fully seals in the filling will be delicious, but the cones are traditional.

Gently fry over over medium heat just a few at a time, until they are golden brown and delicious, about 3-5 minutes.  I like to use a small pot so that I don’t have to use a whole lot of oil, but do what you like.  This would be a great time to use your counter top fryer if you have one!

When they’re all done, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and tuck in!

Halibut Cakes with Dijonaise dipping sauce

Tags

cakes, fish, fried, halibut

I might have mentioned this before, but my Daddy is an awesome fisherman.  He has so much fun planning fishing trips to Alaska and seems to be able to pull trout out of every lake we’ve been to in the Sierras.  Some of my fondest memories are about fishing with my Daddy, from learning how to cast in the front yard with my pink fishing pole when I was six to taking my first trout off the hook completely on my own this past summer.

My Daddy’s prize catch is definitely the 180 lb halibut he caught a few years back in Alaska.  (The picture is still hanging on my fridge, the fish is bigger than him!)  There were also a few more, rather large halibut he caught this summer too.  The fishing group he goes with filets and flash freezes all their fish for them and sends it back home, so needless to say, my family is always looking for good halibut recipes.  I hope this one works for my folks as well as it did for me!

This is a great template recipe for any type of seafood cake; you could substitute any sort of cooked mild white fish (read: what’s on sale), crab or even imitation crab if you’re a vegetarian.  The texture is firm but moist, so nice!  These halibut cakes would be excellent as an appetizer or as a main course with some side dishes.  I served these yummy little fried patties with a simple pasta salad, making my total dinner cost only about $2 for two very hungry people.

Halibut Cakes

Serves 2-3 – cost approx $.41 per serving

Ingredients

• 8 oz cooked halibut, flaked ($0 if you befriend a fisherman!)
• 2 ribs celery, very small dice ($.21)
• 2 scallions, minced ($.10)
• 1/4 cup parsley, minced
• 4 Tbs mayonnaise
• 2 eggs ($.25)
• salt and black pepper – to taste
• pinch paprika
• pinch onion powder

• 1 cup bread crumbs, divided use
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil ($.17)

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Mix all ingredients in the first section.  Add half a cup of bread crumbs to thicken the mixture, it should just hold together.  Heat the oil over medium high heat in a heavy saute pan.  Place the remaining half a cup of bread crumbs on a plate.  Form a ball of the halibut mixture about the size of a tangerine or racket ball (I find fruit and sports balls are easy points of reference for sizes in the kitchen…) and roll in the bread crumbs.  Shape the breaded ball into a patty shape.

Gently fry the patties until they are golden on both sides.  Work in small batches as to not crowd the pan and decrease the oil temperature too much.  For me this recipe made 7 halibut cakes.  After frying, remove the patties to a sheet tray and keep warm in the oven while you finish frying the rest of the halibut cakes.  Keep in the oven for about 5 minutes, which is incidentally about how long it will take to put together the dipping sauce.  🙂

Dijonaise Dipping Sauce

Makes approx 1/4 cup – cost $.45

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise ($.25)
• 1 lemon, divided use ($.20)
• garlic salt – to taste
• 1 tsp dijon mustard (or whatever mustard you like!!!)

Halve the lemon, cut up half into slices or wedges for garnishing the halibut cakes and juice the other half.  Mix the mayo, lemon juice, garlic salt and mustard to make the dipping sauce.  Done!