Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Fair food is fantastic.
Think about it: Most of the items served at county fairs, festivals or carnivals come on sticks and have spent some time in a sugary batter followed by a hot oil bath. That process creates combinations that hit so many taste pleasure centers - sweet with salty, crispy with soft, warm with cool.
Perhaps fair foods are not the best everyday fare, health-wise, but as an every-so-often indulgence, it’s hard to beat a corn dog or a funnel cake - or perhaps something even more unusual.
The Texas State Fair, somewhat unsurprisingly, has become the unoffcial headquarters of fried foods. The creations that debut in the Big Tex Choice Awards, as the competition is called, often get national press. In recent years, deep-fried beer - still alcoholic!
Without getting as elaborate as the kitchen craftsmen do at some state fairs, a quick browse of online recipe collections inspired four staples - corn dogs, crème-fi lled cakes (think Twinkies), Oreos andfunnel cakes. Three of them used the same basic recipe, and there is no limit to what you might coat in batter, dunk in oil and enjoy.
EASY FUNNEL CAKE BATTER
Ingredients
2 quarts oil
1 ½ cups complete buttermilk pancake mix (just-add-water variety)
2 tablespoons sugar
½ cup water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Powdered sugar (for garnish)
Heat oil to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together pancake mixand sugar. Whisk in water and vanilla until lumps are removed.
The resulting batter should be the consistency of cake batter and should fall as ribbons when the whisk is lifted from bowl. Pour batter into a funnel or plastic squeeze bottle with a ¼ inch opening. Pour into hot oil, making a rapid circular motion to make a 4- to 5- inch disc. Cook about 1-2 minutes until golden brown, then flip and repeat the process for the other side. Remove, dust with powdered sugar and serve.
Notes: It’s not as easy as it looks or sounds. I had to add a touch of additional water to make it less viscous. I used a funnel, and I kept getting my hands uncomfortably warm over the hot oil. The strands broke apart as I dumped them in the oil. I think with practice, I could have mastered the pouring motion, because the resulting chunks of fried batter were quite tasty. If I tried this again, I’d probably use a squeeze bottle, perhaps an empty ketchup container.
Funnel cake batter (recipe Page 6A)
Creme-filled sandwich cookies (such as Oreos)
Powdered sugar (for garnish)
Heat oil to 375 degrees. Prepare batter. Dip the cookies in batter, making sure to cover them sufficiently. Using a heavy-duty straining spoon, lower the battered cookies into the hot oil. Fry for about 3 minutes, turning halfway through the process.Remove from hot oil and place on paper towel. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.
Notes: These are wonderful. No, seriously. The cookies soften, the cream inside warms slightly and the breading is just a sugary coating. I used Oreos’ limited-time Mega Stuf off ering, because why not? If I didn’t want to gain an excessive amount of weight in a short amount of time - they run in excess of 150 calories each - I’d eat them every day. Maybe for every meal.
DEEP FRIED TWINKIES
Funnel cake batter (recipe Page 6A)
Creme-filled yellow cakes (such as Twinkies)
¼ cup raspberry preserves
Powdered sugar (for garnish)
Wooden skewers (optional)
Heat oil to 375 degrees. Prepare batter. Dip the cakes in batter, making sure to cover them sufficiently. Using a heavy-duty straining spoon, lower the battered cakes into the hot oil. Fryfor about 3 minutes, turning halfway through the process. Remove from hot oil and place on paper towel. Spread raspberry preserves over the top of the cake, then dust with powdered sugar. Serve immediately.
Notes: These are super sweet but super delightful. It’s interesting how deep frying changes the consistency of these sweets. The normally soft cakes take on a melt-in-your-mouth center inside the crusty batter. I’ve been told Hostess brand Twinkies have returned to store shelves, but I couldn’t f ind any. I used Little Debbie brand Cloud Cakes, and they worked just fine. If you’d like, you can put these on skewers, but inside the house, where you have plates and forks and knives to eat them with, I didn’t see the point.
CORN DOGS
1 quart oil
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose fl our
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
8 ½ ounce can cream corn
1/3 cup finely grated onion
1 ½ milk or buttermilk
4 tablespoons cornstarch
8 hot dogs
8 skewers or wooden chopsticks
Heat oil to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and pepper. In another bowl, combine creamed corn, onion and milk. Combine wet and dry ingredients.
Scatter cornstarch on a plate. Roll each hot dog in cornstarch and coat evenly, working to avoid lumps. Insert stick or skewer into hot dog, if desired. Dunk hot dogs in the batter, coating well. Carefully dropdogs into hot oil. Fry for 2-4 minutes or until golden brown. Dry cooked corn dog onto paper towel, then serve.
Notes: These were also surprisingly good. Seeing chunks of corn in the batter as you eat makes it feel authentic, perhaps healthy, even though it most certainly is not the latter. The batter is thick and quite tasty. As I sampled the uncooked batter, I worriedit would be too spicy; that’s quite a bit of cayenne. However, after it fried, I had no such complaints. Make sure you measure your sticks before you try to drop the dog - you don’t want it only partially submerged in oil because the length of stick you chose won’t fit in the fryer. I’d measure before you even heated the oil, actually. The barbecue skewers I bought needed to be shortened before they would fit inside the deep fryer we used.
Life, Pages 6 on 09/25/2013