Comments on: Deep Fried. . . What?

Question: Deep Fried. . . What?

mygothlaundry — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 11:51:16 -0800

What Should I Bring to the Deep Frying Party?

My friend who owns a used restaurant equipment business has a party every year. He fires up three or four industrial sized deep fryers and guests are invited to fry the delicacy of their choice. People usually bring bags of frozen stuff and it's all good (can anything fried be bad, really?) but this year I want to bring something really. . . unique. Unique, yet edible. Disgusting, yet delicious. Peculiar, yet palatable. So I turn naturally to the hive mind. What should I fry this year? Bonus points for things that are fairly easy & quick to prepare - this party is in about 7 hours.

By: nitsuj

nitsuj — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 11:53:17 -0800

How about deep fried Coke?

By: sonofslim

sonofslim — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 11:57:44 -0800

frozen mars/snickers/milky way bars, wrapped in tortillas. pickles, halved or quartered and rolled in crushed-up rice krispies. oreos straight-up.

By: Paragon

Paragon — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 11:58:11 -0800

Is a Deep Fried Mars Bar too obvious? How about Deep-Fried Ice Cream?

By: monju_bosatsu

monju_bosatsu — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 11:58:22 -0800

Fried twinkies?

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:02:04 -0800

deep fried pizza?

By: monju_bosatsu

monju_bosatsu — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:02:30 -0800

Also, hotdogs wrapped in bacon and fried are quite good.

By: padraigin

padraigin — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:10:09 -0800

Another vote for pickles.

By: Science!

Science! — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:14:33 -0800

A friend of mine once requested that his hamburger be deep fried, by all accounts (his) it was delicious.

By: Science!

Science! — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:15:56 -0800

Here's 14 of 'em

By: box

box — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:17:23 -0800

You should bring me.

Or, alternately, tofu (ideally breaded a la the Thai-restaurant appetizer), asparagus spears, whole cloves of garlic (maybe roasted beforehand, if you've got time), shish kebabs...

By: wuzandfuzz

wuzandfuzz — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:19:15 -0800

in college, one of my roommates got a deep frier for christmas, and for a couple months we would
1)make a list of stuff to deep fry on the fridge over a week
2)deep fry all the shizz on the list that wednesday

some of our favorites were:
battered pizza, just thaw a frozen one, fold it in half, to prevent cheese leakage
swiss cake rolls
hot pockets
frozen burritos
buiscuits (from the can, sugar afterward for awesome donuts)

By: gimonca

gimonca — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:19:38 -0800

Prawn crackers or krupuk are dead easy to make, lots of fun and require no preparation. Just put them in the hot oil, watch them puff up (fun!) and make sure they don't get too brown. Taste and consistency is similar to rice crackers, just slightly more savory and flavorful. They're fairly common and inexpensive at Asian grocery stores.

By: growabrain

growabrain — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:21:25 -0800

Fried Moon Pies

By: jacquilynne

jacquilynne — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:35:04 -0800

Those frozen burritos you get at the grocery store? Delicious when deep fried.

By: CrayDrygu

CrayDrygu — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:36:12 -0800

Fried Oreos are simply awesome (as evidenced by the number of people who'll pay $7-8 for 5 of 'em on the boardwalk here).

By: eamondaly

eamondaly — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:40:36 -0800

Make strips of red peppers, green peppers, and carrots. Dip in the beer batter recipe from the Joy of Cooking. Easy peasy and excellent finger food.

Another item that's really quite easy is the deep fried onion. I believe this is the recipe I've used in the past. The hardest part is cuting the onion properly. It looks pretty impressive when you get it right.

I would avoid any of the chocolate-based items, as that's really tricky to master. Nine out of ten you just end up ruining your oil.

By: Wet Spot

Wet Spot — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:45:48 -0800

Baby octopus.

By: mostlymartha

mostlymartha — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:52:01 -0800

Green beans coated in beer or tempura batter and fried are awesome. Dip them in horseradish mayo or, heck, even some ranch dressing. So good.

By: bac

bac — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:52:55 -0800

Butter.

By: JayRwv

JayRwv — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:56:56 -0800

Sweet Potato Sticks. Shake a mixture of sugar and cinamon over them when just out of the fryer. Serve immediately.

Stuffed jalapeno peppers. Stuffed with cheddar cheese or cream cheese. Absolutely the best.

By: dirtynumbangelboy

dirtynumbangelboy — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:57:10 -0800

Perogies

Risotto. (Make a good mushroom risotto the day before. Form leftovers into balls around small chunks of buffalo mozzarella. Flour, egg, bredcrumb, deep fry. Die of gastronomic delight.)

By: JayRwv

JayRwv — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:59:58 -0800

*cinnamon

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 13:10:37 -0800

Slices of pineapple. Dredge with cinnamon sugar. These are sold as "pineapple fritters" with fish and chips in my country,

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 13:11:05 -0800

(you have to batter the pineapple first of course.)

By: jason's_planet

jason's_planet — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 13:13:55 -0800

Disgusting, yet delicious.

Durrian? Not sure if it's available where you live -- especially given the time constraints you cited -- but it would be an interesting experiment.

Sounds like a cool and innovative idea for a party.

By: bilabial

bilabial — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 13:32:34 -0800

Those biscuits that come in a cardboard can? Fried? Nick said they were when he had them at a restaurant near us, and he said he wouldn't have known what they were if he hadn't seen them do it.

By: unrepentanthippie

unrepentanthippie — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 13:32:50 -0800

Sopapillas, the kind they make in New Mexico. They put a basket on the table in the restaurants, fresh out of the fryer, and by the time dinner gets there, nobody is hungry. It's fried bread that forms a puffy pillow, and you drip honey inside the pillow. It's Mexican really, but I've only had the Tex-Mex version.

Egg roll wrappers are good for all sorts of things, and you could wrap them in advance and put something they are not expecting in it. I used to use julienne strips of meat (or chunks of cheese), and veggies like long green beans or asparagus. Cooking thought for later: You can put leftover things in them and it tastes completely different. It's a good way to use up those things you only have a lilttle leftover, meat, chicken and veggies.

By: gaspode

gaspode — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 13:37:07 -0800

seconding i_am_joe's_spleen. It's the first thing I buy when I return to the homeland.

By: jamjam

jamjam — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 14:10:51 -0800

A variety of pungent cheeses.

By: duffell

duffell — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 14:15:41 -0800

Deepfried PB & J sandwich (or, alternatively, just PB&J dipped in batter and fried, minus the bread)
Deepfried Cadbury Eggs
Deepfried celery and peanut butter (I'm a bit of a peanut butter fiend)
Deepfried cheesecake
Deepfried (thick) milkshake

Okay...I realize you're going for something different, though. Let's brainstorm.

If you're in for a throwback to the ol' sorority days, how about deepfried Jello-shots?
Or you could go for some traditional Scottish fare: Deepfried haggis.
How about deepfried hot-mustard pretzels?
Or you could try and get rid of some condiments: What about deepfried ranch dip? BBQ sauce? Salsa? Caramel dip?
Since everyone's always talking about the taste explosion of ham with maple syrup, you could try that one.
Or, perhaps, a deepfried pancake with maple syrup drizzled on top.
Go all-out on bad health: Try deepfried fudge.

By: insipidia

insipidia — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 14:17:09 -0800

A few days late for St. Andrew's day, but for variety, you could try a deep-fried haggis.

By: duffell

duffell — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 14:20:12 -0800

Other items to consider for the fryer:

Omelet
Pesto (either alone or on bowtie pasta?)
Nutella crepe
Fluffernutter (Do it!)

By: textilephile

textilephile — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 15:00:25 -0800

paneer

By: cobaltnine

cobaltnine — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 15:08:31 -0800

I love fried tofu, but you have to drain it (do this ahead of time, by weighing it down on a cutting board sloping into the sink, to catch run-ff), cut it up, and preferably dredge it in something (cornstarch is the easiest to come by, but kudzu powder works great.)

Best with a honey/peanut/soy (some combo you like) sauce.

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 15:20:46 -0800

A lobster.

By: jet_silver

jet_silver — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 15:36:33 -0800

Artichoke hearts, especially if you also bring a batter that has some garlic or onions in it.

By: sleepyflywheel

sleepyflywheel — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 15:58:24 -0800

Scotch Eggs

Hard boiled eggs and sausage deep fried. How can you go wrong?

By: Opposite George

Opposite George — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 16:09:25 -0800

Scotch eggs.

By: Opposite George

Opposite George — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 16:10:01 -0800

Sorry, sleepy - didn't preview!

By: The White Hat

The White Hat — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 16:11:14 -0800

Softshell crabs. Mussles or clams. Tootsie rolls. Spaghetti or meatballs. Mushroom caps.

By: necessitas

necessitas — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 16:12:42 -0800

I've never tried it, but deep fried battered marshmallows or deep fried battered caramel cubes sounds really good.

By: divabat

divabat — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 16:17:54 -0800

In Malaysia we have pisang goreng, or deep-fried banana - banana fritters basically. Slice them up, batter them, and fry. Yum.

Also seconding deep-fried icecream - double yum!

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 16:54:07 -0800

Frozen White Castles.

By: twoporedomain

twoporedomain — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 17:50:07 -0800

Not the most exotic, but still delicious: garbanzos fritos/ fried chickpeas. Just drain a can, fry them up, and sprinkle with salt and paprika. The most addictive fried snackfood I've ever had.

By: plinth

plinth — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 18:12:13 -0800

deep fried ice cream. You'll need a ligth batter and some panko bread crumbs.

Another vote for oreos. Make standard pancake batter but add an extra 1/2C sugar and 1.5 tsp vanilla. Cut back on the water so that it's thicker. It's divine.

For savory, coconut shrimp is pretty dang good. Again, start with pancake or tempura batter, add 1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne, substitute one lime's worth of juice for an equal amount of water. Start with clean dry shrimp, drege in flour, knock of the excess, dunk in batter, dunk in shredded coconut, deep fry until golden brown and delicious.

You might also try deep frying chocolate covered cherries (again in a thick batter).

By: dorian

dorian — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 18:16:10 -0800

(a) onion bhaji -- these are phenomenal and phenomenally easy.
(2) origami cranes norly.

By: dagnyscott

dagnyscott — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 18:23:14 -0800

Irish-type places always have some sort of deep-fried sandwich that looks like a heart attack on a plate but also like it's really good.

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 19:02:30 -0800

Dumplings. If you're going for exotic, dumplings with exotic filling. Go to a Chinese grocery and see what they've got premade and frozen.

By: growabrain

growabrain — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 20:15:55 -0800

How about deepfrying a whole live cow?

By: Jesco

Jesco — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 23:27:31 -0800

Green olives stuffed with Gorgonzola.

By: LadyBonita

LadyBonita — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 14:01:29 -0800

For both disgusting and peculiar + delicious, try Chicken Fried Bacon with Cream Gravy.

By: lannanh

lannanh — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 14:46:26 -0800

Avacado tempura, they have it at Nobu it's probably one of the best things I've ever eaten.

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 16:50:50 -0800

I almost forgot Deep Fried Spinach Leaves. Just briefly deep fry plain spinach leaves or some other herb. It comes out crackly delicious but you have to carefully monitor the progress from limp to crispy to burnt.

I had this at Wolfgang Puck's first Spago (opened 1982) back he before became a marketing and franchise company. There it was very salty and I thought the salt was involved in some mysterious cooking process.

I later found out how simple it is to make and that the salt is added afterwards (to taste).

By: jason's_planet

jason's_planet — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 12:13:20 -0800

So how did it go, MGL?

What did you fry? What did your friends fry?

By: mygothlaundry

mygothlaundry — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 18:15:14 -0800

My friends fried nice tempura-y stuff & sweet potato fries and were generally uninspired (although they also came up with a Lowcountry Boil that rocked) but I, I had to fry this. And these. And god help me, it looked like this.

And I got deathly ill the next day and stayed that way through Tuesday, but we will never know whether that was all the beer, or the deep fried things, or the flu that's going around, or some horrible combination of all of the above. We do know, however, that it will be a long, long, long time before I eat anything fried again.

By: leftoverboy

leftoverboy — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 19:09:37 -0800

I love how horrible the idea of a party centred on deep-frying and alcohol sounds. I would kill for an invite

By: growabrain

growabrain — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 00:42:45 -0800

who's this dude from the party?