Monday, November 17, 2008

Fried Pickles?? It's A Southern Thing....

Before moving to Tennessee, I had never heard of fried pickles. The thought of them seemed kind of weird, even scary to me. But I saw a post about them on the WC board and on Courtney's blog so I decided to made them for Jamie....I like a couple of pieces now and them, but Jamie loves them.

FYI, since living here I have learned a couple of things about Southern cuisine:

* Deep fried food is good;

* BBQ is not burgers or pizza, as Wikipedia states: "The term as a noun can refer to foods cooked by this method, to the cooking apparatus itself, or to a party that includes such food. The term is also used as a verb for the act of cooking food in this manner....and initially revolved around cooking pork";

* Beans & Greens are common side dishes;

* Sweet tea is a favorite beverage.

So...back to the fried pickles, I made two batches, since I am not that familiar with frying things. The first batch when using the batter mixture as stated, kind of fell off the pickles. So I added in a little more flour and cornstarch until the batter was thicker. Jamie liked the latter batch better, although I thought the batter was too heavy. Next time, I would find a happy medium between the two. Either way, they were really good!


Fried Pickles
from Cook Like A Champion & Science of Cooking

* I cut the batter ingredients in half, as I was not making that much
* I added some more flour and cornstarch to make the batter thicker

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup ice water
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons dill pickle juice
4 cups dill pickle slices, drained I used about 10 pickle spears, sliced lengthwise once so they were thinner
vegetable oil for frying

Directions:

-In a large bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center.
-All at once, add the water, egg yolk and pickle juice.-Stir the mixture with a wire whisk to make a smooth batter.
-Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
-In a deep fryer or large saucepan, heat at least two inches of oil to 375°.
-In batches, dip pickle slices into batter, lightly and evenly coating them.
-Without crowding, place coated slices in the hot oil.
-Fry until golden and crisp, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.-Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

Serve with fat-free ranch dressing....LOL...just kidding, at this point, go for the full fat version!

3 comments:

#1SAHM said...

I'm a northerner but I love pickles and I love fried food so this seems right up my alley! : )

Jennypenny said...

I just found your blog last week. I'm in love. Not sure if it was all the pizza or all the wings, or maybe because our husbands seem to have similar tastes. But I love your recipes. My husband had me try to make deep fried pickles a while back. We used Alton Brown's recipe which was basically dipping them in buttermilk, then cornmeal, and repeat that again. It's been awhile, but I think I recall the batter staying on well, and they were darn tasty.

Robin said...

Those look delish!