Deep Fry

Every time I go to a street fair or the New York state fair, I breathe in the smell of fried dough as it wafts through the crowd and just go crazy for it. So I couldn’t help but come up with my own version of the classic zeppole. But of course I added my own sexy twist: a delicious chocolate dipper! With this dessert, your kitchen will be as popular as the zeppole stand at the state fair.

My mom is a florist so I love flowers—especially big orange ones like zucchini blossoms! I make zucchini blossoms stuffed full of creamy ricotta cheese and then fry them until they’re golden and crispy. In my opinion, zucchini blossoms are nature’s perfect little packages. What’s better than a crispy, crunchy, cheesy flower? A crispy, crunchy, cheesy flower on a bread salad—a gorgeous mix of perfectly ripe tomatoes, basil, cucumber, red onion, and bread, which softens when it absorbs all the veggies’ wonderful juices.

Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables. I love to jack it up with some bread crumbs and Parm and deep-fry it till it’s nice and brown. These are little bites of crunchy, cheesy, salty, heavenly loveliness. Add some garlicky goodness in the form of a dipping sauce and you have a showstopper!

Cipolline are flat, sweet Italian onions that look like little flying saucers. I love these guys because they’re like onion rings with no holes. Perfectly fried baby onions and garlic mayonnaise to dip them in—they’re out of this world!

Everybody likes fried food (if you say you don’t, you’re lying!), and these little guys are fried food done beautifully: a ton of zucchini held together by just a little bit of batter. They’re the perfect combination of salty, crispy, cheesy, and spicy all rolled into one. And, they’re a cinch to make: Do all your mise en place ahead of time; then you can make the sauce and the batter at the same time. Once you’re prepped, fry these babies until they’re really dark and crunchy. What we want here is crispy, crunchy, and dark. Woo-hoo!

We get some real rinky-dink carnivals come through and set up in strip-mall parking lots. We go to every one. We end up blowing more money than we should to win a two-cent stuffed lizard, but I cannot pass up a pick-up duck game. My husband, Donald, always wants to hit the bell with the swing of the sledgehammer and my son, Joe Joe, is keen-eyed when it comes to popping balloons with darts. The smell of the funnel cakes frying up is the smell of fun. You don’t have to wait for the sideshow to come to town to enjoy the powdered-sugar goodness that only fried dough can provide.

Honeybees get most of the attention, but squash bees do the most work. These busy bees crawl out of their underground nests and get going a good half an hour before the honey team when the squash flowers are in full bloom. Both the male and female squash bees set to the field work gathering nectar from blossoms, but only the females do double duty collecting pollen. Bees transfer pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers. The first several flowers of a plant are male and will not produce any fruit. By midday the squash blossoms begin to close and the bees return home. Get to work early like these busy squash bees and pick your squash blossoms early in the day. Squash blossoms filled with herbed goat cheese and fried with a crisp batter are an annual summer event thanks to the hardworking squash bees.

Fry these up and stuff them in a big roll with shaved cabbage and mayo for your vegetarian friends. They deserve big po’boys of fried things too! Or serve them as a side or even a party-food popper.

As is the case in many small towns, the most exotic fare found in my county is the Chinese-American buffet. My son, Joe, just loves the one at China Blossom in Greenwood. The family farm, Pluto, is forty-eight miles from town, so it’s quite a commitment to make the round trip. Every so often for movie night, I make a pile of these crisp-fried, creamy, seafood-filled pouches for him and his pal Lola and we just stay out at Pluto.

Churros are basically Mexican doughnuts: a lighter, fluffier version of the fried dough served at county fairs all over the country. We serve this to great acclaim at the Beso restaurants and they are heavenly eaten warm.

A giant platter of flautas is a stunning sight on a table, and the contrasting flavors and textures make it a fabulous eating experience as well. Chicken is rolled in corn tortillas and fried until crispy. The flautas are arranged on a platter, topped with a beautiful, pale green sauce that is at once silky and tart, drizzled with luscious Mexican sour cream, and sprinkled with creamy queso fresco. The result is a crunchy, creamy, and chewy burst of divine flavor. Mexican sour cream or crema is the Mexican version of crème fraîche, and both are milder versions of American sour cream. You can find crema in the refrigerated section of grocery stories that carry Latin ingredients. Crème fraîche is thicker, so if you use it instead, stir it well to loosen the consistency before drizzling.

These may resemble traditional Buffalo wings in appearance, but a blend of soy sauce, tahini, ginger, garlic, and Asian chile sauce (available at Asian markets) makes these wings major-killer. This sauce is bangin’ and can be used on grilled anything. Instead of typical celery and blue cheese, a cool side of cucumbers, Greek-style yogurt, and fresh mint finishes this dish.

If you have ever tried to make homemade doughnuts, you know that the process can be a bit of a hassle. But transforming store-bought biscuit dough into delicious golden doughnuts could not be easier, seriously. The slightly crunchy texture of fried dough dusted with anise sugar is a perfect complement to tangy orange marmalade.

Rabbit is a great change of pace from the everyday and luckily is becoming more widely available. Have your butcher cut up the rabbit for you; it can be tricky to do at home. The flavor is mild and the meat tender; you’ll swear it tastes like chicken. The hot sauce and blue cheese do not overwhelm; they actually bring out the flavor of the rabbit. The blue cheese sauce also makes a great salad dressing, thinned with a tablespoon of water.

This gorgeous salad is the perfect balance of hot, sweet, salty, and sour that is the core of Thai cuisine. The cool mixture of mango, onion, and radish is topped with hot crunchy fried fish. This salad is downright addictive and will blow you away with its tastebud-awakening flavors and mix of textures. When cutting the fish, don’t worry if the pieces are not perfectly uniform. Take note: this salad doesn’t like to sit around, so serve it as soon as you can after you fry the fish. Leftover soy-lime vinaigrette will keep covered in the refrigerator for up to five days and is awesome tossed with chilled soba noodles or served as a dipping sauce for dumplings.

Let me start off by saying that this not-to-be-missed dish . . . takes several hours to make. Even though the recipe involves a time commitment, someone who enjoys cooking will take pleasure in the process, and the end result is all the more satisfying. And I promise you, when you make this dish, it will blow everyone away! The succulent pieces of pork belly are melting on the inside and crispy on the outside. Spicy kimchi is the perfect counterpoint to the unctuous belly. Sweet, spicy, hot, cold, crispy, fatty, crunchy, and chewy—this dish has got it all.

Falafel, usually tucked into pita bread with lettuce, tomato, and tahini sauce, is one of the best-known Middle Eastern street foods. At home, falafels make a rustic hot hors d’oeuvre, with a bowl of creamy tahini sauce for dipping. These fry up just right: crunchy on the outside and fluffy in the middle. The baking powder gives the falafels a little lift so they don’t sit in your stomach like belly bombs! All the fresh herbs make for a vibrant flavor and super green color. The chickpeas need to soak for a bit, so plan accordingly. The falafels are amazing with Quick Pickled Vegetables (page 235).

Golden and crisp on the outside with a moist, creamy interior, these polenta sticks, a modern twist on classic French fries, make a satisfying late-night snack or finger food. Making polenta is not as laborious as some would have you believe. It’s not necessary to stand over the pot for an hour constantly stirring until your arm is falling off. The key to making perfectly cooked polenta is to stir often, running a wooden spoon along the bottom of the pot so the cornmeal doesn’t stick and burn. This is an ideal make-ahead recipe; prepare the polenta in the morning and cut into sticks just before frying. For an outdoor barbecue, try putting the polenta on the grill; it adds a phenomenal smoky flavor. This salsa’ed-up ketchup is perfect to keep in the fridge for four to five days. The polenta fries and ketchup will happily join Michael’s Genuine Burger (page 118).

A rich, creamy dip is a must-have for any good party. Make this onion dip ahead of time so the flavors can blend and mellow. If making the chips, for best results, you’ve got to cut the potatoes with a mandoline. If you don’t want to fry your own potato chips, try one of the terrific brands in the market these days. This dip is also killer with crudités and pita chips, or even spread on a burger.