Deep Fry

In this clever dish from chef Michel Richard at Citronelle in Washington, D.C., fried sea scallops coated with fine strands of phyllo pastry resemble porcupines.

(Klejner) Every year research editor Karen Hallal serves these spiced diamond-shaped cookies for dessert on Christmas Eve. They are fried like doughnuts and coated with powdered sugar. The recipe for klejner, popular all over Scandinavia, was given to Karen by her Danish mother.

(Chicken Wing Braised with Soy Sauce, Cinnamon, and Star Anise)

Called sfingi and alternately sfina and zeppole, these classic southern Italian fritters are made from pasta bignè, or cream puff dough. Since there is no sugar in the dough, rolling the fritters in cinnamon sugar gives them the right touch of sweetness.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This starter gets a double dose of cayenne — in the cornmeal coating for the shrimp and in the garlicky mayonnaise dip.

These deep-fried dessert pastries, which are sweetened with honey, are known as sebadas.

These are called arancini (little oranges).

Janet and Travis Kuhl of Cranford, New Jersey, writes: "We recently went to chef Ming Tsai's Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Our entire meal was top-notch, but the shrimp cocktail was our favorite." Poured carefully side by side into a cocktail glass, tomato puree and avocado puree make a colorful dip for the lightly battered and quickly deep-fried shrimp.

Baccalà Fritto Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 3 days (includes soaking)

These are great for salads and canapés.

Bilko's spice mix is a closely guarded secret, but Donna King shared with us its fundamental ingredients as well as the basic technique—a long marination, at least 24 hours. This results in some of the juiciest chicken we've ever eaten. The chicken must also rest five or ten minutes after being dredged in the seasoned flour to, as King told us, "get doughy." The Bon Ton recipe calls for Ac'cent (monosodium glutamate) in both the marinade and the dredging mixture. We tested it with and without, and the chicken mainly tasted saltier with the Ac'cent, which some people preferred.

Hawai‘i's beloved fried chicken is crispy, sweet, and savory.

Shrimp, fennel, and mushrooms make for an impeccable version of this light and crispy Italian starter.

How do you make fried shrimp better? By adding giardiniera to the mix. Here the duo gets coated in a vodka-spiked batter to create a remarkably crisp exterior.