Wednesday, March 23, 2011

the lord of the (onion) rings

Today was not a great day at work.  But such days come to us all, and we can either sink into the gloom or turn on a lamp...

I had some time at home alone with my little guy this afternoon and decided to make the most of it.

The key to a happy life may be keeping your fry station all mise en place.

I had eggs, I had onion, I had milk, I had spices, and I had some cooking oil: I made onion rings.

The basic idea with frying battered foods is to coat the primary ingredient in something that will make a nice crunchy and/or flaky crust and leave what's inside cooked but mostly unbrowned.

In this case I used some half-and-half that was going unused, along with one egg for my wet ingredients, and some white flour, copious salt and pepper, and some chili powder for my dry ingredients.

Beyond that, it all comes down to getting the oil hot and not making too much of a mess in the kitchen.




Yummy.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

I feel awful

Operation Falafel is a disaster, and I falafel about it.

This is apparently what happens when your falafel dough balls are not pre-chilled and/or the oil is not hot enough...the whole mixture just dissolves into a waste of time and spices.

It started with more promise; to make some tahini, I toasted sesame seeds and blended those together with some olive oil, onions, and spices.

The falafel dough seemed to be coming together well, also, with the beans all blended up with garlic and onion and even more spices.

This is what I salvaged...the tahini.  Now I just need to find some other dishes that go well with tahini!