Tag Archives: fried foods

Pretty Pakoras

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I feel slightly embarrassed by the “new” ingredient I’ve chosen to showcase with this post.  I always experiment with foods I’ve never prepared here, hoping that others will read about my concoctions and also become more experimental (or will at the very least laugh at my adventures).  But last night I cooked with something new to me, but that might make the rest of the world turn away accusing me of being a lame loser of a chef.  I used gram flour, which is made from chickpeas.  I know what you’re thinking – before you know it I’ll be introducing you a new ingredient some people call “wheat.”

I had been sifting through recipes online to find an appetizer to bring to a Christmas party at my friend Jackie’s.  At first I told her I would bring a veggie tray because she had been describing what last minute tedious tasks she still had to accomplish, and picking up veggies was one of them.  But when she said, “Sure you can bring veg, but you’re capable of so much more,” I knew I had to live up to my culinary potential of weirdness.  I have a reputation of oddity to live up to, after all.

The Shining 031So I was swiping my way through my iPhone drooling at food porn when I happened upon a potato latke topped with crème fraiche and caviar.  Bingo.  Except that despite being plugged into the rare food community I had no idea where to find crème fraiche in my neighborhood, and I thought that a latke might be kind of bland.  So I switched it to a spicy pakora with sour cream, and bang – cool creation.

Funny how I wasn’t even going to write about this appetizer because I thought it was too boring, even though it includes both gram flour and caviar, neither of which I had ever used.  I think camel meatballs and fish heads have made my standards of weirdness kind of high lately.

But back to the flour, which is also called garbanzo flour or besan.  It’s high in carbohydrates, but also in protein, which is a bonus.  It’s also gluten free.  As I mentioned, most cultures other than mine eat it – it’s a staple in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but it’s also eaten in France, Spain, and Italy.  I was shocked to have bought 3 cups worth and paid about $1. Loving it.

I also hadn’t considered the caviar very interesting, because everyone has heard of caviar.  Especially after the movie Big.

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But how much did I really know about the types of caviar?  Nothing, truth be told.  And I’m not so sure I would care about the difference in taste or price, since I even enjoy those crackly roe they put on top of sushi at the mall.  I picked up this “caviar,”

IMG_2717from our local fishmonger for the bargain price of $10.  And then I read this article about real caviar, now from farmed sturgeon rather than wild, ranging (in the article) between $75 and $275 for 30g.  The wild stuff is rare because it was overfarmed and so is heavily regulated.  It goes for $750.  Mine came from smoked herring and mullet in Spain and I’m totally good with that.

Looked like the guests were good with that too, because the appys didn’t last long!  They were a pakora-rific pleasure.  Here’s the recipe – the straightforward pakora directions stolen from here:

Pakora with caviar (makes about 20 small pakoras)

  • 2C Besan (chickpea flour, gram flour)
  • 1Tbsp crushed red pepper
  • 3/4tsp salt
  • 1/2tsp baking powder
  • 2 small red chiles, chopped (or other hot peppers.  This amount gave low-medium heat)
  • 1/2C cilantro leaves, chopped (plus more for garnishing)
  • 1 onion, sliced thinly into half-moons
  • 1C luke warm water
  • 1/2C sour cream
  • 30g container of caviar (only about three-quarters will be used)
  • Oil for frying (canola or other light-tasting oil)

Directions:  Fill skillet half-way with oil.  Heat to 360-375 degrees (med-high heat for about 6 minutes, will sizzle when dough is dropped in).  In a large bowl, mix together the flour, chili flakes, salt, baking powder, chili pepper, cilantro and sliced onion.  Slowly add in the water, mixing well.  The batter should be thick but still mobile (would drip from a spoon) with air bubbles throughout.  When oil has heated, carefully drop tablespoons of batter into the hot oil.  Allow them to brown, flipping once (about one minute per side).  Drain on a cooling rack or paper towels.  Repeat with remainder of batter.

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Top each with sour cream, a few cilantro sprigs, and a dollop of caviar.  This can be done after pakoras have cooled.  Enjoy!

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Results:  Delicious, with a tidy, pretty presentation.  Four yums for this one.  I’ll make them again!

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Wine Pairing:  Sparkling wine.  A budget knock-off caviar deserves a budget knock-off Champagne!  Winealign.com says the Kiwi Walk Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand is a good one priced at $17.95 in Ontario.

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Crispy Quail Egg Mini-Bennys

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I knew this experiment/recipe would be one my husband would love, because he has always loved eggs.  Family legend has it that when he was little, all he would eat were hotdogs and eggs, and those are still two foods that he’ll throw into his daily food rotation without hesitation.  He’ll grab a hotdog on the way home from work as a dinner appetizer, and if he’s left to cook for himself for a day he’ll boil up a few eggs because he believes that makes for a portable snack.  Before we had kids, when we had more money, time, and freedom than we knew what to do with, we’d visit someone’s cottage or would host at our own and Phil would cook Eggs Benedict for the entire group.  He is the egg man.  Koo koo ka choo.

So when I saw these little beauties

at the farmer’s market that happens every Monday at the end of our street (I’ll give you a moment to be jealous of my awesome hood.  Okay, come back now) I knew I had to bring them home no matter what the price, which didn’t turn out to be crazy at $5 for 8 wee eggies.

And who knew that quail’s eggs were a superfood?  Bonus.  The hippieish farm lady I bought them from tipped me off to this fact, telling me that they’re three times as nutritious as a chicken egg, also telling me that she slurps them up raw.  I don’t think I’m quite ready for raw eggs, but I confirmed her nutritional proselytizing here, where they also explained that quail’s eggs have greater proteins, B1, iron, potassium, and lower allergens than chicken eggs.  They’re just healthy enough to tempt me into making them unhealthy with a delicious deep fry recipe.  Insert maniacal laugh here.

I was inspired by this recipe, where the chef poached the eggs and then panko-breaded and deep fried them, topping them with little strips of bacon.    I thought to myself, “I’ll see your little fried bacon poachers and raise you some green onion mayo and a Triscuit bird’s nest.” I was thinking about my husband’s love of eggs benny as I was improvising, although I wasn’t about to make Hollandaise for the benefit of some bite-sized appys, which was where the mayo substitution came from.  And yes, I know that Eggs Benedict doesn’t include traditional bacon, but it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want to.  :)  Here are the specifics:

Crispy poached quail’s egg with bacon on a Triscuit nest (makes 8 appetizers)

  • 8 pretty little quail’s eggs
  • Splash of white vinegar
  • Small bowl of flour
  • 2 eggs, beaten with fork in small bowl
  • 1C panko crumbs in small bowl
  • 2C canola oil for frying
  • 4 strips of bacon, pan fried until crisp
  • 6Tbsp mayonnaise (homemade or the easy way, your choice)
  • 2 green onions, diced fine
  • 8 Triscuit crackers

Directions:  Set up everything required before dealing with your eggs:  Prepare small bowls of flour, eggs, and panko…

…fry bacon and set aside, mix mayonnaise with green onion in another small bowl.  Also fill another small bowl with cool water and set aside.  Boil 2” water in a deep frying pan, adding a splash of vinegar.  At the same time, heat canola oil over med-high heat in small fry pan (1.5-2” of oil).  Now all is set to be able to work quickly.  Crack mini egg into a small shallow dish.

Skipped using mini bowl for photo only

Slip the egg from the dish into the boiling water, and fold the whites over the yolk with spoon as it begins to cook.  When egg looks cooked but still jiggly (about 1 min) use slotted spoon to move poached egg from boiling water to cool water.  Dip egg in flour, egg, and then panko, and quickly fry, just until it browns.  Spread Triscuit with onion-mayo, add egg, and top with small piece of bacon.  Repeat for each egg.  When you get the hang of how it works, you can begin to do two or three eggs at once.

Results:  Completely delicious!

I was very proud of how this recipe turned out, although it was a bit of a pain to prepare, and I’m not sure how I would have done it if guests had been milling about.  Saying that, though, somehow I think this might be one of those recipes where those who try it drop hints about tasting it again, and where the cook happily goes to the trouble of making it because it’s one of the dishes she’s known for.  Phil ate four of them, and when my bro-in-law popped in and tried one he said it was “really good.” Even my little guy ate one.  Rating:  4 Yums

Wine Pairing:  Winealign.com’s “food match” section suggested that Champagne is the perfect match for Eggs Benedict, but I’m too cheap for that.  When I switched the search to “sparkling wine,” one of the top rated matches for less than $40 was the St. Nicolas Brut Crackling Strong Cider from Quebec at only $16.95, so my tight little wallet will recommend that instead.

Alligator Bites

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I wasn’t very afraid of cooking alligator, because all I had ever heard was that it “tastes like chicken.”  For some reason, I’ve always thought that it was alligator or crocodile that was at the root of that joke, and that a blind taste tester would be definitely be fooled if he was presented with chicken and croc bits that had come out of the same bag of shake and bake.  It will come as no surprise to people familiar with eating alligator that in this case, I was wrong.   For all I know, crocodile is being swapped for chicken in TV dinners around the world as we speak, but trying to do the same with alligator would be a dead giveaway.

 I bought the frozen alligator in the same shopping trip to Black Angus Fine Meats and Game I’ve talked about in my last few entries, and I decided to break it out as an appetizer when my foodie friend came over for a visit the other day.   It was a pricey appy at $15.99/lb, which is how much I bought, but she’s an old and dear friend, so she’s worth it (and now that I’ve complimented her she might make the effort to leave comments at the end of this blog).  Here is a photo of the starting point:

I thawed it in the microwave and then decided to deep fry it using a thick beer batter, even though I’m not a regular fryer, as a rule.  It’s messy and unhealthy, so I usually avoid it, but I have been known to fry up a legendary fish and chips occasionally by following Jamie Oliver’s advice, and I thought that this might be the easiest way to serve up reptile in bite sized chunks.  Hey, I hadn’t thought of this before – we just basically ate dinosaur.  Cool.

 Anyway,  as I first began to cut the filets, I knew there would be a problem.  My kitchen scissors, which I use for efficient stir frying and such, met with tension once in every few snips.  It was like I was cutting a really grisly piece of meat, and I wondered if that would have an impact on the finished product.  It had exactly the impact I would have expected in finding gristle in the raw version of what I was trying to cook.  Gristle in the cooked version.  It looked pretty on the outside….

…and the batter was tasty, but each piece of alligator was hit or miss, and even the hits were foul balls instead of home runs.  It was all very chewy – I thought as I was eating it that calamari lovers might like it – but some pieces were fishier and gristlier than others, and that would be hard for anyone to take.  At one point I said to my friend, “Hey, I just had a good piece,” but even that one was pretty chewy.  My new experience would make me avoid alligator completely in future, at home or in restaurants, unfortunately.  But the dips and batter I had chosen were nice, if I do say so myself.

 Beer Battered Alligator Bites

  • 1lb alligator, cut into bite-sized chunks
  • 1 12oz can of beer.  I used Mill Street Organic (excellent)
  • 1 1/2C flour
  • 1/2tsp salt
  • 1tsp paprika
  • 1C flour, for dredging

Further battering instructions here.

  Dip #1 – Parsley Onion Dip

(I modified the green goddess submissions here based on what I had on hand, listed below…)

  • Mayo
  • Handful of parsley
  • Green onions
  • Red onion
  • Splash of lemon juice
  • Salt/pepper

 Combine all in food processor, but make sure herb and veggie portions are generous.

 Dip #2 – Pre-prepared “President’s Choice Sweet with Heat Prepared Mustard”

(apologies to non-Canadians, just go with Dip #1 if you can’t find this, or pick up a fancy sweet mustard.  For Canadians:  this dip may have been the highlight of the appetizer)

Rating:  1 Gag. 

It was all the alligator’s fault that my recipe didn’t work, so the man-eater will pay for it in my rating.  We ate lots of it because we were hungry, but I wouldn’t make it again.  Sorry Louisiana swamp people – you may need to consider sources of revenue beyond gators.