Burrito Night

My friend, Dan (Not to be confused with my roommate, Dan, who was also present.), had been wanting to deep fry a meal with me for a while. He had fried Oreos with me once before, but this time he wanted to experience a whole meal.

One main course I had been meaning to try was burritos. I did a little online research and found out that chimichanga is actually just a deep-fried burrito. This probably isn't news to some people, but I didn't realize that. Some also call a deep-fried bean burrito a "bufriedo." Popularized in the John Green novel, Looking For Alaska, the author writes that "the bufriedo proved beyond the shadow of doubt that frying always improves a food." That's an assertion I certainly wouldn't argue against. Bufriedos even have their own Facebook page.

I wanted to start easy with some frozen burritos from the supermarket. Assuming these worked, I'd likely move on to frying a burrito from Taco Bell or Boston's local chain, Anna's Taqueria. And based on Green's description of eating one by the main character (". . . I sank my teeth into the crunch shell of my first bufriedo and experienced a culinary orgasm."), I was optimistic. While buying frozen burritos, I saw they also had frozen chimichangas, so I picked out some of those too. No harm in deep frying a burrito twice, I figured. In all, I got beef and bean, beef and bean red chili, and spicy jalapeno bean and cheese flavors.

I also wanted to try a beer batter for the first time. I feel I have done a lot of research and reporting on the many excellent uses of breadcrumbs or pancake batter, but it was time to try something new. I did a quick search looking for the easiest beer batter recipe, and I settled on this one:

1 cup beer
1 cup flour
2 eggs beaten
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. baking soda

We used a Yuengling Traditional Lager, and although our beer wasn't flat like most beer batter recipes call for, it was at room temperature, which is also important.

I made a big bowl of beer batter, and then we got to work. We had some colby jack cheese sticks, so we battered those and deep fried them.

The first batch was a big mess. They all stuck to the basket and when we tried to get them off, they tore open, spilling out the cheese. Based on the how the batter dripped all over the basket, I should have seen this coming. But, I got a little lazy and had hoped I could just shake them off the metal wiring of the basket before the batter cooked through. Breaded cheese sticks can be lowered into the oil in the basket without sticking too bad, but these can't. We ended up pulling a bunch of empty beer batter shells out of the deep fryer and fishing the cheese out separately. For the second attempt, we dropped each one in on its own and these fried beautifully. They tasted great, and the beer batter was very good. When making the batter, I thought 1 tbsp. of salt was a little much, so I used slightly less, however, we still thought it was a little too salty. Next time, I'll probably only use half a tablespoon. I like the breaded cheese sticks more, but these are still quite good.

Then we were ready to cook the burritos. Like the calzones I cooked previously, I thought these might not cook all the way through in the oil, so we partially microwaved them before battering and frying them.

These cooked very nicely. They ended up a nice golden brown, and had an excellent crunch on the outside. The only complaint I really had was that the inside wasn't soft and gooey enough, and I think that is more a symptom of the low-quality burritos and chimichangas that we started with. As you can see below, they weren't as stuffed full of beans, cheeses and/or meats as we might otherwise like. The jalapeno ones had a nice kick to them though.

Dan, Dan, and I ate a total of six burritos and chimichangas, all of which we greatly enjoyed. This means that a couple Anna's chicken burritos are almost certain to find their way into my deep fryer sometime soon. I'm sad that my deep fryer probably isn't large enough for an Anna's super burrito.

Next up was dessert. At the supermarket, my eye caught a display while in line at the checkout. They had fresh fudge from their bakery. I threw some of this in my cart immediately. Before trying it, I was really excited about this find, and I thought the fudge could possibly rival cookie dough. . .

It didn't. It was really good, but still nowhere close to cookie dough. It was very soft and warm! We cooked small cubes of it on skewers. As they got close to finished, small droplets of liquefied chocolate would start pushing against and through the outer shell (buttermilk pancake batter, of course) to the surface, sometimes bubbling out more forcefully. Again, the skewers really worked wonders to cooking the whole thing perfectly evenly.

I also bought a box of Oatmeal Creme Pies. These were a staple of my diet in high school, so I had to deep fry one of these sooner or later. The deep frying went very smoothly, and the finished product looked absolutely beautiful, like a giant deep-fried Oreo.
However, it actually didn't taste any different. The creme pie was basically exactly the same, just covered in delicious batter. Now, that's a good thing, not a bad thing, but I was kind of hoping for a transformation like what happens with Oreos.

In all, we had a very successful full meal, and I have added a new batter to my repertoire. Beer batter is still a work in progress though. I'll keep tinkering with it, trying different beers and different recipes. I'm especially excited to try beer batter on fish and onion rings. Those should both work very well.

I have been doing a lot of deep frying lately, and, as a result, I am way behind on posts. So, I am going to try to get caught up over the next few weeks. and, hopefully, I will be posting more regularly. My next post is a particularly fun one; it's a romantic deep-fried three-course meal for when you need to pull out all the stops and impress that special someone.

Dress Rehearsal

I got a call from Ashley a couple weeks ago, and she had an exciting opportunity to tell me about. You already know she is a fan of the blog, and her sister is a fan of the blog, but it turns out her dad is also a fan. What's more, Bernie English is the general manager of a the Orchards Hotel in Williamstown, MA. In the midst of planning a Halloween event for his guests, he thought a fun way to push it over the top would be to instead push it Off The Deep End.

So, Ashley was calling me up to offer me the chance to drive out to The Orchards in Williamstown and deep fry Halloween candy for a party. I was a little nervous at first, and wasn't sure I could make it work, since it is happening on a Thursday night. I've also never tried deep frying for a large group before, and I didn't know if I could keep stuff coming fast enough for the masses. But, according to Google Analytics, readers on six continents have read my posts. Now here was my chance to bring delicious deep-fried fare straight to my adoring fans. I realized that there was no way I could let this opportunity pass me by. I didn't want to end up like Harry at the end of Dumb and Dumber saying, "Don't worry, we'll catch our break too. . . just gotta keep our eyes open."

I met up with Bernie one weekend when I was traveling up to Williamstown, and we hammered out the details. I also got to meet the chef and I got a tour of the kitchen. I got to see the "small" deep fryer that I'd be using, which was still much bigger than mine, leading to a bit of deep-fryer envy. It did however, allay my worries about not being able to cook enough food quickly. I'm very curious to see the bigger one.

In preparation for this event, I figured I should do some practicing. My roommate, and I decided to cook corn dogs for dinner, and then I bought a ton of candy at the supermarket. I bought so much candy, in fact, that I felt I should reassure the cashier that don't generally eat like this. I won't list everything I bought, because I didn't get around to trying it all . . . but I will eventually.

For dinner, we started with corn dogs. In my last corn dog attempt, all the pieces tasted good, but they didn't stay together at all. I theorized that I should have made the oil hotter. I cooked it at 350F last time, but cranked it all the way up to 375F this time. The batter is the same as last time: a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix made following the directions on the box. And here we go. . .

First try: This one looks more like an ear of corn than a corn dog. But, it stayed on the hot dog, so, this is a good start.

Second try: Not totally covered, but it was a more even coating. We're getting there.

Third try: This time I rolled the hot dog in flour before putting it into the cornmeal. It looks very pretty, with the only real flaw being that crack down the center.

Fourth try: I also used flour on this one, and it looks beautiful if I do say so myself. Again there was a small crack, but otherwise it looked really nice and that crack didn't effect the stability of the corn dog.

Here is a delicious-looking cross section.

What did we learn? Well, corn dogs are awesome, but actually we already knew that. We did learn that 375F is definitely the right temperature, and a light layer of flour on the hot dog is clearly a good idea. Interestingly, it didn't seem like the flour was helping right after applying it, because then the corn meal seemed to slide off the hot dog even more easily. The corn muffin mix starts to stick after a little bit though, and the pictures certainly show a clear difference.

After making four corn dogs, I used the rest of the corn muffin mix to make hush puppies. I didn't quite get the shapes right, but they were good.

Then it was time for dessert. I had sent out an open invitation to a bunch of people to come eat fried candy with me, but aside from my roommates, only my friend Norman showed up. Norman is quite the chef, and is the author of monday night menu, a food blog that is slightly more sophisticated than mine.

I started with a 3 Musketeers bar. This was tasty, but I don't think deep frying added much too it. It might have actually made it a little less fluffy than a 3 Musketeers normally is. I certainly didn't complain eating it, but it didn't blow me away.

Next, I tried a marshmallow. I had been wanting to try this (and eventually a s'more). I stuck the marshmallow on a skewer and rolled it in the batter. The marshmallow expends like you'd expect, so it pushed its way out of the batter shell slightly. This was good, but it didn't change substantially. The marshmallow itself tasted like a marshmallow that had been blown up in the microwave, only it had a delicious coating on it. Looking back, I missed a chance here to put sprinkles or something else on the outside of the batter. I think that could have made a huge difference here.

Norman, meanwhile, tried a Baby Ruth, and he really liked how toasty the deep frying made the peanuts. Dan deep fried a Twinkie, one of his favorite deep fried treats, and Tyler got a little creative. He folded up a slice of white American cheese, dipped it in the batter and deep fried it. I should note that Tyler is a very picky eater, and he loved American cheese dipped in pancake batter and deep fried. This gave me a lot of confidence that whatever I deep fry for the hotel guests, they are going to like. He also dipped a colby jack cheese stick in the same batter and fried that. I tried bite of both of these things, and I also thought they were quite good.

Then I tried a Snickers bar and added a little powdered sugar for good measure. This was good, and I've had a lot of debates with people about which would be better, a Milky Way or a Snickers, but this is actually this first time I had tried the Snickers. I always said I thought I would like the Milky Way more, and after trying both, I do, in fact, prefer Milky Way. The Milky Way is a simpler, and it really gives the caramel center stage.

I finished up with a Milky Way covered in rainbow sprinkles. Although it still wasn't as good as the cookie dough, it was totally delicious, and the sprinkles definitely improved an already delicious deep-fried Milky Way.

Norman deep fried a Butterfinger covered in sprinkles, and he liked it, but it turned into a very different candy bar after coming out of the oil. All those flakes fused together in a solid core that Norman was chewing on for a while.

We didn't try a lot of what we had bought, but I was very full and from what we had tried, I was very satisfied that I could deliver a delicious, fattening, evening of snacks to the Orchards guests.

In addition to this round of practice deep frying, I also had officially-licensed Off The Deep End postcards made up to give out during the event. And, I am told a couple of different media outlets will be covering the event. This could be just the exposure I need to get that seventh continent. (Deep frying is very warm, so you'd think it'd be a popular activity in Antarctica.) My write-up will be the next post, and as of press time, the party begins in one hour!