Deep Fried ....... Anything......Everything !

Having been brought up in Glasgow, I was introduced to fried food at an early age. Despite the fact that my mother was English and insisted on serving up vegetables at every opportunity, when a quick meal was required, fish and chips from the local chippie, was the answer. And of course, in those days in the sixties and seventies, there weren’t any McDonalds, Subways or kebab takeaways  around – the only place you could get a bit of food on the street was the local chippie.

Deep Fried Pizza

It didn’t take long either for the menu to expand from deep fried haddock and chips to exotic creations such as sausages in batter, deep fried hamburgers, haggis and even, my personal favourite, deep fried pizzas!

Those culinary delights disappeared however when I moved down south - there were no chippies in central London and although there was one solitary fish and chip shop in Maidenhead, my taste buds had moved on and I don’t think I used it once in the eight years I lived there. Dominos (pizzas) were by then the preferred option without a deep fried version anywhere in sight.

In Glasgow recently at my Chrysler reunion, I realised on the Friday night that I hadn’t eaten anything all day and as I took my pal Eddie back to the station to make sure he got his train, I nipped into the Blue Lagoon Chippie and there, lying on the hot plate was everything you ever wanted to eat – and all deep fried. I chose a deep fried hamburger in batter and ate it as I walked back to the hotel. It was absolutely delicious.

Given my liking of things deep fried, it will therefore come as no surprise to you that my Xmas present last year was a deep-fat fryer, but I have to say that it is used very sparingly and when I do use it, I’m as likely to make deep fired sage leaves in batter (a Provencal speciality) as I am chips.  The kids have been on at me to deep fry some brie in breadcrumbs, which I will eventually get round to doing I’m sure but I draw the line at deep fried Mars bars – what if the chocolate melts and messes up my fryer?

Deep Fried Beer Parcels

It was therefore with interest that I came across an article/video in the Telegraph about deep fried beer. Intrigued, I watched it and there it was – the Texas fair where amongst other things, you could buy deep fried dough (!), deep fried butter (a recipe for clogged arteries if ever there was one), deep fried caviar (!!) and a deep fried prezel dough batter parcel ...... with beer inside! The mind boggles.

What next ? Deep fried corn flakes or what about deep fried steak tartare in batter? Now that would be a culinary delight for the French. Their plate of uncooked minced steak with a raw egg on top, deep fried in batter but still retaining all of its raw salmonella characteristics when the batter parcel is opened. I can feel a new enterprise coming on.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/weirdnewsvideo/8058873/Fried-beer-invented-in-Texas.html

Deep Fried Sage Leaves

PS - and as if to prove a point, we had some friends over on Sunday night - J did a platter of sushi and spring rolls but I did a platter of fresh, picked from the garden 5 minutes before they were cooked, deep fried sage leaves. Needless to say, the sage leaves were the favourite, going down a storm.