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Thursday, July 28, 2011

It's Corn-tastic!

I made corn dogs, baked fries, and roasted corn on the cob for dinner tonight. Everything was so good, Pug and I both overate, and Pon ate most of a corn dog and a ton of fries! And no, there are no leftovers.

Carnival food at home!

The corn was simply wrapped in foil and roasted at 350 for 40 minutes, rotating the corn and pan every ten minutes. After being removed from the oven, each ear was bathed in butter, and received a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

Baked Fries *start these at least an hour before you start cooking

3 baking potatoes
2 Tbls olive oil
Sea salt to taste (I used maybe 1/2 Tbls as we're watching out salt intake, and they were still very good)

Peel the potatoes, and cut in half. Cut each half into fairly uniform pieces of your thickness of preference. Place fries in a large bowl, and pour in enough cold water to cover. Loosely cover bowl and place in fridge for at least half an hour (mine sat in the fridge for 2 hours). After the fries are done soaking, rinse well and spread out on a cooling rack with paper towels under it and allow to dry completely, 20-30 mins, or, if you're in a hurry, place directly on paper towels and using more paper towels on top, press dry by hand. Once the potato slices are dry, toss with olive oil and desired amount of salt and spread in single layer on baking sheet (I used a casserole dish that was slightly crowded, so my fries were a bit floppy). Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes, shaking and rotating the pan at least once (I did 30, shaking every 10).

Corn Dogs adapted from live love pasta
 
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbls sugar
3/4 C all purpose flour plus additional for dredging
1/2 C cornmeal
1tsp baking powder
3/4 C milk
1 egg, beaten
1/8 C vegetable oil
desired amount of hot dogs (I made 6 using this recipe and only used about half of the batter!)
vegetable oil – enough to frying
skewers

*I used old chinese takeout soup containers to mix and dip the batter, and the leftover candy sticks from the cake pops Heydew and I made.

In a container, mix the dry ingredients, set aside.


In a separate container, blend the wet ingredients.


Gradually add the dry mix to the wet until it is completely incorporated. The batter will be thick.


Using your choice of skewer, insert stick about half way up the dog, being careful not to pierce the sides. Dredge the hot dog in some flour.


Dip the hotdog in the batter, tipping the container and rotating the dog if necessary to achieve complete coverage. (Sorry, I forgot to photograph this step!) Heat at least 1/2 inch of oil (I would do more, my corn dogs touched the bottom of the pan the whole time) to ~375 (I started on heat setting 5, then dropped it down to 3 later). Use a spoonful of batter to test the oil, when it's hot enough it should bubble immediately. Or use a deep fryer, that works too, but we don't have one. Once the oil is to the right temperature, gently place 1-2 corn dogs into the oil and fry until golden brown on each side, turning occasionally.

This one's actually a bit too dark, as it was sitting on the bottom of the pan.
Place on paper towel lined plate or cooling rack to absorb excess oil.


Plate up and serve with your favorite dipping sauce and sides.

I'd intended to use the leftovers for funnel cakes. I added 1 Tbsl of honey and mixed it in well. Unfortunately I cut too big a hole in my drizzle baggie, and it turned into a giant gloopy unappetizing mess. Pug tried a tiny bite and said it tasted like super sweet corn bread, which it basically was. I made myself a chocolate milk instead.

As always when working with hot oil, be extremely careful. Keep all children, pets, and clumsy people out of the kitchen. Watch your temperature carefully, use a candy thermometer if you have one. Oil burns and oil fires suck. Please be careful.

On that note, a lolz kitteh:
from i can haz cheezburger

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