Deep Fry

When we make guacamole, we make it to order. It’s one of those dishes that doesn’t improve with age. The avocados have to be perfectly ripe, giving gently when pressed, and then mixed with just the right balance of other ingredients. We serve our guacamole with warm, crisp tostones, a Cuban specialty made from fried plantains. You can make the tostones ahead of time and then refry them right before serving.

I’m not sure if I ever had a store-bought French fry before high school! Mama made these home fries and served them with fresh-off-the-grill burgers. They’re the perfect side for Herb’s Fried Catfish (page 106) and Mama’s Cornmeal Hushpuppies (page 140).

You can’t have fried catfish (page 106) without hushpuppies! Sometimes I add a few more jalapeños to the mixture for a little extra jolt. There are several stories about how hushpuppies got their name. My favorite is the one where an old southern cook was frying them one day and heard her dog howling nearby, so she gave him a plateful and said, “Hush, puppy!” It might just be folklore, but I like it.

My daddy loved boiled okra, but it’s too slimy for me. Fried okra, on the other hand, is great with everything!

Cooking fish is not one of my specialties, but I do love this recipe because it doesn’t taste fishy. I think it was probably my mom’s attempt to get us girls to eat some fish by disguising it in fried bread crumbs. What can I say? It worked. The creamed peas give the croquettes a slightly sweet accent. This topping tastes good on other meats too, like baked chicken and ham.

Growing up, I was lucky to have a catfish pond just down the hill on our farm. My daddy had created the pond from a natural spring when I was a little girl and stocked it with catfish and bream. We had many a wonderful fish fry with freshly caught catfish from our pond all through my childhood. Fresh fried fish served with Mama’s Cornmeal Hushpuppies (page 140)—you couldn’t ask for a better meal! My only suggestion is that you let someone else dress the catfish. Yuck!

My biggest complaint about fried chicken is that all of the flavor ends up on the outside, and the meat is usually bland. Not my mama’s! The secret is in the prep. When you soak the chicken overnight in salt brine, the salt infuses into the meat and makes it so tasty! When I asked my mom how long to fry the chicken, she said, “Just cook it ’til it sounds right.” I have since fried enough chicken to completely understand this sentence, but at the time—you can imagine! As chicken begins to fry, it’s loud because of all the water cooking out into the fat. It gets quieter as it gets done. Who knew? Now you do!

Dear World, We’re sorry food has come to this. Like Richard Pryor said, more or less, the double down is God’s way of telling you that you have too much money. But it’s also really delicious.

Pier Luc Dallaire has worked for us for five years (and counting) as a cook, busboy, bartender, oyster shucker, and now, a real French waiter! His dad, Bertrand, was a kindred soul gardener, and his mom, Huguette, made these killer doughnuts. They rise with baking powder, not yeast. And you will often find them at weekend country flea markets. The Isle-aux-Grues cheese (page 276) is a great Quebec product that we couldn’t resist smoking. Together they sing.

The best fries are done with potatoes that have never seen the cold. It has something to do with starch converting to sugar at certain temperatures. If you’re interested in the specifics, check out Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. At the restaurant, we use a russet potato from the Île d’Orléans in the Saint Lawrence River (which Cartier originally named the Isle of Bacchus because of the native vines that covered the landscape), but you can use anything similar. This recipe really is made to work with a deep fryer. If you don’t have a small one at home, a 5-quart (5-liter) thick-bottomed, highsided pot and a deep-frying thermometer will work. We use half canola oil and half beef fat, which always makes better fries the second day. If you can get your hands on rendered beef leaf fat (the fat from around the kidneys), definitely use that. If this is all too much, you can use peanut oil. We don’t, as we can’t piss off both the vegetarians and the allergics. A few years back we started tossing our fries in escargot butter (its name comes from its use, not its contents; it’s basically garlic butter) and now we can’t stop. We also like to add a little grated pecorino as we toss.

All of the eels of the world begin and return to the Sargasso Sea: can you imagine a more disgusting place to swim? It sounds like the scariest place on earth. In the course of their journey, some of those eels swim down the Saint Lawrence River, near the shores of Kamouraska, Quebec. And some of those eels get caught in weir traps by guys like Bernard Lauzier. Bernard smokes and brines eels and sturgeon, both of which we use at all three restaurants for many dishes, including this one right here. Eel is so meaty and delicious; Fred refers to it as the “undersea tenderloin.”

David’s childhood memories inspired this recipe: “When I was a kid, my father and his in-laws would go fishing off the Rivière-du-Loup Wharf. They would come back with buckets full of smelt that they caught using bamboo fishing sticks. We would get out the Robin Hood flour and start frying them up. They’re delicious and what’s better, they’re small so you know that they’re not feasting on anything dubious at the bottom of the sea.” We serve smelt piled high on a plate with mayo on the side.

The idea here is to get great pulled pork but in the shape of High Liner Captain’s fish sticks. If you don’t have a proper fryer, you can still do this recipe—just don’t attempt it drunk and/or naked. You can use a thick-bottomed pot and a deep-fat thermometer, and of course, have a fire extinguisher nearby. Try these sticks with any of the suggested dips for Cornflake Eel Nuggets (page 134), or serve on mashed potatoes with onion jus.

Arnold's chef Kahlil Arnold brines catfish before dredging it in seasoned cornmeal to keep it super moist.

Buffalo-style chicken wings have long ruled the roost, but there's a spicy new upstart poised to challenge their spot at the top of the game-day menu: Korean wings. With their balance of salty, sweet, and spicy, Korean wings are packed with delicious flavor, but they also come with a lengthy ingredient shopping list. By fusing the best elements and techniques from Korean and Buffalo-style wings, we've come up with a dynamite wing that's—dare we say it?—better than the sum of its parts. In this version, the iconic Frank's RedHot Original sauce (which can still be slathered as liberally as you wish) is balanced by the sweet-and-sour tang of rice vinegar and soy sauce. Gone is the hefty dose of butter; instead, a very light coating of rice flour keeps the wings super-crispy, even a day later.

To show off Florida’s most famous shellfish, Chef Marty Blitz made miniature Thai-style tostadas at the Workshop in 1994. He replaced the conventional fried tortillas with wonton wrappers, which puff and crisp in the fryer and turn a rich nut-brown. Then he topped this crunchy base with a tangy crab and cabbage slaw sparked with fish sauce, lime juice, and chile. It’s finger food, but drippy. Offer sturdy napkins or small plates. If you dislike deep-frying, spoon the slaw into Bibb lettuce cups or Belgian endive leaves. You could also omit the wonton wrappers and serve the slaw in generous portions for lunch, or offer it as a side dish with baked or fried fish.

Seltzer water is the secret to achieving a delicate crust on homemade onion rings. Use a deep-fry thermometer to monitor the oil, and be sure to maintain a temperature of 375 degrees; otherwise, the rings will absorb too much oil as they cook.

If your only impression of a zeppole was formed at a street fair, where they are served hot out of the oil and dusted with powdered sugar, prepare to have your socks knocked off. With these you get your doughnut and coffee all in one delectable bite.

Fritto misto means mixed fry, and in Italy, where it is a great way to use up odds and ends from the kitchen, it might contain meat, cheese, fish—anything that can be breaded and fried (and what can’t, really?). My favorite part of any fritto misto is always the veggies, and this version is nothing but. It has the added surprise of fried garbanzos, which get crunchy on the outside and creamy within, and lemon slices, which are crispy and delicious.

Delicate and beautiful zucchini blossoms make their appearance at farmer’s markets in mid- to late summer. In Italy, the blossoms are stuffed with just about anything and prepared in a number of ways, from sautéed to baked, or just served fresh in a salad. My favorite is and always has been stuffed and fried—and served with a side of marinara sauce.