Friday's Featured Food: Fried!

I have a confession to make. I have a weakness for fried foods. Fried cheese, fried chicken, fried ice cream... you fry it, I'll try it and probably love it. My love of fried foods combines with my love of veggies quite often. Jay jokes that I have learned how to make every veggie a little less healthy.

It's true that cooking veggies can decrease their nutritional aspect. Fried foods are less healthy because the foods absorb the oil while they are cooking and because of the added fat from the breading. I try to minimize the negatives of frying food by by using a thin, light batter, such as tempura. I also prefer to fry in canola oil, which has a lower amount of trans and saturated fat compared to other cooking oils. Now, the nutritionists out there will tell you that it is still bad. I know this. But, a girl's got to have some bad habits, right?

Back to the batter. As I mentioned, I like to cook the veggies tempura-style, which is defined as deep fried veggies or seafood often eaten in Japan. Tempura batter is super-easy:

1. Beat one egg in a bowl. 
2. Add 1 cup ice water in the bowl. Be sure to use very cold water. 
3. Add 1 cup sifted flour in the bowl and mix lightly. Be careful not to overmix the batter.

See? Easy! The difficult part is deciding what to fry. We have fried fresh broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, yellow squash, asparagus, onions, carrots, green beans, pickles, radishes, green tomatoes, and just about anything else that pops up in our garden.  Now the rest of the process:

1. Wash and cut the veggies and set them in a bowl of ice water until ready to cook. 
2. Heat oil to 340-350 degrees Fahrenheit.  
3. Dip the prepped veggies in the tempura and set them into the hot oil. Watch out for splashes of the hot oil!
4. Fry for 2-3 minutes, or until batter turns golden.

Fried Squash Blossoms is another delicious fried treat we made last year. It truly has very little nutritious value, but it was such a delicacy and oddity that the entire family had fun eating it.

Squash Blossoms can be stuffed with whatever you wish, then dipped in batter and fried. Our favorite recipe had a mixture of cream cheese, cheddar cheese and spices inside. You can go all out, with Emeril's crab stuffed squash blossoms, or keep it simple, with no stuffing. They are a heavy food, in that you won't need to eat many to be full. We budget 2-4 per person when making them for our family or friends.

And while you have the oil heated up for the squash blossoms, why not throw in a few other veggies... just for fun. Or, do the right thing and balance all that fried stuff with a fresh garden salad. Either way, yum!

Edited to add: I love that, once I posted this, Google changed my ads on the right to "cut down on belly fat" and "Fried Cinnamon Rolls". It cracks me up!

Friday's Featured Food: Fried!