Fried, Fried, And Did I Mention Fried?

Mr. Hawthorne and I eat well as you know.

We like a healthy, balanced diet. So after eating that delicious fish, spinach, and asparagus for lunch, we needed to balance that with fried foods for supper.

But first, Mr. Hawthorne is making coleslaw.

Slice up some cabbage.

Shred some carrot. He has maybe 3 cups of shredded mixture.

And he makes it opposite from me. I shred my veggies first, then add the dressing ingredients. He makes his dressing first, then adds the cabbage mixture to the dressing. Different strokes. First he adds about a teaspoon of oil to his bowl. He claims this helps the coleslaw keep longer.

About a tablespoon of white vinegar.

A little mayo. Maybe 1/2 cup. Some sugar. Salt and pepper. Taste and adjust accordingly.

This is how I like my cole slaw. Light and not too much mayonnaise. I was trying to think of some way to use the rest of the pizza dough Mr. Hawthorne made the other day and he came up with a good idea - stuffed fried balls. And I was left to come up with the execution.

I floured my board and rolled my dough out, flipping the dough over, and lightly flouring it. Let it rest a bit, then roll some more. Flip, rest, and roll.

Then I used a biscuit cutter to cut out little dough circles. You don't need the fluted cutter. I only picked that because it was the right size. Peel up the extraneous dough, ball it up, and roll it back out to use up all the dough.

My stuffings: sage leaves, mozzarella, and Swiss cheese.

I brushed the edges with water ...

... and pressed the dough around the filling.

Press to seal.

Then roll into balls.

And I let them rise.

(For those of you new to my blog, here's my dough rising tip: I take a wet towel, nuke it for about 90 seconds so it's nice and hot, then place the dough in the microwave on the hot towel. The heat and steam helps the dough rise quicker.)

Dough balls went into hot oil and immediately puffed up a bit.

Fry until golden brown.

This was good in theory, but my execution was flawed and I'll tell you why. I didn't put in enough cheese. I should have tripled or quadrupled the cheese. As it was, there was way too much dough for way too little cheese. Once again, cook and learn. If you try this add in more cheese than you think you need. You could also season the dough a bit by adding minced onions, garlic, and other herbs, say rosemary or parsley. I will try this again sometime with the adjustments.

See? All that empty space should be filled with oozing cheese.

The sage added a nice flavor too.

Just too much bread and not enough cheese.

Mr. Hawthorne wanted some fried sweet potatoes too.

Fry until crisp, then salt and drain on paper towels.

Hmmm. Something went awry in the kitchen. Not to worry though. I didn't burn the house down or anything.

And here are the fried sweet potato chips. Whenever you're frying fish along with anything else, common sense dictates to fry the fish last. So now, on to the shrimp.

Mr. Hawthorne peeled and deveined the shrimp, leaving the tails intact.

I used the batter leftover from the fried bananas but added some more flour and soda water to rejuvenate the batter.

Mr. Hawthorne dropped the shrimp one by one into the hot oil and they were ready in less than a minute.

Fried shrimp, fried sweet potato chips, fried not-cheesy-enough dough balls, and cole slaw. I really do like that batter. It's very light and would be great for fried veggies too.

Shrimpie with cocktail sauce - ketchup, lots of horseradish, some Lea & Perrins, and some lemon juice.