A Little Plate of Fried Snacks (Hush Puppies, Onion Rings and Zucchini Fries)

I knew I couldn’t make it long without busting out the deep fryer my friend Jen got me for Christmas, and today looked like the day to do it. Yesterday was a gorgeous day for a long walk, Lindsey and I took advantage and walked though the city, stopping to pick up some gorgeous onions from the farmers market at the Eastern Market. She’s been begging me for onion rings since I started this adventure, and I figured as long as I had the fryer out, I might as well make zucchini fries and hush puppies at the same time. In my opinion, hush puppies are the king of all southern food, you just can’t go wrong with deep fried corn meal batter.  Let the frying commence!!!

 Hush Puppies

(WSCC pg. 115)

2 cups cornmeal

3 tbs all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

egg replace for one egg (I use bob’s red mill.)

1/3 cup extra firm silken tofu, beaten in blender

1 cup milk soy milk with 1 tbs apple cider vinegar (mix together and let sit for 10 min)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 tbs minced onion

vegetable oil for frying

Mix first 5 ingredients together. Beat egg replacer, oil, silken tofu, and soy milk mixture. Add to cornmeal mixture, onion and stir until blended. Drop 1 ½” spoonfulls into hot oil (375 degrees, approx) and deep fry until golden brown. Drain and serve. And don’t crowd the oil!

“Why add vinegar to soy milk?” you may ask. Well, when you add vinegar (or lemon juice) to soy milk and let it sit, the soy milk curdles and acts more like a buttermilk. And no, it doesn’t work with rice milk. Unfortunately.

Onion Rings and Zucchini Fries

(WSCC pg. 94)

1 cups bisquick

1/3 cup cornmeal

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

1 cup soy milk (or rice)

1 tbs yellow mustard

vegetable oil for frying

1 large onion, peeled, cut into ¼ slices and split into rings

1 zucchini, cut into sticks

Combine dry ingredients into bowl, and beat in soy milk and mustard.

Coat zucchini and onions and place in hot oil until browned, turning once. 

The best to make both of these are probably if you have people coming over. It makes quite a bit for just two people. Even when one of them can eat copious amounts of onion rings.

Proof this project is crazy!

So (confession time) when I picked up Julie Powell’s book Julie and Julia a little over a year ago, I was inspired. Not because she decided to cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but because she had finished cooking her way through the beast of a book. When my wife and I saw the movie, she looked me in the eye and said “You should veganize that cook book.” And in truth, I mulled it over, but the fact is, I really hate French cooking. Not all of it, but on principle it’s just so damn stuffy. No thanks.

So, here I am a year later, still wanting to veganize a cookbook. The Joy of Cooking? Maybe, but I want something more... regional. I want an adventure like being a north-westerner transplanted into the Deep South (not once but twice) has been an adventure. See– there’s just something about the south… and if I’m living in the US and not in the Pacific Northwest, this is where you’ll find me.

What do you do when you are a lesbian foodie living in the south looking to for a good challenge of a cookbook to veganize? Well, you do what I did of course. You remember Idgie Threadgood and Ruth Jamison and The Whistle Stop Café, and you order a slightly used copy of Fannie Flagg’s Original Whistle Stop Café Cookbook and think, “I can do this!”

Of course, then I actually opened the cookbook and boy, are we in for one hell of a ride. Now, I’ve already decided to make most of my own mock meats, and I know I have a good base of recipes in my cupboard to use as a spring board, from Soy, Not Oi to Venganomicon; La Dolche Vegan to Great Chefs Cook Vegan and more. And I feel confident most of these recipes I can do. But when I get to veganizing “roast possum” and “sunshine salad,” which, as far as I can tell is Lemon Jell-O with carrots, pineapple, and walnuts served on lettuce with mayonnaise, well, I get a little bit scared (not to mention nauseous) but I know, armed with my deep fryer, the wealth of knowledge in my cookbook cupboard, and the spirit of Idgie, I can do this. Stay tuned.