Mini Corn Dogs

Wednesday night, my roommates and I decided to celebrate our "family meeting" by making a fry night out of it. I picked up 4 different types of house made sausages at New Seasons (chicken and basil, chicken, red pepper and feta, pork kielbasa, and something else) and made a quick batter while Matt got 3/4 of a gallon of peanut oil heating in the fry daddy. Being a poor judge of how much batter it takes to fry a corn dog, I ended up making way more batter than we needed. In an effort to minimize wasted batter, Matt and I began searching the kitchen for things to fry. First up, Pickle halves, then salami slices followed by bananas and finally peach slices. The ladies were not keen on the idea of "wasting a peach," but it worked out.

We gorged ourselves on platters of fried food, each one of us ignoring the little voice inside of us that said that we should stop. Instead we all ended up holding our bellies uttering phrases like "I ate way too much," and "I shouldn't have had that last corn dog, but it was SO GOOD!"

The corn dogs were amazing, as were the the pickles, but the real star of the night were the fried bananas which only missed a perfection due to the lack of ice cream and chocolate sauce to accompany...which I will do for sure next time. And the fried peaches? They were like like individual peach pies seasoned with cayenne and chipotle pepper. I think next time I fry fruit I will make a sweet batter instead of a savory one.

Inspiration: Fry Daddy
Time: 2 hours
Difficulty: medium
Special equipment: Deep Fryer, slotted spoon, splatter screen (optional)
Servings: More fried food than 4 adults can eat


Ingredients:
8 sausages of your choice, steamed, dried and cut into bite sized segments
3/4 gallon peanut oil
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
2 tablespoons (approximately 1 large) jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely minced
1 (8.5-ounce) can cream-style corn
1/3 cup finely grated onion
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons cornstarch, for dredging

1. Pour oil into a deep fryer and heat to 375 degrees F.

2.In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cayenne pepper. In a separate bowl, combine the jalapeno, corn, onion, and buttermilk. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients all at once, and stir only enough times to bring the batter together; there should be lumps. Set batter aside and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

3. Scatter the cornstarch into a dry pie pan. Roll each sausage segment in the cornstarch and tap well to remove any excess.

4. Using tongs, quickly dip sausage segments in and out of the batter. Immediately and carefully place each batter covered sausage into the oil, and cook until coating is golden brown, about 4 to 5 minutes. (Note: Use slotted spoon to turn corn dogs to ensure they brown evenly.) With spoon, remove to cooling rack, and allow to drain for 3 to 5 minutes (I put newspaper under the rack to catch the oil).

5. Serve warm while corn dog is still crispy.