PORTER’S ANSON COUNTY HUSH PUPPIES
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup plain white corn meal 1 cup
all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 /2 cup
diced onion, white
1 egg,
lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Fill a 2-quart saucepot half full with oil and heat to 350 to 375 degrees. In
a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking
powder, baking soda, sugar; then stir in the cornmeal and onions. In a separate
bowl, combine the eggs and milk, then pour into the mixture; stir to blend.
This stiff batter should be thick enough to stay
on a spoon without dripping off the sides. You may need to stir in
more cornmeal if it's too runny or milk if it's too dry. Let the mixture
rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Very carefully drop
the batter by teaspoons into the hot oil, and cook until golden brown, about 1
to 2 minutes on each side. The puppies usually turn over by themselves
to cook the other side, but you might have to help them out a little.
Drain on paper towels and serve immediately. If using peanut oil
for deep frying, you can run the temperature up to 400 degrees F. which will
quickly seal the outside of the hush puppies and the hush puppies will
retain less oil.
YIELD: about 2 dozen
NOTES: You can substitute beer for the buttermilk. Our original
recipe that my bride “Tweet” came up with back in the early 1970’s
got lost or misplaced but I believe it was one of those recipes that you had
committed to memory only. Anyway, this is one that I have been working
with the past few weeks/months changing the ratio of corn meal to flour and
leaving off any Cajun type seasonings but you can add, cayenne, onion
powder, garlic powder, paprika, etc to your liking, but I guarantee this
recipe will work for you! I believe the addition of the sugar makes
all the difference. These “puppies” are light but not as
light as a fritter and will
melt in your mouth. It would be scary to see all the fish, fries, slaw
and hush puppies we prepared over the years! For a couple decades we
used a “humongous” size black cast iron skillet for all the
fish frying but now do all the fish frying outside using a propane fish
cooker which is more convenient but really can’t say the fish taste any
better! I know fish do taste better when prepared soon after being
caught. Some of our best fish cooked were caught from the Pee Dee
River, Anson County and cooked at the shore’s edge while camping on
Jerry
Ingram’s property near the old boat landing, Blewett Fall’s Lake. Our
“kids” still talk about all the good times we had back in the
1970's to middle 1980's before their estrogen and testosterone kicked in.
Grin if you must!
Comments and recipe by Bill aka Mickey Porter 05-27-07
ALTERNATE HUSH PUPPIES RECIPE
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup self-rising corn meal 1
cup self-rising flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup beer or buttermilk
1 egg. lightly beaten
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix corn meal, flour, salt and sugar. Add chopped onion, then
beer and/or buttermilk and egg and still until well blended.
Drop by spoonful into deep hot oil 350 to 375 degrees. When done, they will
float, but might need a nudge to turn over to brown both sides. Drain
on taper towels. Serve hot.
This recipe is for those that use only self-rising corn meal and self-rising
flour.
Bill aka Mickey Porter 04-01-09.
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