Every once in a while I have a craving for fried pickles. The last couple weeks have been one of those times. Unfortunately, I am the only person in my household of two who likes fried pickles, so when I make fried pickles, I use most of the same stuff for fried jalapenos. These habits could be why every once in a while Midwesterners look at me wide-eyed and laugh, "You're so southern!" Like that's a bad thing. By the way, I've been to fairs/festivals around here -- the schnitzel (country fried meat, usually pork, it turns out -- WHY did Maria from The Sound of Music like it with noodles?) isn't exactly health-conscious either.
In any case, here are the recipes. These are adapted from a combination of Bell's Best Cookbook and my grandmother's recipes.
Fried Pickles, Jalapenos, Shrimp, and/or Green Tomatoes
Ingredients:
Items to fry -- pickles, jalapenos, shrimp, or green tomato slices (please see notes)
Eggs, beaten (I use a little more than 1 per person; 1 egg is too few for the two of us and 2 eggs are too much)
Seasoning salt
Masa harina (Maseca brand is gluten-free if that's a concern for you)
Cooking oil (enough to cover the bottom of the pan -- I didn't have to rotate the pan to get it to cover the bottom, but the pickle and jalapeno slices were not covered over with oil)
Directions:
1. Beat eggs in bowl. Mix in seasoning salt to taste. This gives a little salty spicy kick to your fried food. I probably use about 1/2 teaspoon for two eggs -- but that's totally a guess.
2. Have a plate or big flat-ish bowl ready with a pretty thick layer of masa harina.
3. Heat oil on medium-high heat. It is hot enough when a water droplet does a snap crackle pop dance in the oil.
4. Put food you are frying in beaten eggs. Flip to coat both sides.
5. Dredge egg-coated food in masa.
6. Place in oil. Allow to fry on one side until golden brown. (This takes about the amount of time it takes to dump the next batch from egg to masa if you're cooking jalapenos, pickles, or shrimp.) Flip each item. If you are cooking shrimp, make sure they are done -- the shrimp will be pink if you can see through a chink in the breading.
7. Once it is done cooking on both sides, drain on paper towels.
8. Jalapenos and pickles taste good with ranch dressing. Shrimp taste good with ketchup or cocktail sauce. Tomatoes are best alone, but V likes them with ketchup. Recently, I made up a comeback sauce (see below) that was good with pickles and shrimp. V said it was too spicy for the jalapenos.
Notes:
* I use jalapenos from a jar. You can slice fresh jalapenos if you want, but these are super spicy.
* If you are making fried green tomatoes, before you do anything else, slice the tomatoes and lay them out on a piece of wax paper or paper towel. Lightly salt them and allow them to sit a few minutes to draw out some of the excess moisture. You can skip the egg coating for green tomatoes, but I prefer to have a coating of egg.
* If you are cooking more than one type of food, such as cooking jalapenos then pickles, you can use the rest of the egg and masa, but if you re-use the oil, it will flavor whatever you cook next. For example, if you cook jalapenos first and then pickles in the same oil, the pickles will be spicy; if you cook pickles first and then jalapenos, the jalapenos may have a hint of dill.
Comeback Sauce
Ingredients (sorry, I didn't measure anything when I was trying this out):
Mayonnaise (1/2 cup maybe?)
Ketchup or tomato sauce (1-2 tbsp?)
Prepared horseradish (1/2 tsp?)
Ground ginger (1/2 tsp?)
Paprika (pinch)
Worcestershire sauce (opt. -- about 1/2 tsp?)
Mix the ingredients above to taste. The sauce should be a pale pink, about the color of Thousand Island salad dressing. Don't overdo the horseradish -- it can overpower the other ingredients. If you're a vegetarian, all you have to do is leave out the Worcestershire sauce, and it's good to go. The idea is to have a tasty sauce similar to remoulade, but with a bit of kick and a bit of sweet.
Companion Dish
Fried pickles, jalapenos and tomatoes taste good with anything you'd eat fries with -- burgers, chicken tenders, etc. Today, we had fried pickles and jalapenos with meatloaf. Sounds a little weird, but I liked it. Feel free to leave questions in the comments if you have any or and suggestions for improving it.
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