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March 27, 2005

Viva la Deep Fryer

Last night we had a few friends over to talk about classical organ music and the tendons in your hands. No, seriously, we just had some people over who we hadn't seen in a while, and that's what they ended up talking about. There was also some drunken piano playing and an argument about keyboard size that ended with the tape measure being taken out. It's no end of fun over here.

Being utterly impoverished, we settled on a simple menu of fish and chips (made in The Fryer of Love), salad, and chocolate cake for dessert. Noel bought some cod and purple and white potatoes, some salad greens, and a few odds and ends for appetizers (pancetta and tomatoes with a little slice of cheese), and I bought a bunch of eggs, chocolate, and cream, because frankly that's how I am.

For Christmas a couple of years ago my mother gave me a deep fryer, a device which it did not take long for us to worship as a god. Frying is so much less touchy when you have an appliance keeping track of the temperature. For our fish and chips, we used Jeffrey Steingarten's recipe for french fries (fry once at a very low temperature to cook, let drain and rest, then fry at a very high temperature to get that delicious crunchy outside). This recipe is simply divine. And with a mandoline to do the slicing and the deep fryer to maintain the temperatures, it's just as easy as whipping out boring frozen fries.

I made Nigella Lawson's chocolate babycakes, from How to be a Domestic Goddess. The babycakes are absolutely marvelous, look like a million hours of work went into them, and take all of half an hour, including baking. I garnished with a dollop of fresh whipped cream, a couple mini scoops of vanilla ice cream, and some raspberries. Delish.

One of the things I perversely enjoy about having people over is the piles of dirty dishes to be done. Perhaps because we have a dishwasher? It's just nice to see things you have and save for this sort of event actually in use.

Posted by ayse on 03/27/05 at 12:55 PM