Out of the frying pan…
March 3, 2009As you might imagine, I am pretty adventurous in the kitchen. I’ll try just about anything, with one exception. My family has something of a bad history with deep frying. I’ve only seen it done twice, and both times I felt much as if I was in the presence of a loaded gun–the situation seemed inherently dangerous.
Then some of my foodie friends sent me a box of Café du Monde beignet mix. I decided to invite people over and make them for the Top Chef finale. That way at the very least there would be witnesses to explain to the police just how I managed to make a massive fireball using only common household ingredients. To make matters worse, my cats are actually stupid enough to accidentally get too close to the fryer.
After doing some research (read: calling my mother), I borrowed an electric skillet and took several precautions. I removed everything flammable from the area immediately around my stove, set up the electric skillet on the stovetop and built a tall wall around the pan with aluminum foil. I made sure the fire extinguisher was within easy reach, just in case, took a deep breath and rolled out the beignets.
After all of the preparation and, well, paranoia, actually frying was oddly easy. The dough browned and puffed in an almost magical way. The oil behaved itself. The fire extinguisher was completely superfluous–not that I’m complaining, mind! The cats stayed away from the area completely. Obviously, there is some inherent danger to cooking with 370º oil, but fortunately nothing happened.
Nothing, that is, except the creation of delicious beignets. I think I might add some spices to the dough next time, just to see what happens.
