Deep Fried Saturday

We had been waiting. Waiting for a nice day. Waiting for the bitter cold of winter to fade away. Waiting, so we could . . . fry turkeys. Yes, that's what I said. Fry turkeys. My family has been frying turkeys for holidays since I was a kid - but that was in New Orleans, where it is easy to stand outside all day in the middle of December. However, here in Chicago, our (ok, my) outside winter time is limited.

We did fry one turkey this year for Thanksgiving, but peanut oil is so expensive to use for just one turkey. My dad always fried turkeys with friends, one after the other, so you could share the oil and only heat up one pot. So some friends and I decided to wait until the weather got nicer and spend the day frying turkeys. We cooked up four 10 lb. turkeys. Everyone took theirs home to cut up and eat and freeze. We shared ours with our guests, and boy, was it juicy and delicious. The skin was flavorful and crispy, if you like that sort of thing.

And while we had a big pot of boiling oil, we decided to throw a few other things in the fryer - oreos, salami, mango fritters, tortellini and bananas. Here are the photos and the info:

DEEP FRIED TURKEY
--12-24 hours before frying, inject turkey with marinade. You can find injectable marinade along with the other marinades in your supermarket. (We used Tony Chachere's Creole Butter). Sprinkle your favorite seasoning or more Creole Butter on the outside of the turkey.
--With oil at 350 degrees fry turkey for approx 3 min per pound, plus three or four more minutes.

DEEP FRIED OREOS AND BANANAS
--Freeze oreos and bananas for at least two hours.
--Mix up your favorite pancake batter.
--Dip oreos and bananas in batter, place in hot oil (350 degrees) for approx one minute on each side.
--Drain on paper towel and sprinkle with powdered sugar.


DEEP FRIED MANGO FRITTERS
1 1/4 cup chopped mango (or peaches)
1 cup flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 Tbls. vegetable oil

Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add egg, milk and oil. Stir until blended. Fold in mangoes. Our fritters were large (about 1/2 cup of batter) and required about 10 minutes of cooking time in 350 degree oil. Smaller fritters will cook faster. Drain on a paper towel and top with powdered sugar.

DEEP FRIED SALAMI - CHIPS AND STEAKS
--No prep. Just drop in oil.

DEEP FRIED TORTELLINI
--We used fresh pasta, not dried. But I suppose if you bought dried, you could boil it and then fry it.

Conversation over Taco Salad

Scene:
“That is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard,” Sherry said.

“I know, said Casey. “I can’t believe he was crazy enough to do that. I could never.”

“Oh, don’t give me that, you do lots of gutsy things. Remember that time in college when you staged that fake protest?”

With a slight smirk, Casey glared at Sherry and took another bite of her taco salad.

“And that time you papered the tree in the quad,”

“Yeah,” Casey laughed and quickly maintained her composure. “But that was college. We were all carefree and stupid."

“Speak for yourself,” Sherry scolded as she reached over and took an olive off of Sherry's plate. “I was never carefree.”

A HEALTHIER VERSION OF TACO SALAD
1 lb. ground turkey (I used 93/7 lean)
1 pack Taco Seasoning (or make some yourself)
Baby Spinach Leaves
Black Olives
Cheddar Cheese
1/4 cup sour cream (I used light)
1/4 cup salsa (I used black bean and corn salsa)

Brown ground turkey and mix with taco seasoning as directed. Mix sour cream and salsa in a bowl and mix well. Place spinach leaves in bowl and top with taco meat, cheddar cheese and olives. Top with salsa and sour cream mixture.

--Aren't those little peppers in my salad adorable? They are sweet red peppers. I haven't seen them at the grocery store, but bought a big bag of yellow, orange and red ones at Costco. They are great to crunch on alone, or with a dip. I saved some of the seeds and I'm going to try and grow some this summer.