Macheesmo

A few weeks ago I hosted (with the helps of some friends) the third annual Deep Fry Party! This party started a few years ago when one of my very good friends decided to move to Bulgaria. So we threw her a going away party that involved frying lots of good stuff in my turkey fryer.

It was so much fun that we decided to do it the next year and again this year!

Here’s the thing though: People are getting good at the deep fry party.

The idea behind the party in its current state is pretty straightforward, I set-up my turkey fryer (description is a bit more thorough in last year’s post), I supply a few staples (fried chicken, french fries, etc) and then fry whatever else people bring.

This year people completely blew my mind with the stuff they brought.

The Food. I started the party off by making some really good fried chicken. If you’re in the market, this brined fried chicken recipe makes some of the best fried chicken I’ve had. It was seriously out of this world. You don’t have to deep-fry it though. Pan frying or even baking it is a fine option. We had some leftover that I baked the next day and it was still really good.

No photos of the chicken. Sorry. It was gone too fast.

While I don’t have a photo of the fried chicken, I can show you a picture of Fried Chicken, which is the name we gave a friendly cat that came over as we were making the fried chicken.

Besides the chicken, there was a lot of fries of course. Beautifully crisp fries.

Pickles have also become a pretty solid staple at the deep fry party. Coat them in some cornmeal and they are ready to fry.

Then there was tons of interesting stuff that people brought. We had coconut shrimp, which were excellent.

We also had a pretty good assortment of veggies that we beer battered and fried up.

But then we had some seriously interesting stuff. Not everything is photographed. Some of it you will have to take my word for.

One thing that was photographed though was deep fried pork ribs. Yea, that’s right.

And this is what I mean when I say that people have gotten good that this party. They bring stuff that I have no idea how they prepared and we fry it and it’s delicious.

There were three completely awesome examples of people ruling at deep frying this year:

1) The above ribs. They were amazing and he brought them on a whim.

2) These things my friend, Jeff, brought which were basically grilled hot dog pieces inside mozzarella sticks. If I recall correctly he made these by melting an entire block of mozzarella, pouring it into a large plastic bag, adding all the hot dog pieces, smooshing it around, chilling it so the cheese solidified, then chopping up the pieces and breading them for frying.

As you might imagine, they worked out pretty darn well.

3) A few of the party attendees were from Texas and they said that the thing at the fairs this year is deep fried Frito pie (See this list for that and more). So they recreated it! They added chili, cheese, and jalapenos to Frito scoops and froze them. Then we battered them up and fried them! No photos… sorry they went too fast, but they were really tasty.

Then there was the sweet stuff. The surprise of the night was these deep fried strawberries that were actually very tasty.

And of course we had to have some of these. I don’t need to tell you what they are.

The Stages of a Cook. I really enjoy these parties, but they do remind me why I could never own or seriously work in a restaurant. I just don’t think I have the stamina. We started this deal at about 5PM and ended around 11PM. Most chefs work for like twice that long.

My awesome photographer for the day (Yasmin also photographed our wedding!) did a pretty solid job of documenting my slide into craziness.

See this. I’m a happy host! Happy and smiling!

A few hours later I’m still in good spirits! My hair’s a bit slick due to the oil, but I’m still the jokester!

A few hours later darkness has fallen and I’m still thrilled to be making good food.

A few hours later and I’m getting a bit kooky.

And then I’m very skeptical that we are ever going to be finished frying things.

And when it’s finally all over… I need a drink!

But seriously this as a fantastic party. One of my favorite parties of the year. If you have some willing friends and feel like picking up a turkey fryer, it’s a fun way to spend a day.