u The Main Dish: July 2009

The Main Dish

Looking for the Spoon...

Monday, July 06, 2009

New Kid on the Blog

Muzungu Diaries - The tale of my little sister's adventures in Africa.

posted by Dish @ 7:38 PM 0 comments

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Deep-frying Goes Awry

At Christmas, Dish happened upon a joyous discovery in the form of a deep-fried Mars bar at Brits Fish and Chips in Charlottetown. She then set about seeking out such deep-fried goodness here in Ottawa. (By the way, if you are interested, the delicacy in Dish's left hand is half a deep-fried jam sandwich.)



A Google search led her to the Newfoundland Pub, which turned out to be a total dud in so many more ways than one. In short, the deep-fried Mars bar tasted suspiciously like the chicken fingers Dish had eaten just a moment before.

Dish left disappointed but not defeated. She tried calling the Glen Scottish Restaurant in Kanata. Given that Scotland is the land of deep-fried goodness, she figured they would have to have deep-fried Mars bars on the menu. Apparently not. In fact, when Dish phoned to ask, the person who answered the phone actually laughed in her face! The nerve!

Just when she thought that all was lost and that the deep-fried Mars bar in Ottawa was as elusive as garlic fingers, Dish stumbled upon this recipe and a seemingly ingenious idea was born. KT and Dish decided to embark upon a deep-frying adventure and make their own deep-fried Mars bars.

Here's how it went down.

KT gets the oil ready.



It's safety first in Dish's kitchen (after all, she didn't do that whole Safety Every Day series for nothing you know.



You can never be too careful...



Dish tests the oil temperature using a candy thermometer...



KT stirs up the batter, which looked suspiciously like paste...



Dish attempts to coat the Mars bar with batter...



The Mars bar goes into the oil...



Unfortunately, the batter was not sticking and so, when we put the Mars bar into the oil, the chocolate started to melt and burn. This was even grosser in real life than in the picture. We then added more flour to the batter to try to make it more sticky, which worked a little better.

This one's ready...



What was left after Dish strained the burnt chocolate out of the oil (Eww)...



The end results (including the bread we used to test the oil temperature, which actually turned out better than the Mars bars)...



Dish gets rid of the extra batter (Eww)...



Presentation is everything...



Final product (it's amazing what chocolate sauce can do to jazz up a disaster)...



In summary:

Pros:
1) Dish and KT managed to deep fry without needing the fire extinguisher and Dish's kitchen is still intact.
2) Dish can't think of anything other pros, which is pretty bad considering she will generally eat anything that is deep fried (Remember the weekly deep-fried basket of mystery at the Jug?)

Cons:
1) The batter tasted like rubber.
2) Dish had to wash all the dishes multiple times because they were covered with a film of grease.
3) Dish's whole apartment smelled like McDonald's for a week.

Dish has decided that her days of in-house deep frying are over. She will leave this kitchen skill up to the professionals from now on. Lesson learned.

Next kitchen experiment: Putting Creamsicles in the blender to try to recreate the creamsicle milkshake at the Works. Who's in? :o)

posted by Dish @ 5:09 PM 6 comments