Fried Zucchini

There are very few foods that feel as weird as battered deep fried vegetables. You take something that has an aura of purity and healthfulness and then you do about the worst thing you can possibly do to it, make it starchy and greasy. Why? Delicious, that's why. I'm not suggesting that your daily intake of veggies should be fried, but every now and again it's a good way to break up the monotony. This recipe is for fried zucchini, but you can fry about any vegetable. In fact, the county fair scene the last decade or two has show us that "you can fry anything" isn't limited to vegetables, not by a long shot. To at least pretend that we have an understanding of basic nutrition, we'll just stick to zucchini.

Battered Deep Fried Zucchini - assembled from far and wide on the internet.
3-5 medium zucchini, cut fairly thick.
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
2 tbs water
1 egg, mixed
2 tbs oil
2 cups peanut oil or enough to fill your frying pot to cover the zucchini when it's frying

Put the peanut oil in the pot, wait, first a word about oil. The reason we use peanut oil is that it has a high smoke point. This means that we can get it hot enough to cook without burning it, about 375 degrees. Butter has a smoke point of about 350, extra virgin olive oil about 400, corn oil (what is usually labeled vegetable oil in the store) at 450, and peanut oil at 450 or so. Since we want to cook at 375, butter would burn and olive oil would actually be starting to smoke (I've tried it). Of the oils that are left I think that peanut oil works the best and since I'm in the south, that's what I use. Ok, back to the cooking. Fill your pot with the oil. You can use a deep fryer that sets the temperature automatically, or you can do it on the stove. If you do it on the stove you should really have a thermometer that is capable of reading to 400 or so to check your oil temperature. Also keep in mind that you're cooking a big pot of oil on a stove, and if you have a gas stove, a big pot of oil over an open flame. Pay attention and know where your fire extinguisher is before you start. Really, not even trying to be funny, burning down your house is serious business so make sure you have a fire extinguisher before you start heating oil on the stove. Lots of people fry things all the time without burning down their houses, I don't want to freak anyone out here, but according to the National Fire Preventaion Agency 42% of all home fires were caused by cooking. This is probably the most dangerous thing you can do in your kitchen. It's like extreme cooking. Hard core. Back to the cooking again. While the oil heats, mix the 2 tbs water, the egg and the oil together. Mix all of the dry ingredients together. Mix your wets with your drys. Let them sit for about 5 minutes. Now your oil is hot and it's just a matter of dipping your zucchini slices in the batter and gently sliding them into the oil. If you drop them you splash oil on yourself. That's bad. Wear pants. Even so, be careful. Don't crowd the zucchini in there, only do 5-7 slices at a time for somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes, whatever it takes to get them brown and beautiful. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and let them drain on a paper towel on a plate. You might notice that there's not a whole hell of a lot of seasoning in these and they don't have a very strong taste at all. You might like to salt and pepper them when they come out of the oil. You might like to try and add the salt and pepper to the batter. You might like to try and marinate your zucchini in something before hand to impart some flavor. You might want to use all of these experiments to make this a lot, because even though it's not as healthy as making zucchini basically any other way, it is delicious.