Ordinarily, Av and I don’t go to chain restaurants – but there is a very small five-restaurant chain based in Louisiana called “Ralph and Kacoo’s” that makes *the* very best hushpuppies!
I made some of what I call “hushpuppy fritters” (because they’re more flat than round) one night this week to go with the grouper we bought at Joe Patti’s.
This recipe is based on (but isn’t exactly) the one in the Ralph and Kacoo’s cookbook, and I made it 1/10 the portion in the book – and there was still plenty left!
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. cornmeal
1/5 lb. flour
1/3 cup sugar
a little salt
tiny sprinkle baking soda
1-1/2 tbsp. baking powder
dash garlic powder
1 bunch green onions
1/3 c. evaporated milk
1/2 c. water
1/2 egg (break egg in bowl, stir, use half for this recipe)
dash fresh parsley, chopped
Directions:
Mix together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, b/soda, b/powder, and garlic powder. Next, add the milk, water, 1/2 broken egg, green onions, and parsley. Once this was mixed well, I could tell if it needed a touch more evaporated milk (to make it less dry) or cornmeal (to make it hold together better). Let this refrigerate at least thirty minutes.
To make regular round hushpuppies, just shape into a ball and drop into fryer at 350*. Since I wanted to make fritters, I just spooned it out into a skillet with some oil heated to medium-high (make sure the oil is plenty hot before adding the batter). Since it was just me and Av (and our doggies!) for supper that night, I made four fritters. I let them get nice and golden brown on one side,
…then flipped them over to finish.
These were great!