My Grandmama Watson used to say she could smell a bream-bed a mile away. (That’s a fresh water fish for all you non-Southern folk!) Us kids would go out fishin’ all day at the 6 mile Pond with Granddaddy Watson. We’d always come home loaded with bream and fresh-water bass. Then, Granddaddy had a big’ol wooden table out back where he and Uncle Henry would clean all the fish. Meanwhile Grandmama and me would fry up them cleaned fish, along with all the delicious hush puppies. Then, we’d serve it all up with some cole slaw, some fresh picked mustard greens and hot cornbread from the oven. Now that’s what I’d call a real country Southern supper! YUM!
Fried Hush Puppies
PREP TIME
5 mins
COOK TIME
15 mins
TOTAL TIME
20 mins
Recipe by: Bobbi Jo Lathan
Recipe type: Entree
Cuisine: Southern
INGREDIENTS
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup self-rising flour
1 ½ tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 small white onion (finely diced)
1 egg (beaten)
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups vegetable oil (for deep-fat frying)
INSTRUCTIONS
Git out your mixing bowl.
Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, cayenne pepper and garlic powder and mix ‘til blended. Now, add into the cornmeal-flour mixture, the finely diced onions, the buttermilk and the egg. Stir all the ingredients together ‘til blended, but don’t over mix it as you want it to be thick.
Git out your cast iron skillet that is at least 6 inches deep, for deep-fat fryin’. You’ll need at least 2 inches of just the oil to get a good fry. (You can also use a deep-fryer and heat it up to 375°if you have one, but I think the cast iron skillet works best.)
Next, place the skillet on the stovetop and heat the oil over a medium heat. Once the oil is nice and hot, git out a soup-sized spoon and grease it with a little oil, so the batter won’t stick to it when you scoop it out. You can also use a small one inch sized ice cream scoop that is oiled.
Once your oil is good and hot, scoop up a big spoonful of the hush puppy batter and drop the spoonful of batter into the hot oil. You’ll fry the hush puppies ‘til golden brown which takes about 3 minutes. Then, once the hush puppies are done, use a slotted spoon and take them out of the skillet and place them on a plate lined with some paper towel to absorb any excess oil.
Now, serve up them sweet little Hush-Puppies with some freshly- caught fried bass, trout or bream, mix up a little tasty cole slaw, get out the cold beer and dig in! ‘Cause you’ve just made yourself the perfect country meal! YUM!