Tonight I did a simple treat from the South with Martha’s Hush Puppies from page 197. This came as a great relief to Minnie and Trixie, as they were scared that I was making Hush Kitties so they went into hiding!
Since I’ve moved to Florida, I’ve learned a lot about Southern comfort food favorites and hush puppies are very popular here. When I was living in New Jersey and working in New York, I don’t know if I ever ate at a diner that served hush puppies, but down here you see them everywhere food is served! Now that I’ve tried them, I understand why they’re so loved here. They’re just simple and tasty and go great with some hot sauce and cold beer. I loved the crispy crust with the soft cornmeal inside.
I needed to add more cornmeal than the recipe called for because the batter was initially too thin. A good tip when frying up batter is if you do the recipe just right and the batter breaks apart and turns to mush when it hits the frying pan you need to thicken it. Recipes can be very helpful in giving us good ideas and guidelines for cooking. But even the greatest recipe in the world can’t know what moisture does in your kitchen. If you live in a humid environment there’s a good chance you’ll need to add more flour and/or cornmeal to your batters. If you live in a very arid climate, you’ll likely need to add more moisture with things like milk and water to batters. I notice that a lot of famous chefs stress the importance of being able to follow a recipe exactly, but almost never caution their audience about the ability to think on your feet when the recipe is being sabotaged by the atmosphere!
These hush puppies were a good down-home Southern treat. And don’t worry no puppies (or kitties!) were harmed in the making of these hush puppies.
