THE CHEF FROM HELL

This is a spiced up version of an old classic.  Nobody really knows where the name "hush puppy" comes from exactly.  I've heard various folk tales (food myths?) which claim that when Southern plantation cooks would be in the middle of frying large quantities of fish they often worked outside, standing around big cauldrons of hot oil and the smell of all that fried fish would draw stray dogs who inevitably would begin whining and begging for food.  The cooks would whip up some of these cornmeal based fritters and toss them to the yapping dogs in an effort to quiet them down.  "Hush there, puppy!"

Ingredients:

3/4 cup White Flour, sifted

1 cup Yellow Cornmeal

4 tsp Baking Powder

1 pinch Ground Cumin

1/4 tsp Cayenne Red Pepper

1/2 tsp Kosher Salt

1/4 tsp White Sugar

2 Extra Large Eggs

2 TBS Scallions, diced

3/4 cup Buttermilk

1 TBS Frank's Red Hot Sauce

2 large fresh Jalapeno Peppers, stems removed & diced

Oil for deep frying

Cooking Procedure:

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and sugar

Mix well

Add the eggs & beat well

Next, whisk in the buttermilk, hot sauce, scallions and diced jalapeno peppers

Heat the oil in your fryer to 350 degrees

Lightly grease the inside of a small ice cream scooper

Scoop up some batter and gently place it in the oil

Do this several times to fry off a batch of hush puppies

As the hush puppies are frying, move them around with a spoon or a wok skimmer to make sure they fry evenly on all sides

Deep fry the hush puppies until golden brown; about 3 minutes

As each batch of hush puppies is done, place them on paper towels to drain off excess grease

When all of the hush puppy batter is fried off, place the hush puppies on a serving platter

You can garnish these little suckers a variety of ways; a little parsley, a dusting of cayenne or even some powdered sugar