Deep-fry

I used to think that this dish, called carciofi alla giudea, originated in Rome. But now I am not so sure. When I was visiting Barcelona last spring, it seemed as if every restaurant, every bar, every street vendor was selling this crispy delicacy of deep-fried artichoke flavored with herbs and garlic and served cold. I love it. This is a recipe that has come down in the family of Violette Corcos Abulafia Tapiero Budestchu of Paris.

For Women, cookbook are often memories of their mothers. Daisy Taïeb, the mother of two daughters, wrote Les Fêtes Juives à Tunis Racontées à Mes Filles (Jewish Holidays in Tunis as Told to My Daughters). “My daughters wanted to learn the religious customs in Tunis, like the fète des filles, a festival where the girls go to the synagogue all in white,” she told me. “Soon, with rapid Frenchification and assimilation, you will be able to learn about these traditions only in museums.” One day when I was in Nice, I watched Madame Taïeb cook her famous meatballs stuffed into vegetables. She was making them for Friday night dinner, to serve with couscous. Though I had expected a quiet, grandmotherly woman, I found her to be a trim, stylish lady who had taken the Dale Carnegie course on public speaking. She is the president of the French version of the Jewish Federation in Nice, and the representative of B’nai B’rith on the Côte d’Azur. These days, Madame Taïeb, who has lived alone since her husband’s death, invites people in for Sabbath dinner. “In Tunisia, you have the same foods as in Nice— fish, vegetables, spices— so it is not difficult to make the recipes,” she told me. “But you have to use your hands to judge, not your eyes, when making meatballs.” For Madame Taïeb, couscous with meatballs stuffed into peppers, artichoke bottoms, and eggplants, one of my favorite dishes, is symbolic of family, remembrance, and Friday night dinners.

A poori requires almost the same dough as the chapati, except there is a little oil in it. It is rolled out almost the same way too, but then, instead of being cooked on a hot, griddle-like surface, it is deep-fried quickly in hot oil, making it puff up like a balloon. (When the same bread is made with white flour, as it is in Bengal, it is called a loochi.) Pooris may be eaten with all curries and vegetables. At breakfast, pooris are often served with potato dishes—such as Potato and Pea Curry or Potatoes with Cumin and Mustard Seeds—and hot pickles and chutneys. They are eaten very much like chapatis—you break off a piece and roll some vegetable in it, then brush it against a pickle or chutney. We always took them on picnics with us, all stacked up inside a tin. On picnics and train journeys, they were eaten with ground-meat dishes and pickles, all at room temperature.

In North Africa, sfendj, also called khfaf, are sold by street vendors. People buy them for breakfast. They can be plain or with raisins. Eat them hot as soon as they are done or reheat in the oven. Serve them with honey or dusted with sugar.

A Turkish delicacy. A humble fish for a regal occasion. The skin of the fish is stuffed with its own flesh mixed with a rich filling. It is rolled in beaten egg, then in flour and breadcrumbs, and deep-fried in olive or nut oil. It is quite a bit of work but is delicious eaten hot or cold, as an entrée or as a main dish.

This is quite a lot of work, as fishmongers don’t usually bother to scale sardines, but it makes a very tasty mezze.

This is one of Egypt’s national dishes, welcome at all times, for breakfast, lunch, or supper. The Christian Copts, who are said to be pure descendants of the ancient Egyptians, claim this dish as their own, along with melokheya soup (page 146). Their claim might be justified, since these dishes are extremely old. During Coptic religious festivals, and particularly during Lent, when they are not allowed to eat meat for many weeks, every Coptic family produces mountains of ta’amia for their own daily consumption and to be distributed to non-Coptic friends and neighbors. Ta’amia (called “falafel” in Alexandria) are patties or rissoles made from large dried fava beans (ful nabed), which look white because they are sold skinless. Splendidly spiced and flavored, and deep-fried in oil, they are delicious. I have never known anyone not to like them. The best I have eaten were in Alexandria, with my aunt and uncle. Every year they rented a flat there, the balcony of which was directly above a café which specialized in ta’amia. My relatives were both rather large, which was not surprising, since we always seemed to come upon them eating; and I could never visualize them eloping, gazellelike, in their youth, which was the romantic legend that was told to us. On each visit, we would sit with them for hours on their balcony overlooking the sea. Time and again, a basket would be lowered on a rope to the café below and pulled up again with a haul of fresh ta’amia, sometimes nestling in the pouch of warm, newly baked Arab bread. We would devour them avidly with pieces of bread dipped in tahina salad, and then wait anxiously for the basket to be filled up again. You must buy the large broad beans which are sold already skinned as “split broad beans” in Middle Eastern stores (again, they look white without their brown skins).

Deep-frying is the most popular way of cooking small- to medium-size whole fish, and red mullet (barbunya) are among the most prized. Garlic and parsley enhance their sweet flesh. Ask the fishmonger to clean the fish, but to leave the head on. Serve them with salad or Mashed Potatoes with Olive Oil, Scallions, and Parsley (see page 168).

This is good hot or cold and can be made well in advance. The best fish to use is bream, cod, haddock, or turbot.

I became obsessed with chips around 1992, before I had even opened the Fat Duck, and this was probably the first recipe that I could call my own. It has since cropped up in restaurants and pubs all over the place. Achieving the crisp, glass-like exterior depends on getting rid of moisture from the potato and creating little cracks in the surface where the oil will collect and harden, making it crunchy.

This is the best fried chicken, ever. There I said it. If it's not, then I want to try yours. I started paying attention to fried chicken in a serious way when I began work on the book Ad Hoc At Home. Ad Hoc is Thomas Keller's Napa Valley restaurant devoted to family meals. It offers one family meal each night, and everyone eats it. The fried chicken is so popular that it is served twice a week. Chefs Jeff Cerciello and Dave Cruz have tried all kinds of methods, mainly centering on the best crust. They decided that the trio of flour, buttermilk, and flour is best, and I agree. But the key here is the brine. Salt keeps the chicken juicy and seasoned, and also helps pull the rosemary deep into the flesh. So even after the rapture from eating the crust has passed, the flavor of the chicken holds you. This brine, like all brines flavored with aromatics, is best when you bring the ingredients to a simmer in all the water. But if you're like me, sometimes you'll be caught short and need to hurry things along. If you have a scale, you can bring half the water to a simmer with the other brine ingredients, let the aromatics steep for 20 minutes. Measure the remaining water as ice and pour the brine over the ice. Or simply combine the brine with cold water. Because so few people make fried chicken at home, I like to serve it to friends. Happily, it's a great do-head dish; the chicken will keep well for a couple of hours. You can fry it and then keep it on a rack in a 250°F/120°C/gas 1/2 oven until you need it. If you have a convection oven, use that feature to keep the crust crisp. The thighs will become delectably tender given the extra time in the low heat. Serve on a platter garnished with branches of deep-fried rosemary and grated lemon zest.

I love Cornish hens: baked or smoked, but also deep-fried. To me they're like smaller turkeys, so they're perfect for entertaining smaller groups or just your family. If you can't find them at your butcher counter, check the frozen-meat section—just be sure to let them thaw out completely. Because of their small size, you can use an electric fryer instead of the larger turkey contraptions for deep-frying them (another bonus). Deep-fried, they've got a golden crust and a juicy, juicy tenderness. If you're short on fridge space, divide the marinade between two or three large zip-top bags, and divide the Cornish hens among them. Press the air out and seal tight; then you can fit them into a smaller space. Now, Shelbi and Gina might share a hen, so for light eaters just split one bird down the middle. But a heavy eater like me will eat a whole hen. I've been anticipating it all day!

Frying avocadoes may seem as strange to you as they did to me until I tasted them at Puntarena in Mexico City. They are a delight, so give them a try!

Ajwain wali Poori Pooris are Indian fried flatbreads regularly served at festivals and celebrations. They are usually made with whole-wheat flour. This recipe calls for carom seeds for added flavor and offers tips to achieve a puffed bread.

I have eaten several versions of these eggplant fritters, which are a specialty of Córdoba, and have loved them all. The combination of savory and sweet is sensational. In the town of Priego de Córdoba, which is in the mountains on the Ruta del Califato (the tourist route of old Muslim Spain), where there is an old Moorish quarter, the eggplant slices I ate were very thin and crisp and served with a dribble of honey. I learned from the chef at the restaurant Rio a new way to prevent the eggplant from absorbing too much oil, which is to soak the slices in milk, then drain them and cover them in flour.
These are best eaten as soon as they are done, but they are also very good reheated in the oven.

For years before I opened Flour, I had a notebook where I kept menu ideas for when I finally had my own dream bakery. It was filled with all of the pastries I had read about in cookbooks, learned to make at my jobs, and savored on my travels. When it came time to write a menu for the bakery, I realized it was impossible to include everything I wanted to offer. These doughnuts barely made the cut. After all, we were opening less than a block away from an outpost of the ubiquitous Dunkin' Donuts chain. But they ended up being a Flour best-seller. I first learned how to make doughnuts at Payard. A French pastry chef taught me how to make doughnuts that make Americans swoon, though they scarcely resemble what you get at the competition down the street. We only make them on Sundays, and they sell out every week.

Melissa Kelly opened Primo, an Italian restaurant in Rockland, Maine, in 2000. She has since expanded with locations in Orlando and Tucson. This Web-exclusive recipe for Epicurious is a crispy, delicious dessert from Primo's menu. It can be served hot on its own, or alongside an espresso float with vanilla and chocolate gelato.

This is a delicious Web-exclusive recipe for Epicurious by Chef Kerry Simon at Las Vegas' Simon at Palms Place Hotel and Spa. It's an interesting take on the classic creamy rock-shrimp dish and a great appetizer for a Super Bowl gathering or any party.

Batter-fried fish tacos as we know them in the United States originated in the 1930s in Ensenada, Mexico, home to a large Japanese immigrant population who worked in the fishing industry there. Along with their skills as fishermen, the Japanese also brought with them the technique for tempura—deep-frying fish in batter. The Mexicans adapted this technique to make tacos, using young shark, a very inexpensive local catch that held up beautifully when fried. These tacos are best served immediately as fried foods get soggy if left to sit. If you can’t find shark, substitute a firm, moist white fish like opah, tilapia, or mahi mahi.

Flash frying is a high-heat deep frying technique used to rapidly fry small shrimp to avoid overcooking them before the crust browns. Flash flying requires an oil temperature of at least 400°F—which means you have to use an oil with a high smoke point like grapeseed oil. By poaching the chicken first and then flash frying it, I was able to eliminate 20 grams of fat and at least 250 calories from traditional fried chicken. Because the chicken is already cooked, it only has to spend enough time in the hot oil to brown the crust, which means it absorbs less oil.

This recipe was created by our salumist, Eli Cairo. He says, "Everyone should know how to make a chorizo doughnut!"

Sweetbreads, the thymus gland of calves (and occasionally lambs), are some of the easiest offal for beginners to love—their delicate flavor and creamy texture are incredibly seductive. No matter how you're going to prepare them, sweetbreads must first be soaked in cold water and then poached to firm them up. After that, these are rolled in a paprika-seasoned flour-and-cornmeal coating and deep-fried. The crunchy outside and pillowy interior are absolutely delicious dipped in the herbaceous Green Goddess sauce. If you want to take things to the next level, tuck the nuggets into a hollowed-out baguette with shredded lettuce, then smear on the Green Goddess and some hot sauce for an out-of-this-world po' boy.

A certain well-known take-out chicken with eleven herbs and spices is not the only Southern fried chicken that is seasoned with a complex blend of herbs and spices; it is just one of many. You can experiment with the combination until you have your own unique blend. If you don't have a couple of the spices on hand, feel free to omit them. When deep-fried, which is the way I prefer to cook this one, the chicken makes great picnic fare because it stays crispy long after it's cold, and the spice and herb seasoning stands up well to other highly seasoned picnic food.