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On today's episode of what's cooking with Paula Deen, Paula talks about her hush puppy recipe, tips to make them awesome and offers the best way to making delicious fried fish.
Tips:
1. Use Peanut Oil
2. Use Self Rising Corn Meal and flour - but don't use a lot of salt as they are in the self rising products
3. Use Alabama King for your Corn Meal. Paula has been using it for over 40 years.
4. The most important ingredient in the hush puppies is the onion
5. Dip your spoon in cold water to make it easier for the hush puppy to come off the spoon
6. Flip them over with a slotted spoon so you don't get too heavy on one side.
7. For extra zing, feel free to add in jalapenos
Hush Puppies
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups self rising corn meal
1/2 cup self rising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg lightly beaten
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0:00
hey y'all are on today's podcast I'm
0:03
gonna talk about the art of making hush
0:05
puppies and of course with a hush puppy
0:08
you gotta have some fried fish well
0:11
let's get started on the hush puppy my
0:15
Peggy actually taught me how to make a
0:17
wonderful hush puppy years ago and
0:21
naturally you know fry everything in
0:23
peanut oil y'all and I'm gonna start
0:26
with a cup and a half of self-rising
0:29
cornmeal and a half a cup of self-rising
0:33
flour and I'm gonna add a half a
0:36
teaspoon of baking soda and a half a
0:41
teaspoon of salt not much salt because
0:43
when we're using self-rising products
0:46
they are they also contain salt so you
0:50
don't want to overdo it with with the
0:53
salt and I just take the whisk yes I
1:02
just take a whisk and I whisk my dry
1:05
ingredients together and I'll tell you I
1:09
have been using the same cornmeal since
1:11
I was a very young bride and I use
1:15
nothing but Alabama king the best
1:19
cornmeal around if you want the flavor
1:22
of a true country southern cornbread or
1:28
a hush puppy you know there's nothing
1:31
any better than Alabama king so I have
1:35
excuse me I dropped my I keep dropping
1:37
my glasses y'all so I'm gonna add about
1:41
a cup of buttermilk and I'm gonna do
1:45
this rather slowly I'm gonna add one egg
1:48
that's been lightly beaten and the most
1:52
important ingredient to a wonderful hush
1:55
puppy though yo besides the buttermilk
1:58
and the Alabama king is an onion and I
2:02
put almost as much chopped onion as I do
2:08
cornmeal so heavy on the onions now
2:12
you'll want to slow
2:13
add your buttermilk until it's like real
2:17
thick pancake batter because if you put
2:21
too much buttermilk
2:23
you know the the hush puppies won't hold
2:25
together and I've got a special bowl at
2:28
my house that someone sent me and it's a
2:32
hush puppy bowl and the bowl
2:36
part you mix your hush puppies in and
2:39
then it's got a little miniature Bowl
2:42
made into the side to hold your water
2:45
and it's real important that when you're
2:50
making hush puppies in order to get them
2:53
off the spoon and into the fryer you
2:56
must dip that spoon in cold water after
2:59
every drop and that cold water allows
3:03
the hush puppies to slide right off into
3:07
your hot oil so here's another little
3:11
trick about hush puppies they get very
3:14
heavy on one side very quickly
3:17
so as soon as you finish dropping them
3:20
you'll want to take your slotted spoon
3:22
and turn every one of those hush puppies
3:26
rather quickly so they can get a balance
3:29
because once they get heavy on one side
3:32
it's so hard to get them to flip over so
3:35
that they can brown on the other side
3:38
and we'll fry these until they're nice
3:42
and golden brown and I always take one
3:46
out and break it open to test it and so
3:50
I won't make my hush puppies real big
3:52
I'll use like a normal teaspoon you know
3:57
do like a heaping teaspoon for each hush
4:02
puppy and sometimes y'all Michael loves
4:06
hot stuff so sometimes I'll dice up
4:08
fresh jalapenos and put in there or you
4:12
can just use the pickled jalapenos as
4:15
well but either way practice makes
4:19
perfect
4:20
on this southern delicacy and you know
4:23
it got its name from they said years ago
4:26
you know
4:27
you'd have your fish fries outside and
4:29
of course all the dogs would be jumping
4:32
around and barking and walking whatever
4:35
was being cooked so they'd throw the
4:39
cheaper part of the meal to the dogs
4:42
which is the hush puppy and they'd say
4:45
hush puppy so that's how this wonderful
4:48
bred got its name I'm gonna get started
4:53
making our hush puppies now I like to
4:56
put a good bit of flour in my hush
4:59
puppies
5:00
some people won't put but like a
5:03
tablespoon or two but I use more than
5:06
that because you know I just prefer
5:08
flour over meal now I'm gonna start by
5:11
putting one cup in fact I bought this
5:16
meal while I was in Albany y'all I can't
5:21
seem to find a real good meal over here
5:24
in Savannah so this is some good oh
5:27
flames
5:29
cornmeal it's a fine ground meal and
5:34
it's just the best all right so I'm
5:37
gonna use my half a cup measurer and I'm
5:43
gonna put about a half a cup of I'm
5:46
using self-rising flour that's alright
5:48
one self-rising and once clean but
5:53
that's alright because I'm adding a
5:55
teaspoon of soda and a teaspoon and a
5:59
half of baking powder and I'm gonna need
6:02
about a teaspoon of salt so that looks
6:08
about like a teaspoon I hope it's not
6:10
too much so I'm just gonna mix that
6:13
together I'm gonna put my egg in all
6:19
right so now I'm gonna probably add
6:22
about a cup a cup of buttermilk it'll
6:27
probably take two cups of this maybe a
6:30
little bit more after you get your
6:33
hushpuppies made you wouldn't let them
6:35
sit a little bit because it'll swell up
6:38
and all blend together and
6:40
may turn out that you need a little bit
6:42
more liquid and I like a lot of onion
6:54
all right so I'm gonna switch this to
6:57
one of my neatest Bowls in the world
7:01
this is actually a hushpuppy bowl gal so
7:04
you want this pretty thick because you
7:07
don't want when you drop your fish puppy
7:09
batter you don't want it going
7:12
every whichaway so this is what that
7:16
extra little bowl is for yawn it's for
7:21
your water because before I can drop a
7:24
hushpuppy in the pot you have to dip
7:27
your spoon in water and when you drop
7:29
that hush puppy in it'll all just slide
7:32
right out of that spoon
7:34
[Music]
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needs to get started today contact Smith
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& Noble to get my special limited time
8:10
offer 25% off on your window treatments
8:14
plus free design consultation create a
8:17
space that you're gonna love but details
8:21
about my special offer
8:23
go to Smith & noble.com slash Paula that
8:26
Smith & noble.com slash Paula or call
8:30
one eight hundred six five nine 3300
8:35
that's one eight hundred six five nine
8:37
3300 so let's talk about fish now my
8:45
family loves all kind of fish but you
8:49
know I think my favorite fish is like
8:52
freshwater fish like bream and crappie
8:56
and catfish and bass I just love every
9:01
fish that comes out of those ponds that
9:05
we have in southwest Georgia so there's
9:10
a good chance that I'll be cooking a
9:13
catfish fillet so that catfish fillet I
9:18
want to make sure it's salt and pepper
9:21
real good one of the secrets to a good
9:24
piece of fish is the salt you must make
9:28
sure you salt that catfish and put your
9:34
pepper on it and then I sprinkle it with
9:36
something like old bay so old base got
9:41
salt in it so be careful though not to
9:43
get your fish too salty
9:46
because using the old bail be like
9:49
salting it twice so you'll want to be
9:51
careful and on my fried fish
9:55
I really like more of a flower coding
9:59
than I do meal so I'll take like full
10:03
parts of flower
10:05
the one part meal and I will mix those
10:10
together and naturally I'm frying these
10:14
in peanut all and I want to deep-fry
10:17
those so I'll I'll bring my cast-iron
10:20
pot of peanut all up to about 350
10:24
degrees and I'm gonna dredge that
10:27
catfish real good in my flower in
10:30
Alabama King cornmeal and I'm gonna drop
10:35
it into the fryer and the worst thing
10:37
that you can do to fish y'all is
10:40
overcooking it so you'll want to make
10:43
sure that it the fish has just lost that
10:49
translucent look to it and it won't take
10:55
long depending on how thick your fish is
10:58
and there ain't nothing nothing like
11:03
sitting down to plate a fried catfish
11:06
hush puppies and cheese grits I'm
11:10
getting hungry yo so I'm gonna go ahead
11:14
and season my fish and you want to make
11:18
sure when you're cooking fish that you
11:21
got it good and salty because remember
11:25
this came out of freshwater so it didn't
11:28
have that salt water to you know make it
11:32
even more salty so I'm gonna flip these
11:35
over this was a big oak at this y'all
11:40
[Music]
11:45
okay kiddos so now we're ready to
11:49
address the fish now I sprinkled it with
11:52
salt and pepper and a little old bay and
11:54
now my grandma this is where we differ
11:58
y'all
11:59
my grandma would use straight meal where
12:02
my mother introduced flour into the mix
12:07
and I like that so much better so I'm
12:11
gonna actually use more flour than I do
12:14
meal and I'm just using an all-purpose
12:19
meal just like I made my hush puppies
12:22
from but I'm using self-rising flour so
12:25
it really doesn't matter all right so
12:28
you just want to mix that up real good
12:30
and then we're gonna dip our catfish
12:33
fillets in that oh you know what I
12:36
wanted to sprinkle this with a little
12:38
buttermilk
12:39
by sprinkling it with a little
12:41
buttermilk it'll just help it stick I
12:45
think buttermilk kind of makes
12:47
everything fried a little bit better no
12:49
chalk all right so here we go into our
12:55
mixture and into the frying pan you know
13:01
what I think I think I'm gonna cut these
13:04
in two cuz like I said that was a dadgum
13:07
big catfish all right I need to check
13:10
and see what temperature our grease is
13:11
that I like to fry at 350 I really
13:16
probably should have had a bigger pot I
13:18
would feel better if I was cooking this
13:20
in my Dutch oven which is and you know
13:24
what I may I may stick a few hush
13:27
puppies in around where I got a little
13:30
room so I want to show y'all have that
13:34
see that water makes that batter just
13:37
fall right off the greatest little trick
13:44
and you know I was telling y'all I just
13:46
love a little bit of tartar sauce with
13:48
my hush puppies mmm so good mmm
13:54
delicious oh my gosh it's delicious
14:00
and that little bit of seasoning that I
14:02
put on it just really makes it pop the
14:07
space that you live in really affects
14:09
the way you feel so my first
14:11
recommendation is start by updating your
14:14
window treatments with Smith & noble
14:17
Smith & Nobles beautiful handcrafted
14:19
blinds drapes shades and shutters are
14:22
custom made just for you and they offer
14:24
different service options to fit your
14:26
needs
14:27
to get started today contact Smith &
14:29
Noble to get my special limited time
14:32
offer 25% off on your window treatments
14:36
plus free design consultation create a
14:39
space that you're going to love but
14:42
details about my special offer go to
14:44
Smith & noble.com slash Paula that Smith
14:48
& noble.com / Paula or call one eight
14:52
hundred six five nine 3300 that's one
14:57
eight hundred sixty-five nine thirty
14:59
three hundred
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