Fried pancakes

Okay, so you know if you've hung out here long enough that I like to cook. I do baby back ribs to die for, jambalaya and sweet cornbread, bread pudding, a killer pot roast (you cook the meat and veggies practically to death in merlot -- yumm) and on and on.

I also specialize in taking food that's perfectly good for you in its natural state and doing something dietarily horrific -- you know, like frying apples in butter and brown sugar. Carmelizing mushrooms in butter and brown sugar, too. Baking bananas with -- you got it -- butter and brown sugar. Steeping tea in simple syrup rather than plain water.

Yesterday I deep-fat-fried pancakes. No shit. Not that pancakes are good for you in their natural state -- what's a pancake without plenty of butter or peanut butter and maple syrup? But I'm pretty sure deep-fat-frying them and dipping them in honey blows the top off the not-good-for-you scale.

What happened was I bought a box of churros mix. I like churros, but there's no place here in town to get them fresh, so I thought I'd give making them a shot. I followed the directions to a T, and the result was good, but not as good as I wanted. They were really heavy, and I remember something lighter from my days in San Diego when you could buy them fresh and hot everywhere.

Naturally, that got me to thinking about how to lighten the batter, to get something frothier that would fry up airier, and I thought of pancake batter. So yesterday I whipped up a batch of pancake batter (just me and Aunt Jemima), let it sit a bit to get fluffier, scraped it into a pastry bag and piped it into hot oil.

The results still weren't quite what I was looking for, but man, were they good. Especially the crunchy pieces that had dripped from the end of the pastry bag when I wasn't looking. Especially sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. I didn't even dip them in honey (though Robert did) and when I was done licking my fingers, I was ready to start on his.

Maybe today I'll wilt some fresh spinach with bacon grease for a salad. Or coat shrimp with batter and coconut and deep-fry, then dip 'em into orange marmalade sauce. There's nothing low-calorie that can't be made fattening with just a little effort. Rachel9:18 AM