I got some more food porn for you, hush puppies style

Never fixed my own hush puppies before, believe it or not. Hell, even I find it hard to believe, but there it is. So today I rectified that and fixed some to go with the ribs and cue. Worked out well. I used Paula Deen's recipe, which goes like this:

 You will start with 1-1/2 cups of cornmeal, 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp of baking soda, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 small onion, chopped nicely, thank you very much, 1 cup of buttermilk and 1 egg beaten just enough to be pretty mixed up but not so much that you get suspended by the NFL. I'm sorry, was that a domestic violence joke? You will also heat up about 6 cups of peanut oil, for frying. You should probably heat that shit to 350 degrees so it's ready when you mix all this stuff up right:

Mix the dry ingredients -- the corn meal, flour, baking soda and salt -- in a bowl. Mix it up right, people:

In another bowl, beat the egg and buttermilk:

Chop the damn onion, nicely, like I told you:

Add the onion to the dry ingredients, and mix it up right:

Add the buttermilk-egg mixture to the dry ingredients. You should mix that up right, too, people:

At this point, your oil damn well better be hot. If it isn't, you need to seriously consider getting a new fryer. Spoon the mixture into the fryer about a teaspoon at a time, dipping your spoon in water in between adding puppy mix to the oil. Seriously, it helps.

Turn the puppies during frying to make sure they cook evenly. Cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side:

These were really good. Toss them on top of the corn pudding, ribs and BBQ, with some limas to boot, and this was freaking excellent. Some people wanted no part of a bun for their cue:

Others did:

Alas, I had no slaw. Next time.

Game food porn, Part II

Game food had two elements this week, as with most 4:30 Packers games: we start with munchie-type game food, then later in the game move on to more meal-like game food, on account of that's dinner. This week was no different.

With the vegetable tray still out there, and the chocolate pie still to come, I added two elements to the mix to complete dinner: scallop corn burgers and hush puppies. For the scallop corn burgers, you will need 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, a lime, a teaspoon or so of Tabasco (green or red -- recipe says green, I use red), salt and pepper, 3 ears of corn, some olive oil, 1-1/2 pounds of sea scallops, 1 teaspoon of Cajun spice (I use Tony Chachere's), 3 green onion stalks, minced, 1/2 cup of bread crumbs, a bunch of bacon, and two lemons:

First, chop up your green onions:

Then, cook your bacon -- recipe says 12 slices, I say bacon to your taste, but at least a shitload -- mince the bacon, and add it to the minced green onions:

Meanwhile, you need to grill your corn. Take each ear of corn, slather it with melted butter or olive oil and wrap it in foil:

They will look like this:

You will toss those suckers on the grill and roast them for about 20 minutes, turning periodically:

OK, looks good:

Once the corn  is cooked and cooled, slice the kernels off the cob:

And add half the corn to the green onion-bacon mix. Save the other half:

Take the other half of the corn and toss it in a food processor, then grind those suckers into paste:

Add about 1/3 of the scallops and puree that stuff. Mix it up right, people. Then, gradually add the remaining scallops, but just blend it a little so it's nice and chunky:

Does this look chunky? It should:

Now, get out those lemons and a grater:

You will need to get the zest from two lemons. This is a fancy way of saying, grate the surface peel off a couple lemons. Be sure not to zest a knuckle, as that hurts like hell and gets blood in the lemon zest, something most recipes do not call for:

Once your lemon is all zested, you will put the corn-scallop mixture in a large bowl and add the lemon zest. You also might squeeze those zested lemons into the bowl, but that is up to you. Add your salt, pepper and Cajun spice, then mix it up right.

Once you have that stuff added, toss in the bacon-green onion mix:

Add the rest of the corn:

Add the bread crumbs:

Mix it up right, oil up your hands and form that stuff into burger-like patties:

Refrigerate those for 60-90 minutes, or longer. When you're ready, toss those suckers on the grill at 375 for abou 4 minutes per side. If you like sauce, you can mix the mayonnaise, Tabasco and the zest and juice from that lime and use that as sauce. I don't, but hey, your call. Anyway, you grilled the patties, right?

Serve on a hamburger bun, with or without sauce, or not on a hamburger bun, also with or without sauce. They're pretty freaking good either way.

Toss in some hush puppies:

That should make you happy. I would give you the hush puppie recipe, but this one was OK, but not the right one. I'll get back to you on that. In any event, bon appetit.