Vegan HushPuppies (Hush Puppies?)

HushPuppies or Hush Puppies? Who cares because these are fabbo!!! Certainly one of my all-time top 10 foods that I have loved since I was but a wee chickpea. So, since I don't eat dairy or eggs, I thought they were forever going to be banned from my tummy (traditional pups are made with buttermilk and eggs- barf, dude). I was wrong. Dead wrong, actually. Okay, not dead wrong, just a lot wrong. I've been craving these buggers for months now, and over the last 24 hours I will admit that I have been obsessed with creating them. Well, my friends (and possibly my enemies), I present to you a delight to behold: The Vegan HushPuppy.

I consider myself to be a bit of a hushpuppy connoisseur, having eaten them for the better part of my life, so I can say with confidence that these are some of the best I've ever had. They're crispy outside with a light, fluffy inside. Quite literally, they're the perfect hushpuppy...at least to me. And, we all know that my tastes are quite exceptional. Hahaha. I crack me up.

New to the hush puppy? Here's the Wikipedia page. They're traditionally served with fried fish, and are sort of a southern thing. They're delicious by themselves, but they're also fabulous in dips (vegan, of course), like ranch, tartar sauce, and even ketchup. They require deep frying, which has been rather frightening to me in the past, but I have over-come my fear for the good of my blog readers. Just don't get used to the deep-frying as it wastes oil and is horrible for one's health*

* That was my health disclaimer. Fry whatever you want. An old boot would probably taste good deep-fried. So there.

This recipe makes about 20 hushpuppies that are 1 1/2-2 inches in diameter.

Ingredients:

• Canola oil for frying. You'll need kind of a lot (needs to be 2 inches deep in the pot)
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• Ener-G egg replacer for 2 eggs (1 TB powder, 4 TB water)
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (unbleached, as always)
• 1-2 tsp large-grain salt, such as sea salt or kosher
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
• 2-3 TB sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup onion, diced or minced
• 1 1/2 TB olive oil

Method:

1. Put canola oil into large, deep pot to a depth of 2 inches. I used a small enameled cast iron dutch oven. Don't start heating it yet, though.
2. In measuring cup or small bowl, combine the almond milk and vinegar and let curdle about 4 minutes. While that is resting, make your eggs and let them set aside and get thick.
3. In a large mixing bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, pepper, garlic powder, and onion.
4. Now add the olive oil, milk mixture and egg replacer to the dry bowl and mix until just combined and no dry spots remain. I put mine in the freezer to firm up for about 20 minutes. In the last 5 minutes, turn the oil on to High. Heat to 370 degrees F, then turn down to Medium to maintain the temperature.
5. When the oil is hot enough, use a spoon to VERY CAREFULLY drop balls of batter into the oil. Only do 2-3 at first so you get the hang of it. I like mine a nice medium-brown color, so I think each pan-full cooked about 4 minutes. Don't put too many in at once or they will stick together AND the oil temp will go down a lot. When the temp goes down a lot, you end up with more oil being absorbed into the pups. Then they taste like shit. And grease. A hint: once you drop a ball of batter into the oil, gently use a long slotted spoon to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot.
6. Repeat with the rest of the batter until you have cooked it all, duh. Then, come back and tell me how much you love them because I know you will.