There is nothing like popping open a bag of chips and shoveling the salty, crunchy tastiness into your mouth while watching a movie.
Or is it? Imagine the satisfaction of preparing some really delicious things with your own hands and watching your loved ones melt with satisfaction while making the whole thing disappear in no time, begging you to make more! This will not be an article about healthy eating, but about the satisfaction of creating something truly delicious, which will make your heart melt.
1. Veggies tempura
Tempura is a Japanese dish of seafood and vegetables, that is best known for being as fluffy and crunchy as it can get. The secret is in the batter — it’s a mixture of cold water, cake or pastry flour, eggs, spices and some other ingredients (there are several recipes circulating online).
A friend of mine (working at the kitchen of a five star luxury hotel) always adds sparkling water and potato flakes (you know, the ones sold as “instant mashed potatos”) to the batter to make it extra fluffy. Mix them up, dip the veggies in the batter and deep fry them in hot vegetable oil (usually around 320-356 F) until ready. Depending on how meaty and thick your veggie slices are, frying can take between a few seconds and a few minutes.
2. Veggie & Potato Chips
Have you ever tried making potato chips at home? It is simpler than you imagine — all you need is a potato, sliced thin and fried until crispy in vegetable oil. But have you tried making chips out of other vegetables? They can be even more tasty. And mixing them all up will offer you a delicious and unique experience.
What I have tried were celery (excellent), carrots (excellent), zucchini (a bit soggy, but incredibly tasty) and other roots with a variable success. Experiment at home – don’t worry, if you are not lucky, you will only have to deal with some soggy fried vegetable slices which you can use in a sandwich.
3. Hamburgers
There is an incredible variety of hamburger recipes out there, some with a long list of ingredients that will make your head hurt. There is one, though, that is considered by many the best hamburger you can ever try — and one of the hardest to digest.
The list of ingredients is extremely short: it needs two-thirds of lean ground beef, one-third of tallow (beef fat), salt and pepper to taste. As a basic rule, it has to be fried over hot coals.
Some of my gourmet friends (like the above mentioned five-star chef) consider this the tastiest hamburger they can think of — and love the way the fat sprays out of the meat when you take a bite. This is what makes it one of the least healthy hamburgers out there, but one with an incredible taste and consistency.
If you don’t want to make a hamburger like this, then consider buying them online instead of in grocery stores from meat companies, because you can find yourself making a savings while still getting very high quality meat.
