The Sinking, Soggy Hush Puppy

I really love hush puppies though I haven't had them often. The ones up north at fast food places are awful. We never could get them to work well at home. I only had the good ones when we went to Georgia in the summers to see the relatives. That was also the only place we had sweet tea, but that's another story. Anyway, since I've become a foodie, I've wanted to make my own hush puppies. I figured since the hubs loved fish and chips, I could get him to like catfish and hush puppies, right? My efforts were not successful at all. I never got to the point in the recipe where the dough would float on top of the oil just before it turned golden brown. My hush puppies always sank. They'd stay down there at the bottom of the dutch over not turning brown really. Just getting sad and soggy. I never even found out if I got the spices right. The hush puppies I made back then never really drained completely, so all I could taste was the oil.

Many years pass. I found myself watching a repeat of Paula's Home Cooking. One of the dishes was Crab Hush Puppies. I love crab in all forms. And my skills had improved markedly since my last attempt. I now have a thermometer to measure the temperature of cooking oil. And I take cooking with crab very seriously. Even if it's on sale, I am very careful in how I use it. I really studies the recipe and took my time. The oil was really hot...and they floated. The hush puppies puffed up and floated. They got a little darker than golden brown, but they were delicious! The only part of the recipe I failed to do was add the bacon crumbles to the finished batter with the crab. I cooked the crispy bacon to add to the hush puppies. I then ate the bacon. That was delicious as well. Thanks, Miss Paula!