Got fried, but not by the sun….

Just look at those golden round of goodness! We got a little fried this weekend :-)

A really nice man with whom we recently became acquainted, gave us a plethora of zucchini and we didn’t want it to go to waste. Zucchini bread is in the works for some of the bigger zucs, but we’d never tried fried zucchini so we used the smaller ones to give it a go on Saturday. They were super easy and tasted awesome. ‘Course, if you’re gonna be doing some dippin’ and breadin’ you may as well get some onion rings into the mix and that’s just what we did on Sunday along with a second round of fried zuc… Warning…too much fried anything is NOT a good thing (read: tummy ache!) – thank goodness for neighbors who are willing to share in the leftovers!

Get your prep station ready with well-seasoned flour, egg-wash and panko bread crumbs. You don’t have to have pankos…but Lord knows they are the BEST bread crumbs!

Cut your zucchini into ¼ inch slices and coat them in the seasoned flour. I seasoned my four with salt, pepper, garlic powder and cayenne.

Next, let them take a bath in the whisked egg. Make sure they get thoroughly covered with the egg.

Then place each round into the pankos and press the crumbs onto each side to coat the well.

Continue till all the rounds are breaded.

Unfortunately, I failed taking a pic of the frying process! But you can trust in me when I say that canola oil heated to 375-degrees while the zucchini rounds were being coated with yum-ness. Then approximately 5 rounds were place in the fry basket and lowered into the hot oil. As always…remember to not over crowd your fry vessel which will cause the oil temp to drop! You don’t want your food to sit in the oil…you want them to sizzle and fry! They’ll do that sizzlin’ and fryin’ for about 3 minutes or so – you can judge by the golden-brownness that occurs. Oh...and you’ll want to flip the zucs after about the first minute and a half. Bamboo skewers work great for this. Once out of the fryer, the zucchini rounds were immediately sprinkled with a little salt and Emeril’s Original Essence for a little kick.

Resulting in these beautiful, crispy, crunchy, golden rounds of yum!

And did I mention that fried zucchini rounds like to take a nice cool dip in fresh-made ranch?

Mmmmmmmm…….Soooo good…

And looky here….

These onion rings were made almost the same way…but they were first soaked in buttermilk that was spiced up with salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic and some previously mixed spice rub that I’d thrown together for a hunk of meat we’d smoked. Dress your buttermilk with whatever spices you like! Then drain in a colander (but don’t wipe’m off for heavens sake!). The they get the same treatment – seasoned flour, egg-dip, pankos, then just a little salt – no Emeril’s this time. Serve hot or keep warm in the oven till all are fried. Now those are golden rings everyone can afford!