Play on Fish and Chips

[Harry91]

My friend wants me to do the dessert this friday night at his dinner party. He's doing an All Seafood dinner, and wants the dessert to be a play on Fish and Chips.

I thought that a deep fried twinkie would work well (it looks just like fried cod when its done). I don't know what to do about the "chips" part. Because the twinkie is so starchy, i want to do something lighter.

Has anyone ever deep fried fruit before? Thin strips of apple or pineapple? How did it turn out?

Also, what else could i use to make sweet chips (in the sense of french fries)? jicama? is it sweet enough?

Harry

[Peter the eater]

I thought that a deep fried twinkie would work well (it looks just like fried cod when its done)

That would really challenge my own "I'll try anything once" personal credo.

Having said that, when I got a fancy new ice cream machine a couple of years ago I went nuts making unnatural flavor combos - some good, most bad. I did make an off-white ice cream flavored with haddock which wasn't very good, but I served it in cones of newspaper for the UK effect. I think my guests still remember.

[scubadoo97]

Like the Twinkies idea. You could fry thin slices of apple or other hard fruit as you would potato chips for the fish and chips or there are quite a few recipes on the net for fried fruit. You could even serve the cut apple, pear or I like jicama raw cut into sticks to resemble fries. Dusted with spices like cinnamon or other things to give it a darker hue as if it was fried. Plantains would be a good choice as well for a fried fruit. They Caramelize so well

[MoGa]

If you don't want to go for battered and deep fried mars bars (Milky Way in the US) a classic delicacy offered by some Scottish Fish & Chip shops, you could go down the Mamido's route

http://web-japan.org/trends/lifestyle/lif051221.html

They have (or rather had) a mock fish burger where the fish part was fried banana (I presume they'd cover it in something like cake breadcrumbs). The fries were shaped out of custard cream, coated in starch and fried.

I'm pretty sure Mamido's is no more.

[Tri2Cook]

I'm wondering what would happen if you par-cook potato strips in a flavored syrup, infuse them for a bit, let them dry on a rack in the fridge, then give them a quick flash in a fryer. Maybe I'll find out.

[Tri2Cook]

Ok, it may be a bad idea but we're going to find out. Can't be any more scary than a deep fried twinkie. I cut some fries and cooked 'em to just soft in a syrup of water, sugar, corn syrup and vanilla then tossed in some butter just for the Paula Dean of it, covered it in plastic wrap and I'm letting them soak it up now. I'll put them on a rack and fridge 'em to dry out then get back with the results tomorrow when I fry them.

[pastrygirl]

Don't be afraid of fish desserts! Some smoked salmon has so much sugar that it might as well be candied, actually some places sell it as 'salmon candy'.

Inspired by a former boyfriend's young daughter, I once made salmon ice cream and served it with candied salmon skin and salmon roe. It was pretty good, but no, it did not make it onto my dessert menu at work. The flavor was pretty mild, you could make something that actually has fish in it but doesn't taste overwhelmingly fishy.

Or think about lox and cream cheese - you could do a creme fraiche ice cream with bits of sweet lox or smoked salmon, with toasted brioche 'chips' - you could even deep-fry the ice cream. People will try almost anything in ice cream (evil laugh).

I think if you're going to use apple for the 'chips', you'd want to dust them in flour or another starch to get a crisp exterior.

Or, not very British, but I bet a nice sashimi-grade tuna could be made into a sweet tartare, with sweet potato or taro chips for scooping.

[pastrygirl]

tossed in some butter just for the Paula Dean of it,

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Awesome!

[stealw]

Fry thin churro's for the "chips" aspect? Or even ricotta fritters or any combo to your liking.

[sherrid]

In Australia you can get deep fried pineapple at most fish and chip places. In addition to pineapple fritters, deep fried bananas come part of a "Hawaian Pack" from our fast food chicken places. Apple fritters are also a good idea and you could do a combo of all three and display them like fish in chips complete and wrapped in newspaper!

[JustKay]

What about fried sweet potato strips? Too ordinary?

[gfron1]

If the regular meal is including fried food, I would suggest not frying the dessert - just too much grease. I would go for things that look fried in that case.

Of course you could do the old dessert sushi (couple of topics on that in here), or an old fashioned fish dessert mold (jello, etc.).

Basically the same idea, but think dessert tempura if you still want to fry. Sweet batter dipped anything!

What about getting a bunch of large oyster-type shells, clean them really well and put a white chocoalte truffle/pearl inside?

[Tri2Cook]

So here they are after boiling and drying (nope, I didn't peel the spuds)...

after a first fry at 250f...

after a second fry at 375f...

a couple broke open so you can see the interior...

I seasoned them with a mixture of sugar and salt. They taste like vanilla candy with a definite background of potato. I kept the syrup simple for the test but a syrup flavored with spices or something would probably be even better. An interesting thing was that they behaved the opposite of normal fries after the second frying. When they came out of the fryer I thought "damn, limp fries" but didn't want to color them any darker so I was just going to admit they were limp. But after they sat for a couple minutes they got crispy on the outside and were still warm in the middle. I don't know how long they'd stay that way but at least 10 minutes because they sat that long while I messed with pictures. The inside wasn't as fluffy as regular fries, it was slightly chewy. I don't think I'd ask for the supersize order because they are sweet but they were a lot better than I actually expected. A small amount with some raspberry "ketchup" to cut the sweet a bit would be ok.

[naguere]

for chips (that is fries) How about modifying 'Pain perdue' there are lots of reciepts about, you could cut the bread in chip shapes.

Here is one way:

clickety

[alanamoana]

michel richard did a 'burger and fries' dessert. the fries were apple batons deep fried and served with a raspberry coulis for 'ketchup'. that could definitely be used with your idea. also, instead of ketchup, you could make a dipping sauce that looked like tartar sauce (creme anglaise or pastry cream with chopped pistachios or something) and maybe a spiced simple syrup like Tri2cook mentioned but use it like malt vinegar.

[sugarseattle]

that is so creative tri2cook! If I wasn't into trying to eat healthy this week, I would totally try them...maybe over the weekend

[CanadianBakin']

I think Tri2Cook's fries would taste awesome. Potato donuts are delicious so it's not much of a stretch. Another option... google "Granny's Apple Fries". They had them at our local fair for the last couple years and I see they've made their way around to quite a few fairs.

[Kouign Aman]

a couple broke open so you can see the interior...

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That's a wonderful photograph.

If "chips" are still the goal, freezedried fruits are nice and crunchy/crispy and light.

Apples cut appropriately and freeze dried would do a good imitation of a french fry.

They dont stand well. They start absorbing atmospheric moisture and getting leathery very quickly upon opening the storage container, so the dessert would need to be served right away.