Fruit Pakoras

I think Chef at Home's Michael Smith is probably for sure one of my favourite chefs. He makes everything look so simple, has such a soothing voice and just is such an overall family man. After today I hate him a little bit because his cooking looks so easy, but after trying his stupid banana fritters and caramel sauce, I have decided he is just a little evil for making it look that easy.

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Eggs-Dairy/recipe.html?dishid=9515
Ingredients
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas
1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions
Heat your deep fryer to 365°. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in a large bowl. Whisk the eggs, bananas and vanilla together in a separate bowl. Pour the wet into the dry and stir gently until just mixed.
Drop heaping tablespoons of the batter into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. They will float to the surface when they are done. Flip them so they fry evenly. Drain on paper towels until ready to serve.

Serve with caramel sauce for dipping.

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Eggs-Dairy/recipe.html?dishid=9516

Caramel Sauce

Ingredients
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 cup 35% whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions
Pour the water into a saucepan then pour the sugar in a pile in the middle of the water. Turn the heat to medium-high heat and begin cooking without stirring. The sugar will dissolve in the water and begin to boil. The water will evaporate, leaving behind a pure sugar syrup that will then begin to rise in temperature, past the boiling point of water, and into the flavour zone.
When the sugar begins to lightly brown here and there, gently swirl the pan until all of the sugar is a deep golden brown. Carefully pour in the cream and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Cool until thickened or serve hot!


So turned out that my "home made deep fryer" almost boiled over (as in 1/2 inch of oil almost boiled over a soup pot, see photo) and set on fire when I tried it in a smaller pot (lesson is I should buy a deep fryer... can you hear me Santa?!). My caramel sauce (after two tries!) end up as just a sweet, brown milk. I learned after eatinig too many fritters in the goopy milk mixture that I should have just continued to heat and wisk the cream and sugar mixture for another minute or so (which is what I did with both the failed attempts but then learned that if I let the more successful caramel sauce "cool until thickened", it can cool too much to a consistency of fudge!).



I also put in some strawberries in the fritters and have decided that since they are a bit small, I will call them Fruit Pakoras instead. All in all, they were okay, just very unsafe to cook...

Before I go, I just want to say that I don't hate Michael Smith, but I do think he shouldn't make it all look so easy so that I feel bad when my food sucks. Stay tuned for more of his recipes because let's face it, he is amazing :P