HUSH! Puppies

Did you know that the legend of how these golden battered beauties came about started way back in the Wild, Wild West? Apparently, cowboys who used dogs to help herd their cattle across the range would fry up leftover corn batter and would use them as treats for their dogs to keep them quiet at night. As they would toss the fried corn nuggets to the dogs they would yell “hush puppies” and the name just stuck! Whether this is true or not, these delicious little nuggets of corny goodness are not going to be shared with any dogs — these are all mine.

I remember the first time I tried one of these delicious corny nuggets — I was 16 and hanging out with my girlfriend’s at a popular restaurant called Leonie’s, in Hyattsville, Maryland. The place made the best hush puppies and they served them with lots of soft butter on the side. They were supposed to be a side dish, but we didn’t care, we would eat them as a meal. I had never had them before, so when my friend Susan offered me some, I tried them and I was hooked. They were piping hot, and after dipping them into the butter, they were hard to resist. It took all I had to hold myself back from eating them all.

Since then, I have had them at many different places (mostly seafood restaurants) in Southern Maryland. They are a true guilty pleasure and when I make them at home, I can never stop at eating just one or two.

The recipe I use is one of my mother’s fritter recipes that I tweaked. After making them the first time, they tasted just like the ones I remember from Leonie’s. I use both yellow corn flour and all purpose flour, but you could substitute cake flour for an even more tender fritter. I use all purpose to balance out the moisture from the fresh grated onion in the recipe, but if I were just add some dehydrated onion switching out the flour to cake flour would work as well.

My friend Lisa told me that her mother would add crab meat to hers. Just the sound of that makes me want to make a batch of it now — it’s on the books! You can also add roasted corn kernels but make sure that the batter does not get too runny or they will not puff up into perfect little round balls. I use milk in mine but it would be easy to switch out the milk for buttermilk. If you do this just make sure to switch out the leavening from baking powder to baking soda.

These puff up into beautiful little round balls and with this small recipe you can get almost 2 dozen pieces. Whatever you do, make sure that you either drizzle them with melted butter when they come out of the fryer OR have some whipped honey butter available for dipping on the side. Another REALLY delicious accompaniment to these is jalapeño pepper jelly!

Make them and serve with your grilled fish, chicken or your favorite BBQ. So if you’re not making cornbread this time around, make sure to try these.

Fluffy Hushpuppies (makes about 2  dozen small balls)
½ cup yellow cornmeal (I used Indian Head brand)
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1-2 tablespoons finely grated onion OR 1 teaspoon dehydrated onion flakes
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 egg
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon milk (if you add buttermilk, make sure to change the baking powder to baking soda)
Melted butter OR Honey butter (soft butter whipped with honey) for dipping**Optional
Jalapeño pepper jelly **Optional for dipping

Put all of the wet ingredients together and whisk. Sift together all of the dry ingredients and then pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together until just combined. Allow the batter to puff up slightly as you heat your oil.

Add about 1.5″ of oil into a skillet and heat moderately. Take half a tablespoon of batter and drop it into the oil. They will begin to quickly puff up and then they will flip themselves over as they become golden brown.

Remove them to a paper lined plate and drizzle them with melted butter or serve them with whipped honey butter and/or  jalapeño pepper jelly on the side.