Lord of the Onion Rings

For all those who have been following my blog since post one, I mentioned in that post that my favorite movies are all three of the the Lord of the Rings triology. Naturally, I had to dedicate at least one of my posts to those splendiferous films. Everything in those movies is pitch-perfect: the directing, the soundtrack, the acting, the special effects, the hobbits, etc. Most of all, I think they are the movies that truly epitomize the perennial battle between good and evil and good's inexorable triumph.

For my tribute to Lord of the Rings, it may appear to be a little of a stretch. For even those who have stubbornly refused to see the movies, they at least know that the plot centers around a small, golden ring. So, I decided that the food equivalent of the ring to rule them all would be a nice crispy onion ring. I actually got this idea from TBS's Dinner and a Movie website at http://www.tbs.com/stories/story/0,,212685%7C1268%7C0,00.html. Both rings are forged in steaming hot liquids, right?

First, I needed some onions. I got both yellow and white to see which would taste or work better and there was no difference. I soaked the onions in some buttermilk for about an hour.

 

 

The batter consisted of all-purpose flour, rice flour, paprika, and cayenne powder. After mixing these up, I tossed the rings in and they were ready to be forged in the depths of Mordor.

The eye of Sauron!

 

 

As I have still procrastinated buying a candy thermometer, it took a little experimentation to get the temperature right. At first, it wasn't hot enough and the onions looked pretty pathetic. But after putting the oil on full heat, the onions fried up quite nicely. They did not look the prettiest, but they actually tasted quite good.

 

As there is only one ring to rule them all, I had to rummage through my onion rings to find which one would fit the description.

My precious........

 

 

I however highly doubt that this ring would give me unnatural long life. It sure was tasty though.