Bill is a salesman's salesman. He represents a company that provides paper and plastic disposable products to the food industry. Whether you need to buy paper napkins and sacks for a fast food joint or the foam trays and shrink wrap used by the grocery butcher, Bill is your man. For many years, Bill was in sales management for the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. The proverbial "beer that made Milwaukee famous". And, to this day Bill Bowen has a copious gut made of boiler plate, which contains voracious appetite for food, for beer and for life. Especially beer. Or food. Or life. I can't decide.
Bill is well traveled. His jobs have taken him all over the country. Bill has lived a full and interesting life. And Bill is a guy who can weave a great story that makes you walk away shaking your head, just knowing as fun as that tall tale was, there is no way it really happened. Until you talk to someone else who was there, who corroborates the whole thing. At which point you realize that Bill is just one of those guys who seems to have a knack for always being around when amazing things happen, and he has a gift for retelling them that makes you sure you were there too.
Friday was Bill's birthday. Saturday afternoon was his party. People came from hundreds of miles to celebrate with Bill and his amazing frying rig. Set up outside his free-standing garage, a tier off the lakefront, Bill - son Mark at his side - behind a barrier of benches erected to keep the kids and the dogs out of the danger zone, donned gloves and carefully inserted a long instant-read thermometer to verify the oil was exactly 375 degrees. The radio blared out the Missouri Tigers football game. The sky threatened, but the rain held off until later. Bill was his jovial self. Brimming with a sense of confidence, bordering on, but just short of cocky.
On the tables behind and to the side were an uncanny array of delectables awaiting their turn in the pool of smoking fat. There were secret-Cajun-spiced cornbread-coated crappie and catfish bits, that he and his neighbor, Paulie pulled from the lake just a 100 feet away. Other options included slices of chicken breast, with a light breading, pie-dough pockets, stuffed with cheese and sage sausage (thanks to Curtis & Marg), spears of Idaho potatoes, battered Vidalia onion rings, dill pickles and even what he calls "dough balls". The latter being an interesting hush-puppy substitute that involved simply snipping canned, "butter flavored" biscuit rounds in to six pieces and dropping them in the oil. As pedestrian as that sounds, they are quite addictive.
Bill boasts that he has deep fried steaks to medium-rare perfection, hamburger patties, hot dogs and even prime rib!
I ate. A lot. No, I mean a really lot.
I have eaten fried candy bars in London, fried cod in Galway, Ireland, and myriad other deep fried delicacies in my life, but I'd be hard pressed to beat the feast at Bill Bowen's birthday bash. And never accompanied by the great tales of adventure, and genuine family hospitality, I experienced on Saturday.
Bill Bowen's secret to perfect deep frying almost anything that will hold still long enough:
1) Never fill the fryer beyond 1/2 full of oil
2) Always use good quality, clean oil - like canola or peanut
3) Make sure the oil has reached 375 degrees before anything goes in. He used a splash of beer, to double-check.
4) Keep breading light. Let the food shine on it's own.
5) Mind the store! Do not walk away from food in the fryer.
6) Remove it with a wire "spider" to a rack or paper towel, when it's golden, but maybe looks a bit lighter than you prefer, otherwise the carry-over heat will over-cook it.
7) Season it the moment it comes out of the fryer. Whether salt, Cajun spice, barbeque rub, anything dry you can shake on -- always do it while the oil is still hot.
Share your favorite fried recipes in the comments!
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