deep fried jalepeño hamburger balls

i love food and i just love it when i get inspired. the other day, i was trying to think of something to spice up the doldrums of having the same 8 or 9 recipes over and over again. i love my fryer, so i thought about hamburgers and the fryer. i looked up deep fried hamburgers on the internet and surprise...(or maybe not), i was NOT the first person who thought of this. :D

so i gave it whirl and it was a hit. superbowl was yesterday and i needed an idea for a "man-food" for such an event and the only thing i had in the fridge was meat (no pizza rolls, or frozen fried treats that they love so much - LOL). i decided to try the hamburger thing again but this time, jazz it up a bit, make'em single serving size, and put a toothpick in'em. they were a hit. everyone in the house loved'em.

here's the trick. there isn't one. i think you could put anything you like in these things and they would turn out wonderful. it just really depends on your tastes. for mine, i used

2 lbs of ground beef
a splash of worcestershire sauce
a splash of kombucha (i'm sure vinegar would work fine)
about 4 oz of shredded cheeses (swiss and jack)
salt and pepper (liberal)
a handful of pickled jalepeños minced (maybe 2-3 T)
a handful of white onions minced
1 cup of white flour
1 cup of fresh ground whole wheat flour
a bowl of water

with your hands gently mix the ingredients. i've found that you don't want to squash (knead) the hamburger or you lose some of the finished texture of a good burger. also i left the onions out of one batch. i preferred them this way, but i didn't have any leftovers of the onion variety either. take the burger and roll it into meat-balls about 1.25 - 2 inch balls.

mix the flours (this mixture makes a great texture) in a bowl. i tend to start with a 1/4 cup each so that i don't have as much waste or as many flour chunks to throw away. roll each meatball in the flour coating well. then take the floured meatball and quickly roll it in the bowl of water. don't try to wash the meatball, we're just trying to get the coating wet. then roll it again in the bowl of flour.

you can do this up to three times with good results. with just one layer of flour, you'll get a tasty treat, but you'll find that the breading comes off in spots and causes the meat to blacken where the flour is missing. you can also use an egg wash instead of water, but i tried it this way and i think the egg makes the texture weird (kinda like crunchy noodles). we like just the plain flour and water the best.

throw the meatballs in the pre-heated deep fryer (about 355-360 degrees) and cook for 4-6 minutes.

pull out of the grease, drain and poke in some toothpicks. voilà.

note: they're not as greasy as the picture would portray. the only reason the paper towel is so greasy is because i pulled them out of the grease one at a time very quickly. i didn't give them a chance to drip in the fryer. if you used the baskets, you could raise the baskets and allow them to drip before tossing them on the plate. these were not very greasy at all. enjoy.