Deep-Fried Cornish Game Hens

Yes, we deep-fried Cornish game hens. What?
Ingredients

• Cornish game hens (we used 2)
  
• a lot of canola oil
  
• tongs galore
  

There is nothing more harrowing than trying to deep fry Cornish game hens. First thaw the suckers. Then wash them off with water and pat as completely dry as you can, inside and out. Let them sit out for an hour (yes, really). Toward the end of the hour, begin to heat the oil to 350 degrees. You want 1) enough oil to come up about 2-3 inches from the bottom of the pot and 2) not enough oil that it will bubble over when you put the chicken in.

Oil heated, add the chicken. Use tongs or something. Two pair make it easier. Cook it until it's golden brown, turning occasionally to get all the sides. It'll take about 12 minutes. I recommend trying to let it sit for at least 4 minutes on each side without messing with it too much.

Pull the thing out and place it on a wire rack to drain the oil out. Pat dry if need be. Now is a good time to start scrubbing the grease off of everything in your kitchen.

Thoughts: in a word, terrifying. Otherwise, I have to say that while it turned out OK, I wouldn't deep fry again. The done-ness was great, and it was NOT dry at all, but neither was it really flavorful. Next time we try to make it we'll rub it down with herbs and bake it. Advantage to that approach is you don't have to risk horrendous disfigurement or death to eat a chicken.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Caramelized Rice Pudding

From Martha Stewart
Ingredients

• 1.5c whole milk plus 3/8c (eyeball it)
  
• 1/4c medium grain white rice
  
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1/8c white sugar + 2 tbsp or so
  
• 1/8tsp salt
  
• 1 egg yolk
  
• raisins
  
• some cinnamon (again, eyeball it)
  

Preheat oven to 350. Cook the rice in 1.5c milk in a saucepan with some raisins (as much as you like). Once the rice has absorbed most of the liquid (15-20 min?) remove from heat. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining 3/8c milk, 1/8c sugar, the salt, egg yolk, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Pour it into the rice mixture, stirring constantly. Return it to heat and bring to a simmer. Divide it between two ramekins. Place them on a casserole pan or bread pan and add about an inch of boiling water to the pan with them (to kinda steam them as they cook) and bake about 15 minutes. Let them cool 10 minutes. Sprinkle the tops with sugar, and caramelize using a kitchen torch (or a broiler if you don't have one... we actually use a wind-proof lighter. Seriously.)

Thoughts: I really liked this a lot. Claire liked it "for what it was" but says that it was too rich that she didn't like the caramelized sugar on top. If she made it in the future, it would include more skim milk (less whole) and no caramelized sugar. I guess I was expecting it to be rich so I really enjoyed what I got.

Disaster Index: 1/10. But Claire probably wouldn't do it again. I, however, definitely would.