Fried Dill Pickles and Tzatziki Sauce

 

This year's garden planting is done and the vegetables in the garden are growing.  But my larder still has many jars of dill pickles that I put up last year.  I had MANY jars of pickles left and I know I'll be harvesting more cucumbers before too long.  Then, it occured to me to use up some of the surplus by making Fried Dill Pickles! 

 

Off I went to the basement and brought upstairs to the kitchen about a 1/2 gallon of dill pickle slices, dusted off the deep fryer, made a batter of flour, milk, eggs and Panko crumbs and began frying batch after batch of dill pickles.  And of course we wanted a cool dipping sauce.  The Mister and I really like a cool Tzatziki sauce with ours so that is what I made to go with the fried pickles.

Fried Dill Pickles and Tzatziki Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup - 2 cups Panko bread crumbs

Directions:

1. In a shallow bowl combine the flour, salt, pepper and baking powder. 
2. In a second shallow bowl whisk together the milk and egg.
3. In a third shallow dish (or you can use a zip lock bag) place the dry Panko crumbs.
4. After you have drained and blotted dry the pickles, dredge each slice in the flour mixture.  Then dip the slice in the egg/milk mixture and then coat with the dry Panko crumbs.
5. In an electric skillet or deep-fat fryer, heat the oil to 375 degrees.  Fry the coated pickles working in batches no more than 10 pickles slices at a time.  Fry for about 3 minutes or until golden brown, turning once.  Remove from frier and drain on paper towels. 
6. Continue working in batches of about 10 slices, coating and frying until you've fried as many as you need.

Tzatziki Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup Greek Yogurt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cucumbers, peeling and diced
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill (may substitute dry dill weed)
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:

1. In a blender combine cucumbers, garlic, lemon juice, oil and dill.  Process until well blended.
2. Stir in Greek Yogurt and Sour Cream
3. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
4. Place Tzatziki sauce in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours before serving so the flavors can blend.
5. This will keep for a few days in the refigerator, but you will need to drain off any water and stir each time you use it.

Because I had quite a few jars of dill pickles I made a huge batch of fried pickles and put them in the freezer for a quick snack.  We'll just need to take the out of the freezer, heat on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven and warm them up (much the same way as one heats frozen french fries.)

 

Until next time,

Cheers!

 

Jennifer

 

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