I was watching Diners Drive Inns and Dives on Food Network. They visited a restaurant in California that serves a killer fried chicken sandwich with fish sauce caramel. It turns out that fish sauce caramel is FORKING AMAZING! You will WANT TO MAKE IT! I didn’t know how to make fish sauce caramel so I looked it up and found Andrew Zimmern’s from Food & Wine Magazine so I thought that would work. I called this recipe idea because I didn’t exactly measure my batter and kind of winged it. It was only the seltzer and beer that I didn’t measure…but it is pretty easy to make batter……I made more batter than I needed….But I think if I cut the batter recipe in half you might not have enough batter….so get ready to do some onion rings or chicken bites!

Ingredients for around 8 servings

2 cups sugar

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

4 large shallots – sliced very thin on mandolin

1 dried hot chili – crumbled

3 star anise pods

1 -2 inch cinnamon stick

2 teaspoons fresh ground pepper

1/2 cup Asian fish sauce

1/2 cup water divided into two quarters

1 3/4 cups flour

1/4 cup corn starch

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon granulated garlic

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon old bay seasoning

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 egg – beaten

1/2 can beer (around 1/2 a can)

1-2 cups seltzer (this one I really guessed)

1 large cauliflower trimmed into florets

Oil for frying (canola, vegetable, peanut or other clear)

Directions

Make fish sauce caramel.

In a good sauce pan combine the sugar and lemon juice with 1/4 cup of water and bring to a boil. boil without stirring it on low heat till it’s looks like a deep amber color (around 20 minutes).

Stir in shallots, chili, star anise, cinnamon and pepper. Take pan off of the heat and stir in fish sauce with another 1/4 cup of water. Stir over moderate heat till caramel is dissolved. Pour sauce in a heatproof bowl and let it cool. Remove star anise and cinnamon stick.

While sauce is cooling you can do the beer battered cauliflower.

Put about 3 inches of oil in a good sauce pot on medium heat. While the oil is heating mix up your batter. In a large bowl combine the flour, corn starch, cumin, onion powder, granulated garlic, paprika, cayenne, Old Bay, salt and pepper. Add the beer, add the egg and keep adding seltzer till it looks something like pancake batter. Dip one tester cauliflower and decide if you thinned it down enough. As soon as you are happy fry them up with a paper towel line baking sheet or a cooling rack.

Enjoy as soon as you can with the fish sauce caramel.

These really are FORKING AWSOME!

A special THANKS!!!!! To Food & Wine Magazine and Andrew Zimmerm for this amazing Fish Sauce Caramel recipe!