Recipe: Sassy Shrimp Puffs (using bread and mashed potatoes)

SASSY SHRIMP PUFFS
"Southerners love any ground seafood that's mixed with moist bread and/or mashed potatoes, enhanced with various seasoning, and turned into balls, puffs, or nuggets for cocktail parties and stylist receptions."



"These tasty puffs could just as easily be made with ground clams, lobster, crawfish, crabmeat, or even a lean fish, but whatever seafood you use, just be careful not to over-fry the puffs. Don't ask me why, but for these types of puffs, I always use an electric frypan - as my mother always did."

5 slices white loaf bread, crusts removed
Milk (as needed)
1 pound fresh shrimp, shelled, deveined, and finely ground
2 medium potatoes (about 1/2 pound), boiled and mashed
1/2 teaspoon powdered dried fennel
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Peanut oil for deep frying

Tear the bread into a bowl, add enough milk to moisten well, let soak for 10 minutes, squeeze dry, and place in a bowl, discarding the milk.

Add the shrimp, mashed potatoes, fennel, and salt and pepper, mix with your hands till well blended and smooth, and form the mixture into 1-inch balls.

In a deep fryer or electric frypan, heat about 2-inches of oil to 365 degrees F on a deep-fat thermometer, drop the balls into the oil in batches, fry till golden brown, about 2 minutes, and drain on paper towels.

Serve the puffs hot with plenty of toothpicks.

Makes about 50 puffs
Used by permission to Recipelink.com from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Source: Southern Fried by James Villas