FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SATURDAY, OCT. 18, 2008

Fuquay-Varina woman wins N.C. State Fair cooking contest

RALEIGH – Tiffany Wolfe of Fuquay-Varina earned first-place honors and $200 for her S’more on a Stick recipe that she entered in the Stick with Canola Oil – Fry it for the Fair cooking contest.

Felice Bogus of Raleigh earned $75 and the second-place award for a Turtle Cheesecake on a Stick recipe. Norbert White of Fayetteville placed third and received $25 for Bacon, Okra and Tomato Fries.

Recipes were judged equally on creativity, taste, presentation and convenience.

The winning recipe follows:

S’more on a Stick

• 2 Little Debbie S’mores snack cookies
• 1 cup pancake batter
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups canola oil
• Powdered sugar
• 2 Birch sticks

Mix pancake batter and water together. Heat canola oil to 375 degrees in fryer. Place the S’mores cookies on sticks. Dip in pancake batter and fry on each side for 2 to 4 minutes until golden brown. Remove and dust with powdered sugar. Serves two.

-aea-1,2

Turtle Cheesecake on a Stick
Second Place: Felice Bogus of Raleigh

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• ¼ cup finely chopped toasted pecans
• ¼ cup mini chocolate chips
• 16-18 small spring roll wrappers
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
• 4 cups Wesson canola oil
• Warm caramel sauce for dipping

Beat together cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips. Lay out 2 or 3 spring roll wrappers diagonally on a dry work surface. Pipe or spoon a line of filling across the wrapper just below the center. Fold both sides in over the filling and brush edges of wrapper with egg wash. Fold bottom corner up to enclose filling and roll away from you to form a tight cylinder, brushing with egg wash as necessary to create a tight seal. Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling. Place rolls on a foil-lined baking sheet and freeze until firm.

Heat canola oil in a deep fryer to 350 degrees. Fry rolls, a few at a time, until golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels and let cool slightly. Place 3 rolls on each skewer and serve with warm caramel sauce.

BOT (Bacon, Okra and Tomato) Fries
Third Place: Norbert White of Fayetteville

• 1 lb. Okra, remove the top and tip, and cut into 1 ½ inch lengths
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 lb. bacon
• 1 lb. cherry tomatoes
• Skewers, long and thin
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• Canola oil for frying

Dipping/drizzling sauce

• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 teaspoons fresh basil, chopped fine

Stir together okra and buttermilk in a large bowl; let stand 20 minutes. Drain. Combine cornmeal, flour, salt, and pepper in a large, heavy-duty zip-lock bag; add okra and tomatoes a few at a time to bag and shake to coat. With each piece of bacon, fold ¼ inch of one end over, then fold this section over and skew with a thin skewer. Move the bacon down the skewer 1 inch, pierce a piece of okra diagonally, pull bacon up around okra, skew, skew a tomato, pull bacon up around tomato, skew and repeat until bacon can no longer be pulled up and skewed.

In a deep fryer, pour canola oil to 3 inches deep and heat. Place skewers in fryer so that about 1 to 2 inches of handling end is outside of fryer, but all of veggies and bacon are in canola oil. Cook until okra is golden and bacon is done. Transfer each skew to a paper towel to cool. In a food processor, combine all ingredients for sauce, process on high for 1 minute. Use as a dipping sauce or drizzle over BOT Fries.