Eric Huang is the chef and founder of Pecking House in New York City. Eric cut his teeth in Michelin-starred restaurants in NYC, beginning at Cafe Boulud, then Gramercy Tavern, and finally Eleven Madison Park. He was a sous chef at EMP with the team that earned the title of “Best Restaurant in the World&#39;” in 2017.

Eric Huang

Break out your <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WDW8XKEGgU">cornballer</a>, folks, because it’s time to fry some cornballs!Hush puppies are basically fried cornbread nuggets. Packed with cubes of smoky tasso ham, cheddar, and sliced scallions, these nuggets are crispy, light, salty, tangy, and slightly sweet from the corn—the perfect side dish.Our batter uses a mix of cornmeal and all-purpose flour, enriched with buttermilk and eggs and leavened with baking powder. Mixing the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in stages helps prevent overmixing, which would develop the gluten in the flour a little too much, and it keeps the crumb light and almost cake-like. To boost the sweetness, we serve the hush puppies with “apple honey.” No, it’s not honey made in an apiary on an apple orchard—it’s a syrup made from freshly pressed, unpasteurized apple cider that has the same viscosity as honey at room temperature. Pasteurized cider—or cider that has been treated with enzymes to remove pectin <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pectin-free-juice">to improve the product’s clarity</a>—won’t work in this application. Since the texture is produced by <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/science-of-pectin">pectin’s gelling qualities</a>, the cider needs to start with an ample concentration of pectin. With the added sugar and the natural acidity of cider, gently reducing the liquid will transform it into a golden, flowing syrup that tastes distinctly of apples. Call it “vegan honey”!Serve the crispy, golden hush puppies up with a pot of apple honey and a honey wand alongside, so you can drizzle as little or as much as you like, and you might just forget about anything else on the table.

Cheddar-Tasso Hush Puppies With Apple Honey