What do you buy a clubber for his birthday? Well for this one, a deep fat fryer of course!

It was the perfect present for me. Since starting the FatSteak club my eyes were opened even more to the joy of deep fried food. Now was the perfect time (and excuse) to see if I could recreate some of that goodness at home.

The request was for an easy to clean fryer with a decent filter and this beauty duly arrived!

Now, what to fry first? I wanted to start simple and was in the middle of a freezer batch cook, so needed something I could experiment with, stop and nibble on, and carry on cooking. An American favourite has always been deep-fried pickles.

A crunchy coating on a pickled gherkin slice dipped in a ranch dressing seemed like a good first attempt. Forgive me - the ranch was bought this time!

Prepare your spears

• Fill your fryer with vegetable oil according to the instructions
• Cut each pickled cucumber into quarters lengthways
• Dry the spears on kitchen paper and put to one side
• Put the buttermilk in a bowl
• Mix the cornmeal with a generous pinch of cayenne pepper and some salt and pepper

Coat your pickles

• It helps if you are a little ambidextrous at this point
• Keep one hand for wet ingredients, and one for dry, you never know when that phone will ring, and a dry hand will be welcome
• Dip a spear in the buttermilk
• Toss in the cornmeal until covered
• Pop on a plate and repeat

Fry your pickles

• Heat your fryer to 180C
• When at temperature fry a test spear for 3 - 4 minutes
• Drain, cool and eat as a chef's treat!
• Fry the remaining spears in batches, don't crowd the fryer
• Drain on kitchen roll, then serve with the ranch dressing

These are perfect as a nibble, eaten with an ice cold beer, or served alongside a loaded burger!

Deep fried pickles

• 1 jar pickled sweet sour cucumbers
• 100g fine cornmeal
• 100ml buttermilk
• Cayenne pepper
• Salt and pepper
• Vegetable oil
• Ranch dressing