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Deep fry food technique
Unless you are using a electric deep fryer, it is quite difficult to
maintain a constant oil temperature for deep frying. Many of us
would be using just a wok or pan for deep frying at home. If you are
one of these, just like me using a wok there are a few pointers or
technique you must be aware of.
Maintain a constant temperature is crucial
1. Always heat up your oil to the required temperature before
putting in your food or ingredients for frying. This is usually done
by tearing a tiny piece of the dough or skin and drop into the oil
and if it bubbles and float to the surface, the oil is ready for
frying. This is to avoid soaking the food in the oil for too long.
2.When the oil gets too hot, many people make this MISTAKE of just
reduce the heat or lower the fire while leaving the food still
soak in the oil. This is wrong. The correct way is before
reducing the heat, first scoop or take out the food from the oil,
then reduce fire and wait for a minute or half for the oil temperate
to drop before putting back the food back into the oil. Otherwise,
the oil will soak into the food or ingredients and you will get a
very oily result. No matter how hard you try to soak or drain out
with tissue towel latter, it would not come out!
Prepare or wrapping your food for frying
3.Again, this is important, always try to wrap the food tightly or
densely for frying. For example, Chinese spring rolls filled with
meats are easier to deep fry than those filled with just veggie.
This is because spring rolls filled with meat are very dense whereas
those filled veggie are very loose with plenty of air pockets and
space for the oil to sip inside. Extra care must be taken for frying
these veggie rolls and to avoid soaking them in the oil for too
long.
4. Certain food like Woo Kok or yam puff may require you to duck
them in the hot oil several times to avoid soaking them in the
oil. For crispy fried chicken, there must be enough oil to cover the
whole chicken and most important the oil must be boiling hot in
order to get a crispy skin.
Special crispy batter for deep frying
( Taiwan )
This batter is especially developed for deep frying of prawns, fish
etc. The resultant fried batter skin is not only crispy but will not
stick to the prawns or fish inside and instead just cover them in
between.
This batter preparation may be stored in the fridge for up to three
days and reused when necessary.
Batter ingredients
· 125 plain flour
· 1 tsp baking powder
· 1 tbsp potatoes flour
· 1 tbsp custard powder
· 2 tbsp oil
· 150–180ml water
Method
1. Mix all the dry ingredients together.
2. Add water slowing , a little at a time and constantly stirring to
obtain a smooth paste. Test the consistency of the batter by dipping
one of your fingers into the paste and if the watery paste sticks to
your fingers without falling off then the batter is just right. Also
test using a chopstick to divide the thin paste on your fingers and
if the batter does not rejoin back together or fall off, the batter
is just right for frying.
Method of frying - Two stage frying
1. Heat oil in a wok over medium heat.
2. Dip the prawns in the batter and put it inside the heated oil for
just a few minutes. Scoop out immediately when the prawns just float
and half cooked. Set aside to cool.
3. Replaced the cooled prawns back to the oil now using High heat.
Constantly stirring the oil to distribute the heat evening. By now,
you can feel the prawns skin is bit hard and crispy. Scoop out when
cooked and golden brown.
4. Serve when cooled.
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