December 14, 2004
Grease Fire Waiting to Happen
Better known as the all too dangerous Fry Daddy bucket... here's an addition to my "occasional" series about the adventures of re-discovering fried foods...
Check out my opening salvo from a few days ago regarding Deep Frying.
Our setup included breaded chicken nuggets, deep fryer apparatus, and draining station, although it turned out not to be very greasy.
Today I'll add a few more good foods to boil-in-oil.com (wouldn't that be a great website? But, for now, it doesn't exist.)
First, a note on cleaning: This was my first thorough cleaning as I re-used oil from our first experience doing tempura shrimp and onion rings and just added some fresh canola oil to bring it up to the "high oil level."
By night's end we had 1/2-inch of sludge on the bottom from our endeavors, crispies from the breaded chicken.
So...after cooling, cleanup consisted of throwing the lid and basket in the dishwasher, dumping the oil and sludge in the trash in an old orange juice plastic bottle, soapy washing of the bucket, and wiping the heating element with paper towels and a few Q-tips. About 5 or 10 minutes, not a bad experience.
For dinner we fried up italian-breading style homemade chicken nuggets and Yukon Gold potato french fries.
The fries were, of course, double-fried. First fry at about 315 F for 3-4 minutes, then rested, then fried again at 335 F for about 4 minutes (very small, thin fries, normally you're looking at 6-8 minutes).
The nuggets were beautiful: the most delicious, moist and just-perfectly-greased concoctions for the whole family. The manual says to cook them at 360 F, but I found the bread crumb coating was burning, so I put it down to 335 and even 315 and that was more successful to create a golden brown crust.
Sauces included: Ranch, ketchup, barbecue, and Samurai Sauce (my quickie version of the Belgian fry house delight, basically mayonnaise with pepper, cayenne, thai red pepper sauce, and wasabi paste).
Mmmm... deep fry basket. Great rectangular shape, good wide and flat bottom with shallow sides, excellent no-spill and no-splash design!
Dessert was an exploration of the joys and opportunities offered by bubbling grease awaiting adventure in the kitchen.
This effort was apple slices and banana chunks, delicately battered with flour and sugar, and gently lowered with the Hand-E basket into the golden goodness.
Topped with powdered sugar, drizzled with chocolate, the bananas shown like an $8 dessert at a fancy restaurant. The Hand-crusted Cinnamon Apple Chips were also of excellent quality.
Posted by BilFish at December 14, 2004 07:17 AM