Deep fat fryer - tips?
Discussion
To make up for my ovens shortcomings (without buying a new oven) I thought id look at a deep fat fryer; One of those electric jobbies that sit on the worktop and seem to me - an outsider - to be an elegant solution to my problem.
Fryable foods that I currently oven cook are a pain simply because it takes so long to heat the oven, get the food in from frozen and then watch it as it gently thaws and over the course of an hour becomes edible.
I am conscious that the whole process is trimmed down to about 10 minutes with a fryer and this isnt to mention the better standard of cooking I can hopefully expect from a fryer.
Having never owned one before my questions then are these: is there anything I need to look out for? what does a fryer need to have to make it a pleasant tool to use in the kitchen? I dont ever cook for more than 4 so the most it has to be capable of is to cook chips for 4 people (I am assuming at once?) How big would such a thing have to be - I cant convert meals into litre capacity in my head!
All ideas welcome! Also - what oil goes in? I am assuming el cheapo veg oil?
Fryable foods that I currently oven cook are a pain simply because it takes so long to heat the oven, get the food in from frozen and then watch it as it gently thaws and over the course of an hour becomes edible.
I am conscious that the whole process is trimmed down to about 10 minutes with a fryer and this isnt to mention the better standard of cooking I can hopefully expect from a fryer.
Having never owned one before my questions then are these: is there anything I need to look out for? what does a fryer need to have to make it a pleasant tool to use in the kitchen? I dont ever cook for more than 4 so the most it has to be capable of is to cook chips for 4 people (I am assuming at once?) How big would such a thing have to be - I cant convert meals into litre capacity in my head!
All ideas welcome! Also - what oil goes in? I am assuming el cheapo veg oil?
Biggest and bestest tip I can give you:
El cheapo cooking oil will produce stuff that tastes of el cheapo cooking oil. NASTY!
Buy proper Groundnut (peanut) oil.
It has an extremely high burning point - well above the max of your fryer - and is absolutely, properly tasteless. Which means you will taste the food - not the oil.
It might be expensive but you can filter it from time to time to remove any frying residue. Eventually, of course, you'll have to change it out.
Don't deep fry anything that will flavour the oil - unless you want everything to taste of it until you chuck the oil and do a thorough clean.
Oh...and deep fried food is, understandably, somewhat calorific. You can mitigate this by frying food hot and crisp to shaking off as much of the oil as possible and draining the food on kitchen paper afterwards. But all the same - don't eat deep fried grub often. It's not a substitute for your oven.
El cheapo cooking oil will produce stuff that tastes of el cheapo cooking oil. NASTY!
Buy proper Groundnut (peanut) oil.
It has an extremely high burning point - well above the max of your fryer - and is absolutely, properly tasteless. Which means you will taste the food - not the oil.
It might be expensive but you can filter it from time to time to remove any frying residue. Eventually, of course, you'll have to change it out.
Don't deep fry anything that will flavour the oil - unless you want everything to taste of it until you chuck the oil and do a thorough clean.
Oh...and deep fried food is, understandably, somewhat calorific. You can mitigate this by frying food hot and crisp to shaking off as much of the oil as possible and draining the food on kitchen paper afterwards. But all the same - don't eat deep fried grub often. It's not a substitute for your oven.
Roop said:
Here's a tip - buy a fryer that disassembles and goes in the dishwasher. Ours is still immaculate after being hammered cooking Onion Bhajis forever...
Listen to this man. He is wise.Roop said:
It's a Tefal of some description - Snack Oleo CLean or something. It filters it's own oil, the lot. Downide is chips for two, max.
We will probably be replacing our fryer before long. The basket is bust and the people I ordered a replacement from can't seem to get hold of one. I will be looking into your advice. Oil filtering - nice idea.Chips for two is OK for us - we're a couple and when we have dinner parties I can simply avoid chips!
Tefal actifry here...great bit of kit.
Fries with garlic or paprika are my favorites ;o)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBaURWboAE4
Fries with garlic or paprika are my favorites ;o)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBaURWboAE4
Cheers for the tips! The Tefal looks a snazzy bit of kit but expensive! I was discussing it with the mrs last night and her main concern was that wed both gorge ourselves and there would be a commensurate increase in waist size. I suppose thats a by product of cooking in such a fashion...
paolow said:
Cheers for the tips! The Tefal looks a snazzy bit of kit but expensive! I was discussing it with the mrs last night and her main concern was that wed both gorge ourselves and there would be a commensurate increase in waist size. I suppose thats a by product of cooking in such a fashion...
Quite right. For YEARS I refused to have a Deep Fat Fryer in the house as the last one I had made me put on a stone.We have one again. But I am trying to restrict using it to high days and holidays. It's NOT something one should be eating weekly.
paolow said:
Cheers for the tips! The Tefal looks a snazzy bit of kit but expensive! I was discussing it with the mrs last night and her main concern was that wed both gorge ourselves and there would be a commensurate increase in waist size. I suppose thats a by product of cooking in such a fashion...
65 quid on Amazon with free shippinghttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Tefal-ProFry-Oleoclean-FR7...
Even I am tempted! Darn who ever started talking about Onion Bhajis!!!!
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