Sorry to be not so on the ball this week. I have had a lot of things on my plate and just now have a few moments between tasks to write this little blog of mine...The long awaited food lab of deep fried goodness...I was way excited! (If you couldn't tell) So we did french fries, chicken legs, onion rings, and corn fritters. Pretty standard fare I think but I was really excited to learn how to do traditional deep fried chicken. This item alone has never been made in my house ever! Mom never mastered it and well even the cat wouldn't eat her attempts...you know its bad when a natural predator won't eat it...anyway back to me. We had to hand cut french fries into 1/4" thick fries, this task alone caused my group leader to freak out on me. Why? I was eyeing the cut, not using a ruler, and doing it faster than she was. Chef noticed her freaking out when she demanded that I go and get my ruler. He came over looked at me looked at her and stated loud and clear for everyone to hear that I had one of the steadiest hands with a knife that he had ever seen a first year culinary student have...looking at me he stated that my fries were perfect and smiled and walked away. I was floored. That is one of the HIGHEST compliments a master chef can ever give. I was walking on cloud nine, she was waiting for me to come down with her daggers ready and waiting. From then on out she was a pain in my side.
So, what pearls of wisdom can I give to you about frying in deep fat? I think the first thing is that this cooking technique is not easy to master. Food is not to be greasy after it has been drained, no odd flavor to your fried food, it should be golden in color, and cooked all the way through. Sounds easy right? So not the case! My team captain decided to take on the fried chicken which was a major bummer for me but she had to do something that put her back on top. This decision of hers put our team behind everyone else. It took her 30 minutes to get everything together because she was telling the other guy in the group what to do...meanwhile by the time I had got to fry my onion rings (The third thing to fry after frying the fries the 1st time and then the fried chicken) the other 2 teams were cleaning up their stations and loading up their plates with their food...I have never been this far behind in a food lab! I was frustrated and irritated that this woman was such a control freak. Anyway, for those of you who might be wondering about french fries, two facts real quick. Yes they are fried TWICE and they should not be greasy. Onion rings, ah my love for those golden rings of battered or breaded onion goodness knows no bounds of time or place. If you want to try them out at home find a good batter recipe and dip the rings one at a time! Otherwise your rings will stick together in the fryer and they look green instead of golden brown because the batter didn't cover everything.
Beyond this everything about deep frying is pretty standard watch the temperature of your oil, strain is after each use, add up to 20% new oil to your used oil to keep it fresh and you should be good to go! Now the question remains...Do you want fries with that?
Next week will be my last blog for the semester...cooking labs wrap up next week with Sauteing. Sadness will shortly follow because then I have 3 weeks of testing in Professional Cooking 1. I feel like I will be rung out dry and raked over the coals but hey this will be an everyday occurrence for me once I hit the real world. Happy eating everyone!
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