Deep-Frying (Would You Like Fry With That?)

What can be said about deep-frying? Americans love it, it yields a super crispy exterior and a moist juicy interior. And unlike sauté and pan-frying, it's so easy a blind monkey can do it with just a little mechanical assist.

Easy is key. Lower-scale restaurants love the deep-fryer because it's simple to control, with virtually no education required of the cook. Lots of fast-food places almost completely automate their deep-frying. Everything is cut and prepped into precise portions cheaply off-site, the fryers are electronically controlled, and the minimum-wage slave doesn't have to think. It goes beep, it's done.

The training kitchen, however, is not set up like a McDonald's; the students have to be the machines that go beep. Thermometers in the deep oil are key at all times. Smaller items (like a stem of brocolli) fry faster at higher temps, bigger items (like a chicken breast with rib-cage attached) must fry slower at lower temps to reach doneness all the way through.

According to Chef, lard and tallow are far and away the best fats to deep-fry in. They make the crispiest food, leave the least amount of grease on the items, and they are reusable the most. However, people (vegetarians, Buddhists, health nuts) are afraid of it. Peanut oil is second best, but there are a lot of allergic people out there. Canola and vegetable oil (a blend of soy, corn, and canola) are popular and cheap, but are probably the least healthy, outside of the industrial artificial hydrogenated fats ("melfry" and "frymax" are two popular ones) that fastfood chains use.

Reusing deep-fry fat is fine, as long as it (a) is still light in color, (b) strained of all particles, and (c) is not used for other food items. Fish in particular will give its taste to oil, and anything cooked in it afterwards will taste fishy.

Proper french fries are "blanched" in fat -- 280 degrees is hot enough to render out moisture, but not hot enough to brown. Once the bubbles slow down, the pale fries are taken out and drained on paper. Then they are resubmerged in 350-degree oil and browned. Because the insides are dry, they won't get soggy once they cool a little.

First up: using a mandolin for the potatoes. Despite 8.5 hours of sleep, I was a bit tired and on my first stroke of cutting the potatoes my palm got two nicks from the blade -- there are lots of opportunities for a sleepy person to hurt themselves in a kitchen, I learned. (The cut didn't bleed, but left 2 little red lines.) Anyway, N was back on the team, and I assigned sauces and chicken batter to the three of them, while I prepped the fish beer batter (using nice New Orleans Abita) and fabricated the cod. I had a large fillet that again seemed to have thick skin, but I was able to pull it off without too much damage.

Once the mise was done, the rest of the day was spent putting items in the fat, watching them and the temp and taking them out, hitting with fine salt and getting them to Chef M pronto. Rather than every team work at one range, each range was assigned an item and we went around the room. We first blanched our fries and set them out on paper to drain. For all fried food cooked in this method, the way to tell doneness is a) the nice brown golden color, b) it floats, c) it bubble less because moisture is gone and d)the temp starts rising all of a sudden.

While the fries cooled, we used Standard Breading Procedure on the oysters, some with breadcrumbs and some with cornmeal. 2LG made the cocktail sauce we served them with, and Chef dug 'em. You really need to pop them in your mouth whole, because even though they taste great and oceany, a half-eaten one looks very much like breaded moose-snot.

We went back and quickly dipped our fish fillets in our beer batter and dropped them in the oil, then the blanched fries right on top. When everything floated and looked golden, we removed onto racks. Our batter was a bit too thick, and remained a little gluey on the inside, despite the fish itself being cooked perfectly. Chef M recommended just adding a little water to make the batter more manageable.

Broccoli was dipped in a thin tempura batter (corn starch and rice flour mostly), thrown into the oil and was done in literally 10 seconds. Served with a wasabi soy sauce, it tasted a bit overdone to me.

Last item up was the fried chicken. RH broke down 2 chickens into 10 pieces each, and N made the marinade, with had 8 different herbs and buttermilk, all puréed smooth into a nice green color. After marinating for an hour, it was dipped in flour, dipped back in the marinade, a second time in flour then into the oil. Due to its size, this item took the longest. The thing about deep-frying is that you must keep the right temp as long as possible; but, the more stuff you put in, the lower the temp goes...and you really have to crank up the heat fast to get back in the good zone. Too low and it'll absorb grease, too high and you make a scorched mess. Chicken was good, though not something anyone should eat every day.

Today was the first day that I rolled down the sleeves of my chef's jacket, as I kept on getting hit with hot burning splatter. That shouldn't be the case on Monday, when we leave the oil behind for a method more nutrition-friendly, grilling.

ADDENDA
Blood pressure was 132/83 this morning. Long day ahead of me, with school, work, dinner out with B and her cuz, then the Bicycle Film Festival downtown....

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good yogurt with honey and vanilla, banana, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM TASTINGS: 10:30-11:30am, deep fried breaded oysters, deep fried beer-battered cod and french fries, deep-fried broccoli tempura, 1 bite of Southern Fried Chicken, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
The fish was absolutely puffy and delicious, the fries just crunchy and tender, the oysters surprising in their little pockets of ocean flavor, the broccoli bursting with flavor. By the time we got to the chicken, was feeling a bit queasy.

DINNER: 5pm, bread and white beans, tuscan panzanella, prociutta de parma, spaggetti al limone, 1 glass prosecco, water, vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso poured over it, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Excellent dinner at Supper on 2nd St off Ave A, though the service is really surly. Interesting Northern Italian menu. The pasta was simply spaggetti in a butter/lemon sauce, with a hint of white wine. It sounds like it should be gross but just the right amount of acid makes the wheat of the noodles taste....wheatier.

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, lobster bisque with tortilla chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not your typical evening snack, but I just got so hungry, guess the deep-fried morning wasn't as all-consuming as I thought. Needed to eat this before it went bad, and almost ALL the lobster meat of an entire lobster was in this portion.