Pan-Frying (Canola-ola)

Pan-frying is like sautéing, also a dry-cooking method, except that (a) it's quicker because (b) it involves submerging an item half way in fat. The resulting food should have a crisp golden-brown exterior and a moist juicy interior. That interior is not grease: though coating can retain grease, the coating also acts as a envelope in which the item actually gently steams in its own moisture.

Typical coating is snazzily called Standard Breading Procedure: first, you coat the item lightly in starch (typically wheat flour); next, the egg wash (whole eggs made looser with water or dairy); then, finish by dropping into bread crumbs. Chef M showed us why it's important to have one wet hand to hold the raw meat and deal with the eggs, and one dry hand for the starch and the crumbs. If you mix them up, you end up with two breaded mitts.

Variation on SBP includes using different starches like corn, potato, and arrowroot. Switching out the bread crumbs with panko (Japanese flaked white crumb), nuts, coconut, or a combo is not unheard of.

Why SBP? Coating gives even color, holds in moisture for internal steaming, gives a crunch (and Americans love crunchy food), and adds extra flavor. Speaking of extra flavor, for coated items, seasoning with kosher salt is discouraged, as it'll stay on top of the food in uneven salt-pockets. Chef advises to use fine salt, only when the food is out of the fire and hot, so the salt dissolves into the food evenly.

Oil temperature is crucial: With sauté, use high heat and kept a close eye, to reach the appropriate doneness; for pan-fry, if the oil is too cold, you've created an oil sop, too hot and you're running a crematorium. Ideally 300-325, 350 degrees max for smaller quicker-cooking items. Chef M poo-poos using a thermometer, which is too delicate in a rough n' tumble kitchen and not dependable. He recommends throwing in a small piece of bread -- when it bubbles and turns golden, it's time to fry.

And fry we did. N was absent today, but RH, 2LG and I muddled through with our mise. The potato pancakes and crab cakes list of ingredients weren't too long, and the plantains, chicken, and veal required little more than breading. I set RH shredding the taters and onions for the pancakes, I mixed the slurry that the crab meat went into, and 2LG made the apple sauce for the pancakes and the mojo for the plantains. The chickens had to be suprèmes: chicken breast with the wing and bone attached. I broke down two chickens, took off the skins, and chopped off the end of the wing bones with the butt of my chef's blade. As with the first time I did this, it was more than a bit freaky to watch the bone bleed as I chopped into it.

Pan-frying is relatively easy, compared to sautéing. We got through our dishes pretty quickly. The tostones and crab cakes got high marks, as well as the potato pancakes. The veal was uneventful, but my chicken was a dud. I simply pan-fried it at a relatively low temp, with a panko crust for more even browning. I fried that thing a good 8 minutes on each side, but when Chef M opened it up, it was raw in the middle. I was falsely confident that it was done because it looked pretty and was cooking 15 minutes, but I didn't test it. To test, you can feel it (it should be firm, not mushy). More intrusive, you can jab it with a metal knife on the unpretty side and peek. The problem is that this will allow more oil into the interior, but it's a guarantee you're not serving a health-code violation.

Tomorrow, out of the pan, into the deep fry.

ADDENDA
The blood pressure this morning was 127/91, better but not ideal.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, organic cheerios with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
AM TASTINGS: 2 fried tostones with Cuban mojo sauce, 2 potato pancakes with a little apple sauce and sour cream, 1 large crab cake with avocado sauce, 2 bites of veal milanese with salsa verde, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
The plantains were good but weirdly bland. The potato pancakes were nice, but the recipe I use is better -- it ain't a potato pancake without matzo meal. The crab cake was over the top great, with lots of jumbo lump crab meat and not a lot of filler. By the time I got the veal out, wasn't very hungry, and it was a rather ordinary dish. The chicken, well, I wasn't touchin' that.

LUNCH: 3:30pm, Israeli salad, 1 beer, 1 piece of bread with butter, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, lobster bisque with low-salt tortilla chips, large baby spinach salad, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Bisque was school-made and out of the freezer, really good though salty.