Deep fried mushrooms - frozen and reheated

I tested a lot of recipes using the deep fryer. I froze samples of these foods.  The fish and chicken reheated in the oven very well.  I tried the mushrooms today - just gave them a quick blitz in the microwave.  They were surprisingly good, so this is another way to add convenience to your catering.  I expect they would have been crisper in the oven, but the garlicky succulence of the mushroom was very good.

Served them with giant Greek beans, salad and some excellent red pepper sauce, again from the freezer.

Self- publishing Cookbook - The Gluten-Free Deep Fryer on Lulu.com

 I spent yesterday learning to use the self-publishing site  Lulu  I have put my recent crop of recipes using the deep fryer into book form.  It was an interesting struggle to try to decide how to format the book.  Cookery books are usually tightly structured, with columns of ingredients, one luscious photograph to entice but not inform, and very little chit-chat.  Very different from blog-style.

I tried to work with the cook book wizard, but soon dropped out and made a standard word document that I then uploaded.  As I generally write straight into blogger I had to get the text from here, photos from my file, and reassemble a structure that would work without extra information or nipping off to another blog.

I hadn't realised until the end that you were not supposed to include the title information at that stage as you get a separate Cover Wizard, but I figured information twice is better than no information at all.  I could have revised the document and then uploaded it again, which for any future book I would do. The other advantage of this type of publishing is that you can amend the book whenever you want, as they only print on demand.

With this one I am just keen to get my hands on a physical book so that I can start thinking properly about issues like paper quality, binding and size. When I do the next one I will make used of the learning from this time around.

I was pleased with how cheap the book will be.  I last ordered a full colour book full of photographs years ago, a little picture book about Halloween to help my grand-daughters learn to read.  The price has come down a lot since then, making these cookbooks a realistic prospect.

So, I have ordered three copies so that I can see how it could be improved for next time.  Now all I need to do is find some volunteers with a deep fat fryer to give me feedback on how easy the recipes are to follow! Any one out there willing?

Gluten-free Battered Fish and onion rings

There are a few fish and chip shops around that do gluten free food, but often it is only for two hours when they first change their fat once a month or some such.  As the oil contains gluten from the batter it isn't safe to eat just the chips either. We did find a fish and chip shop in Newquay a couple of years ago that has a dedicated fryer and a big sign in the window - we had been looking for Fifteen, Jamie Oliver's place, couldn't find it, so stopped at this place instead of going home without food.  I couldn't spot it in a quick google search, so if anyone has a link to this pioneering fish and chip shop please let me know.

While I had the fryer full of fat it seemed sensible to try a battered fish.  It was remarkably simple  and as good as anything you would get from most chippies, according to TT who still buys these, particularly after a hard days manual labouring and on motorway service stations.  It is very unusual to get food poisoning for deep fried foods, so if in doubt at food places that is what to go for.

I read several fried fish recipes, and a review of different batter ingredients (very interesting - rates different wheat flours and buckwheat)

Heat your oil in the fryer to 170C

Battered fish

http://www.fishbatter.co.uk/

·      Fish

·      75g flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)

·      1 tsp baking power

·      100 ml soda water
A tsp sugar or pinch turmeric can be added if you want a deeper coloured batter.

In a large bowl, whisk or sieve dry ingredients, stir in soda water (take care – froths).  It will be a thick gloopy batter.  Leave to sit for a few minutes for the flours to absorb the liquid.

Flour fish.  This is Vietnamese River Cobbler.

Dip fish in batter and fry until golden and fish cooked  (about six minutes at 170C)

If you like a thicker batter there are two things you can do.  Add more flour to the initial batter, or drizzle extra batter onto the fish while it is cooking. If you get a bare patch add some fresh batter and carry on cooking.

I bought the Coop own brand of soda water - it was only abut 50p.

Slip a few onion rings in the leftover batter and add to the fryer –instant succulent crispy onion rings.

DeLonghi deep fat fryer - another set of recipes for the gf cookbook

Deep fat fryer

I haven’t owned a deep fat fryer for years.  However, I thought that any good cookery book needed a section of deep-fried treats, then the user could decide how often to eat them rather than be exasperated at their lack.  TT gets fish and chips from the chip shop, and occasionally craves fried chicken.  I would like to be able to have an occasional doughnut and jellabie.

On Sunday I went to the electrical store and bought a DeLonghi deep fat fryer.  I chose it because it seemed robustly made, had a tap to drain the oil, and the element lifts out of the oil bath and then everything else can go in the dishwasher.  It also says it has a ‘coolzone’ which is where the element is above the base of the pan so that the oil is slightly cooler at the bottom and bits that fall down don’t burn so quickly, meaning you don’t have to change the oil so often.

I tested the fryer when I first got it.  I filled it with three litres of fryer oil, which I found at the cheap supermarket next to the electrical store.  It has an anti-foamer, which seems like a weird idea, but I certainly had no trouble with the fat rising up when I put the food in. It took less than six minutes to heat to 180degrees C.  I checked the temperature with my thermometer, and it was pretty close to the marked temperature.

I made four types of doughnuts, battered fish, mushrooms and onion rings, and fried chicken.  I have had the machine working for quite a bit of the time for the last forty-eight hours, and I am astonished by how little the house smells of cooking fat.  I used to find that a single batch of shallow frying permeated the house with fat smells, and I particularly had trouble with the laundry smelling, which dries in an open room above the kitchen.

When finished, let the oil cool down completely.  It takes a lot longer to cool down than it does to heat up, so leave it while you get on with something else.

The emptying tap has a filter on, which can be dismantled for cleaning.  The oil comes out clean.  The residue and bits of batter collect in the base of the tank, and they can be scooped out easily for disposal.  The heating element and probes can be cleaned, and the tank and lid washed in the dishwasher.

Emptying and dismantling is very easy.  I have read that it is best to store the filtered oil for future use in a cool dark place but not the fridge, which apparently increases the spitting when the fat is reheated.

Recipe write-ups to follow.