Deep Fat Frying
We recently posted how Paleo deep fat frying was totally healthy by deep fat frying with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. With that in mind we searched until we found a mini deep fat fryer to cook up our Paleo French fries, as well as the ultimate fried fish, chicken nuggets and a deep South favorite, fried oysters.
Deep Fat Frying
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Our Deep Fat Frying Equipment
First, we had to decide what equipment we would use in our deep fat frying experiment. Should we simply try an actual fry pan or sauce pan and a clip on thermometer?That sounded like it could be tedious. So, we quickly began to look around for inexpensive, compact, deep fat frying appliances. We wondered had they improved since the introduction of the Presto FryBaby in the 1970’s.
It didn’t take long to find a great modern mini frying device at bargain price. At just under $40 the Waring DF55 Professional Mini Stainless-Steel Deep Fryer was amazing to use and easy to clean and store. It only has a 2 quart capacity, but not to worry, there is another model with a gallon oil tank.
The Waring mini quickly and efficiently heated our EVO up through a range of temperatures. We only added 1 and 3/4 quarts (7 cups) of oil which was enough to reach the MIN line on the tank. We were surprised at how effortlessly we turned out everything from crispy French fries to old fried oysters.
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French Fried Potatoes
We decided to begin with French fries. We turned the heat to 355 degrees to warm up while we extruded our organic white russet potatoes with our Concord Stainless Steel French Fry Potato Cutter. We salted our cut potatoes with sea salt, and staged them in the basket ready to drop on the green light. When the green light came on we dropped the basket in, and within 3-5 minutes we were ‘cooking with grease’ yielding great, crispy French fries.
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Frying with Extra Virgin Olive Oil
There is an old wive’s tale that extra-virgin olive oil is not safe to cook with. I’ve read it in quite a few blog posts recently without any stated authority for such a statement. The truth is that although olive oil may have a smoke point slightly lower than some industrial seeds oils, it performs extremely well when heated. Olive oil is a monounsaturated fat and when heated the phenolic compounds are much more stable than other vegetable oils.
Read my lips, “It’s a great oil to eat fresh and to cook at high temperatures” See, our article on olive oil and its beneficial properties.
And, that is why we use California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil because it is organic, unrefined and cold pressed, which makes for a high polyphenol content. (That’s good!)
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What About the Batter?
Next, we tackled some fish, chicken nuggets, vegetables and oysters. But, to batter or not to batter? That was the question.
We found that simply dusting with either Singoda flour or Rice flour mixed with our garlic-oinion-salt powder mixture produced a great result.
Yet, we had great success when we made a simple rice flour based batter. We added an egg whisked with a cup of seltzer water to a rice flour blend consisting of one cup of white rice flour, two tablespoons of corn meal, a teaspoon each of garlic and onion powder and a teaspoon of sea salt. The Singoda based batter was a little too thick, but served well as a dusting flour if not a batter.
Recipe for Deep Fried Oysters
The Batter
- 1 cup white rice flour
- 2 tbsp. non-GMO corn meal
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 tsp. onion powder
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 6 oz. club soda
- 1 egg
- 2 pints oysters
Method
- Add EVO to pan or deep fat fryer and begin heating to 355 degrees
- In a medium bowl, combine the rice flour, corn meal, salt, onion and garlic powders
- In a small bowl, add egg and 1 cup club soda together and whisk vigorously
- Stir in egg/club soda mixture into the flour and whisk to a thin batter, using more soda if needed
- Immediately, add the oysters to the batter and coat
- When temp reaches 355 degrees, carefully slide the oysters to the oil
- Cook for 3-4 minutes until light golden brown, remove and drain
