The joy of deep frying!

Deep frying in an ancient method of preparing food. It is all around us, like French fries. Whole franchises have been built on the art of deep-frying (KFC anyone?) Yet time and again we are presented with deep fried food that is soggy, dank and makes your esophagus revolt. Why? I think people have lost the art of deep frying.

For a long time, I had an electric deep fryer. It did an OK job frying French fries, but it bombed with other things such as Pooris. I decided I had had enough and tossed the deep fryer and started frying in a huge cast iron wok. It made a world of difference. The food came out crisp, light, bright and refreshing. That is because one of the major purposes of cooking, no matter how it is done, is to get rid of the water in the food. When the oil is as hot as it should be, the water in the food is transformed to steam and gushes outward at such speed that oil can't get inside your food. Oil can only penetrate the outermost layer of your food. Deep fried food is not necessarily more unhealthy. I fry only in peanut oil, which has no trans fats and does not decompose into gunk when it's heated. If you have the money, you can use clarified butter for deep frying, which is the best. However, deep frying can be expensive.

I am attaching some photos of deep fried wontons I made recently. I know I used Gyoza skins instead of proper wonton skins, so they don't have long ears.