Whelp. I finally did it. I finally bought a deep fryer. After years of dreaming of the ease with which I could whip up crispy, crunchy battered goodness, I clicked a button on Amazon and within days I had a bright, shiny dream come true sitting on my doorstep. Surprisingly affordable, too, though who can really put a price on homemade doughnuts and crispy fried chicken sandwiches?

My fryer’s first assignment was Fried Cauliflower for our annual Asian Feast. The past two times I’d made this recipe, I had used my dutch oven, a sketchy candy thermometer that didn’t quite fit over the thickish lip of the pot, and my sorely lacking camp-size gas stove. Took ages for the oil to come to temp, and all the while I would attempt to keep the thermometer in the same place as it tried squirting away, and then there was the constant fear that an errant splash of hot oil would ignite the open flame (probably not a real concern, but maybe, and that’s enough for me). But with my deep fryer…peace of mind. It’s all self contained, has a nifty built-in temp control, heats up relatively quickly, and even has a lid to help control the splatter. What satisfaction in scooping out crispy golden cauliflower from the bubbling oil, witnessing its transformation from wet and raw to delicately fried. 

Not that the fryer is without it’s own challenges. The heating element itself seems sort of fragile, and I wonder how long before I twist it the wrong way. The temperature indicator seems to work backward from what I’d expect- the light turning off when it’s done heating up to temp. Logic would then dictate that the light would turn on if the temp drops, but it does not do so. This was made clear during the fryer’s second assignment- Beignets. When the oil was to temp, the little pillows of dough would be surrounded by furious bubbles, and would fry quickly. But then there would be dough that would take many more minutes to fry, and the surrounding bubbles were much less forceful, more mildly upset than furious. Through it all, the temp indicator blissfully indicating nothing, thus forcing me to engage my general cooking intuition (which in the case of frying is nearly 100% informed by what I’ve seen on cooking shows). Seems as though this fryer still needs time for the oil to come back to temp, and is not, alas, the magical contraption I’d imagined, with oil always hot enough for a good, quick fry.

And while we’re on the subject of beignets- HEY!! RECIPE WRITERS! Why the hell do you write a recipe that makes 3 dozen of something that’s only good when it’s hot and fresh?! Who can eat 30 beignets in one sitting? 

The most recent assignment for the fryer was Fried Green Beans, at the request of the Girl. Happy with the result, but holy shit. Breading anything is not my thing, and to my horror, I was not able to figure out how to bread green beans except almost one at a time, by hand. Green bean in flour, green bean in egg, green bean in breadcrumbs. That can’t be right. Except when I tried to bread more than one green bean at a time, they would clump together and stick to each other, and not get evenly breaded. Yikes. High-maintenance green beans, need to be hand breaded, like I don’t have other food to attend to or a life to live. Tasty, but not worth it. Next time, beer battered instead.

All in all, this has been a happy purchase. Looking forward to really getting the hang of it, and will update as I continue my crispy golden battered adventures 🙂