Akra Malanga

Draining fried food: a rack, never paper 77 recipes

• The rack was in place before the first thing went into the oil, not fetched afterwards while food waited in a spider over the pot.
• It lands on a rack with air moving underneath it. Anything set down on paper or a flat plate traps its own steam against its base.
• Salted within seconds of landing, while it is still hot enough to take seasoning.
• A minute later the underside is still as crisp as the top: no soft flat patch where it has been sitting.
• Nothing is stacked or piled while hot, however tempting it is to keep it together. A pile steams itself soft from the inside out.

Where it goes wrong It was drained on paper, or piled up to keep warm. Steam leaving the food has nowhere to go but back into the crust, so the underside softens within a minute: the crispness the frying just bought is gone before the plate reaches the table.

Deep frying 96 recipes

• The oil was at temperature before anything went in, measured rather than guessed, and the vessel is no more than two-thirds full.
• Everything went in dry. Surfaces are patted down and any coating is not dripping, because water hitting hot oil erupts and is the one accident this technique actually has.
• The oil recovers between batches. It is back at temperature before the next load goes in rather than falling further with each one.
• A steady vigorous bubbling that slows as it finishes: the bubbles are the food’s own water leaving, so a piece that has gone quiet has stopped drying out and is done.
• Seasoned or finished in the first seconds out of the oil, while the surface is still hot and will hold what lands on it. Anything applied to a cooled crust sits on top and falls off.

Where it goes wrong Too much went in at once and the oil temperature collapsed. The crust forms slowly while the food sits in warm fat absorbing it rather than shedding steam, and it comes out heavy and greasy instead of crisp, which no amount of draining afterwards will fix.