Carmelita’s Cookitaly

recipes, food facts and food lore from Italy
 

Fear of Frying?

     

Or Tips and Tricks for making a good "Fritto all'Italiana"

Making what the Italian call a light, healthy and easy to digest "fritto" - interpret all that as not the least bit greasy - is a fairly skilled affair, but read through these points and you'll be well prepared.

Which oil?

The important thing is that the oil has a high "smoke point". Once oil starts to smoke it becomes unstable and potentially toxic, so smoking oil is to be avoided at all costs. Olive oil has a high smoke point but, expense apart, it can be too strongly flavoured for many dishes. In Italy peanut (groundnut) oil is usually recommended but grape seed and canola oil are good too, as the little table of smoke points below shows:

Grape Seed 204 °C (399 °F)

Peanut oil 231 °C (448 °F)

Canola 242 °C (468 °F)

How much oil?

Lots! It needs to be deep if you are deep frying, which is what we're talking about here, about 8 -10 cm (3 to 4 inches) and more does not do any harm. This means you need to use a deep pan. Never re-use frying oil, use fresh oil every time.

What temperature?

(If you have an electric fryer where you can set the temperature and leave it the device to regulate it and keep it steady, skip this part)

I never use a thermometer but go by experience, observing how many and what size bubbles have formed. As a general rule, smaller and quicker cooking items like shrimp or fish need a higher temperature 180 - 190 °C (355 - 375 °F) while thicker and "wetter" items like vegetables, where you need to cook off the moisture, need a lower temperature 140 - 160 °C (285 - 320 °F), as otherwise the outside gets too dark while the middle is still uncooked.

The really crucial thing is to maintain a steady temperature at all times.

How do I know when the oil is hot enough without a thermometer?

I use a piece of bread. I throw it when the oil is still coolish. It sinks first and when it floats to the top and begins to sizzle gently with small bubbles forming round it, the oil is ready. Even so it is best to just test with one piece: if your test piece floats and sizzles at once, you can go with the rest, otherwise wait a half minute and try again. If you start frying too soon when the oil is not yet hot enough your first batch will be soggy. Just leave the bread in there, it has a useful role to play in keeping the temperature steady

How do I maintain a steady temperature?

Now we are at the heart of the matter, this is a key section. Bear the following in mind.

- First rule is not to fry too many pieces at once, never overcrowd the pan. The more pieces you put in the oil the more the temperature drops - conversely when you take things out the temperature rises. If the temperature drops the pieces will stick to each other and worse, they absorb more oil and get greasy.

- Be prepared to regulate the heat down or up until you find the right point.

- If the oil seems too cool and you can't regulate the heat quickly enough as when cooking on an electric ring, take out some pieces to raise the temperature.

- It is counter intuitive but if you learn to put some of the next batch in BEFORE you take out the pieces that are done, you lower the temperature for a moment, so that when you empty the pan of the cooked pieces there is less risk of the temperature rising too much. It also means that the oil is never left without some pieces "to work on", the pan never contains just hot oil.

- If the oil has something "to work on" it is less likely to overheat. Leaving that bit of bread in and if necessary putting in another piece or two helps to keep the oil "happy" and to stop it overheating.

- If the oil seems to be getting too hot, cool it down either by putting in bread (or lemon zest or an onion ring, a piece of potato, whatever you have to hand) or by adding a tablespoon of cool oil.

How do I prepare food for frying?

This varies a great deal according to what you are frying. The basic principle is that the items must be evenly sized and that smaller pieces cook better. Except for potatoes, they must be protected from the oil by a coating of flour, considered best for small quick cooking fish and seafood or grated vegetable fritters, or batter (usual for thicker vegetables).

Some vegetable items like fennel, artichoke and cauliflower are best previously blanched and dried. Items that risk melting into the hot oil like ricotta, Mozzarella, potato croquettes and Arancini, the Sicilian rice balls, need an extra layer of protection: egg + flour + batter, or egg + flour + egg + breadcrumbs.

What's the best flour?

Whatever flour you use it needs to be milled very fine, fine as talcum powder, so it coats perfectly and snuggles into every nook and crevice. I use Italian "00" flour or else chickpea flour. I sometimes substitute one third of the regular flour with corn or wheat starch, or rice or potato flour as these all have a very fine texture that helps to seal the food perfectly.

If you are using breadcrumbs, the finer they are ground the crisper, and better sealed, your Fritto will be.

What's the best batter?

For a light batter I omit egg altogether or else I use egg whites only, whisked fairly stiff. Bubbles are a good thing in batter and using cold sparkling mineral water or beer is another trick for making a non-stodgy batter. You add these last minute to maintain maximum bubbles.

An ice cube in the batter is also a good idea - use less liquid to allow for the fact that the ice cube will give some water off as it melts. In general the colder your batter the better.

Some people add a pinch of baking powder or use self raising flour though I never do.

When do I season with salt ?

Never salt the batter or the food and never salt the Fritto until the very end. All fried food needs to have a rest of at least a minute before you salt it, otherwise you risk softening the crisp exterior and wrecking all your good work.

For sweet fritters the same rule applies, do not sprinkle with sugar until after the fried food has rested.

Anything else before I start?

Use a wide draining spoon to allow as much oil as possible to drain off when scooping out the fried food. Rest all freshly fried items on absorbent kitchen paper as soon as they are out of the pan and prepare this paper bed before you start to fry. If you like you can place the fried foods to drain on a wire mesh elevated above the paper but I tend to prefer placing directly on paper.

Fried food is best eaten hot as soon as it is made. There is an Italian saying that the person who fries does not eat - chi frigge, non mangia .You just cook and serve up. But if you want to sit down and eat with everybody else then give everything a brief second fry just before serving. Line your saving platter with paper towels and if you've done everything right there should be hardly any oil on this new batch of kitchen paper-

I don't advise keeping fried food warm in a low oven, it tends to get soggy. I'd rather fry in two batches with a conversation pause in between if there are a lot of diners or a lot of food to fry.

And one last important thing,

This is probably my best tip that I'm sharing here with you. Since it is the thermal shock - the contrast between cold batter and hot oil - that produces a fast and crisp seal, I hold an ice cube in my hand and shake a few drops of the water into the the pan with the hot oil when I put in a new batch. Try it, it really makes a difference.

Let me know how you get on, and if you have other tips and tricks to share please add them in a comment, I'm always ready to learn more! And if you want a recipe to try out these tips  by frying up some Crisp Calamari, go over to my other blog - you'll get chance to win a 50$ Amazon voucher there too!

Filed under  //   cooking techniques   cooking tips   fried foods   fritto   frying   how to  
Posted February 18, 2010
// 3 Comments
 

Polipo con Patate

 

   

This is one of my favourite things year round, served lukewarm in winter or at room temperature in summer.

Octopus meat is beautifully tender when properly cooked. It has a very mild sweet-savoury flavour which some compare to chicken and some to squid though neither comparison really stands up in my view. Perhaps crab or scallop come closer. When well prepared, it really is very easy to like. Its flavour is mild, unless you cook it with its own ink, it has a nice mouth feel and is very easy to eat: no bones, no shells, no debris. It is also very healthy eating. It is a low calorie, high protein, low fat, low carb, zero-sugar food. It is rich in anti-oxidant selenium and very high in iron, B vitamins and zinc. On the down side it is high in sodium and cholesterol - not a problem for most people, but you may have a specific medical reason for forgoing this delicacy.

When I was growing up in Malta it was common summer sport for the boys to tickle octopi out of their hiding places using a fork, stringing up them up in a row on a fishing rod or bamboo pole to proudly take home for Mum to cook. To soften up the flesh, which would otherwise be very tough, they would beat and beat the octopus on the rocks, a common practice round the Mediterranean. Otherwise at home you would need to beat with a steak hammer for about 10 minutes, a long and potentially messy job. You don't have to do this if you freeze a fresh octopus overnight and cook from frozen. Or buy frozen or just defrosted. Frozen is good for octopus: the flavour is not impaired at all, the flesh tenderizes much more quickly and the octopus comes ready prepared and cleaned.

I have two ways of preparing octopus, both simplicity itself. One is the classic Italian way and the other is what I call the Greek way because learnt it from my friend Eleftheria. The Italian way is to cook your defrosted or very well beaten octopus in a pan of boiling water along with a red wine cork or two. The theory is the traces of tannin or else a particular enzyme found in the cork help to tenderize it. I doubt this is true but as I'm never without a red wine cork or two, I do put one in, a kind of superstition! I don't do the popping in and out of the water three times though, another Italian practice that claims to make octopus become tender faster.

So what you do is bring a large pot of water to the boil and then lower the octopus into the pot so that it is submerged and totally covered. Turn the heat down and simmer a defrosted octopus for 40 to 60 minutes or until tender - calculate about 20 minutes for every 500g (1.1 pounds). Test as if it were a baked potato: a wooden toothpick or skewer should pierce it and go through easily without encountering any resistance. Finally - and this is important for a truly tender octopus - leave it to cool down slowly in the pot covered in the cooking liquid. I usually add fresh bay leaves or a piece of cinnamon stick to the cooking water to keep fishy aromas to a minimum rather than for flavouring purposes. This time I added a star anise and loved it.

The "Greek" style, which may or may not be typically Greek is even more straight forward. Just choose a heavy bottomed pan with a tight fitting lid, pop the octopus in, cover, place on the lowest possible heat and leave till done, calculating timing as before. The octopus braises and steams gently taking on a splendid purple hue from the head to the tip of its tightly curled tentacles, as you can see in my photo. As it loses its water it shrinks and cooks to supreme tenderness. It is ready when it has re-absorbed the liquid it released, but don't cook too long as left too long the octopus can end up dried up or worse, burnt and stuck to the pot. The drawback with this method is that the octopus remains pretty salty. What I usually do is stay Greek and make grilled octopus. I cut the cooked octopus up into small pieces without rubbing off the skin or suckers and grill it gently on a hot cast iron ridged grill pan till the outside is lightly charred with crispy bits, then drizzle with best EVO oil when done. This way I end up with pre-salted octopus pieces that are crisped on the outside and tender on the inside, just sublime! Otherwise I add the chopped octopus pieces to a tomato sauce and serve it on an on unsalted creamy polenta, putting the octopus' saltiness to to good use in seasoning the polenta.

Because octopus has such a delicate flavour, the Italian instinct is to avoid adding sauces, dressings or extraneous flavours with would mask and overpower the octopus' own subtle taste. Potatoes and polenta are perfect partners that act as a gentle background to bring it out and show it off, for the octopus is inevitably the protagonist of the dish it features in. The popular Polipo con Patate "salad" is, as far as I know, made everywhere along Italy's 7,600 kilometer coastline (over 4, 700 miles). So far once here is a recipe for a dish that is national, an Italian dish not one from one of Italy's regional cuisines.

 

Insalata Tiepida di Polipo e Patate

For two people as one course meal:

A cleaned defrosted octopus weighing about 800g (1 lb 12 oz)

3 medium Yukon Gold type potatoes (not boiling or new potatoes)

A good sized bunch of flat leaf parsley

Olive oil to taste

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Cook the octopus till tender according to one of the methods described above and when cooled rub off the skin and suckers until you are left with just the nice pink tinged flesh. This is easy, the (perfectly edible) skin and suckers just come away.

Cut the head into slices and chop the tentacles into small lengths. Taste a little piece to check for saltiness.

Strip leaves from the parsley and chop not too finely.

Cook the potatoes in their skins, then hold on a fork to peel while still warm. Remove any eyes and and chop into chunks.

Place the potatoes in a bowl drizzle over a few tablespoons of olive oil and toss gently to mix. I sometimes use my hands if the potatoes seem fragile - olive oil is a nice skin softener! Mix in the octopus next and finally the chopped parsley.

Though the Italian named means " Warm octopus and potato salad", it is customary to serve this lukewarm in winter and at room temperature in summer, accompanied by a glass of dry white wine.

 

Filed under  //   how to   Italian recipe   octopus   parsley   Polipo con Patate   potato   potatoes  
Posted February 13, 2010
// 6 Comments
 

Pomegranates - How to prepare them

Pomegranate, a lovely musical word and a beautiful fruit.

I have adored pomegranates since childhood. When pomegranates were in season, I chose to spend my pocket money not on sweets or chocolate but on buying pomegranates. I even enjoyed the slow patient work of extracting the multitude of jewel like seeds  - called arils.

When preparing this fruit, you need have to protect yourself from the dark stains that pomegranate juice leaves, so rub your fingers and palms with lemon juice beforehand. Then spread old newspapers on the work surface where you are going to work, wear an apron and watch out for splatters flying on to your walls and floors - the riper and juicier your fruit is the more juice will spurt out!

Before proceeding to the recipe, I have a handy Link to an "all about pomegranates" site but  first I want to tell you what I do differently than is described there.

To open the fruit up, I take a small sharp knife and cut a shallow cross into the top of the fruit. Using both hands I then poke my thumbs into the openings and carefully prise the fruit apart in sections.

For juicing I use my trusty potato ricer. I put a batch of arils in and squeeze ever so gently as this is a major spurt alert moment!  I do this several times for the same batch of arils, opening up the ricer and stirring the seeds round with a spoon. I then scrape out the residue and proceed with another small batch.

So before you try the recipe, the Link to the very useful web site is here.

Filed under  //   how to   juice   pomegranates  
Posted January 11, 2010
// 1 Comment