BATTER FOR FRYING

[shakthi]

There's this restaurant near my place where they serve deep fried vegetables (carrots, beans etc) coated with some kind of batter which are always crispy and not oily, together with fresh mint sauce.

I tried frying at home using some mixture of kadalai mavu & rice flour - the result were so pathetic that I had to throw half of the food away as nobody wanted to eat it. The fried vegetables were very soggy with oil and not crispy.

I wonder if anyone knows how to make the batter for frying & how to ensure that the fried stuff is crispy & not oily.

Oh, and if anyone can give mint sauce recipe to gi with it- that will great too!

thanks

[46jw]

It sounds that your coating is not the problem, your oil for deep frying may be too cold...

Crispiness depends on the steam pressure from the inside of the food being greater than the pressure of the oil, trying to get inside..

Oil that is not hot enough does not generate enough internal pressure to keep the food crispy...

A single drop of water should sizzle violently when dropped into your oil. Also cook your food in small batches, and allow the oil to return to temperature before adding the next batch.

Hope that helps...

[46jw]

Restaurants have large quantites of oil in their fryers, so they can put a lot of food into them without the oil cooling down too much.

We don't have the luxury of gallons of oil to use for deep frying at home, so small batches are required.

[shakthi]

thanks 46jw for the tip.

Am gonna try this weekend