Deep Fat Fryers

pollyanna24

Do people still use these? What else besides chips can you cook in them? Doughnuts maybe?

I've never owned one, always cook my chips in the oven (or the halogen oven), but just wondered if there was a wide usage still?

[Deleted User]

They are still useful (although I don't own one) for frying fresh fish inside a crispy batter. We go sea fishing and if we catch a pout or pollack then light battered fish deep fried is a real feast

You can't re-use the oil for anything other than fish though!

Other things one can cook in a fryer:

fish fingers or fish cakes
sausages (greasy spoon cafe tip)
onion bahjies
cubes of tofu or goujons of meat for Chinese style dishes
prawn crackers
poppodoms (broken in half as they expand!)
vegetable tempura or pakoras
home made onion rings

flea72

You can batter and fry anything. Mars bar anyone?

I fry chips, poppadums, prawn crackers, fish, sausages (if in hurry), bhajis (need separate oil for,this), sesame prawn toast, sweet/sour chicken balls, crispy seaweed, samosas, doughnuts, fried bread, noodles, scotch eggs

krlyr

Chicken nuggets are lovely deep fat fried - but only as a rare naughty treat!

mumofronnienreggie

I make chinese crispy chilli chicken and it needs to be fried. A real treat which i balance out by having it on a bed of shredded lettuce rather than rice or noodles ( lessens my guilt a tad.

JodyBPM

I use mine for popadoms, prawn crackers, whitebait, occasionally chips or spring rolls. All in all, probably use it less than once every couple of months.

I'd probably use it for more stuff if I wasn't worried about the calorie content of deep fried food. It's perfectly capable of cooking lots of foods, but it's hard to justify the extra calories, when most things can be cooked in other ways.

anotheruser

I wish I had got one free when it was offered!

Home made KFC would do well in there no doubt.

I wonder if you deep fried with olive oil it would be healthy?

room512

Do you need to change the oil each time? That's what puts me off the idea of having/using one. I don't know if I could be bothered with faffing about!

YORKSHIRELASS

JodyBPM wrote: »

It's perfectly capable of cooking lots of foods, but it's hard to justify the extra calories, when most things can be cooked in other ways.

I agree with this, the trouble is a lot of things are really nice deep fried! And its so quick and easy. I am slightly regretting buying one now, especially as the kids would rather have proper chips deep fried then my home made oven chips.

Then again its all about balance isnt it. We probably have chips once a week, or maybe less, and I try to make sure there is something healthy to offset all that fat!

Torry_Quine

room512 wrote: »

Do you need to change the oil each time? That's what puts me off the idea of having/using one. I don't know if I could be bothered with faffing about!

No you don't. Obviously the quality deteriorates over time and how often it needs changed depends on use.

As well as chips mine is used to make roast potatoes and battered fish.

Tigsteroonie

I've taken a dislike to the taste of oven chips so we use our for frying chips. (As an aside, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find frozen chips that are specifically for frying and not 'cook 3 ways' - I now use Lidl or Iceland)

I also deep fry frozen scampi, I prefer the crunchiness given by frying rather than oven cooking.