Frying is a common task for homemakers, but the secret to making food crispy and without splattering oil is a trick not everyone knows.
Fried dishes often require crispiness without burning. When frying, you often endure standing in a hot kitchen and fear of oil splattering. Inattentive people may get burned by splattered oil and fry food for too long, making it dry and less appetizing.
Use fresh lemons
Experienced chefs and homemakers have a great trick: using lemons to make their fried dishes crispier and maintain their crispness longer.
There are several ways to use lemons in frying oil:
Drop lemon slices into hot oil, then use chopsticks to move the slices around the edge of the pan.
Squeeze a few drops of lemon juice into the oil before frying.
Lemons are acidic and create foam. So, adding lemon to the frying oil helps the fried food become crispy and foamier. This saves you frying time, keeps the food crispy without leaking water, and maintains the crispiness longer. Especially for starch-based fried dishes like spring rolls, fried rolls, or crispy noodles, adding lemon to the oil will make the food fluffier, the starch part expands quickly, making the dish more delicious and attractive and less likely to become stale. So, make use of a few fresh lemon slices.
Moreover, adding lemon also makes your food smell better while frying and prevents oil splatters.
Use a bit of starch
For quick, crispy fried food that retains its crispiness longer, sprinkle a bit of starch in the frying oil (you can use cornstarch, cassava flour, wheat flour, or tempura flour). Just a small amount will do. Sprinkling starch into the frying pan helps the starch absorb any remaining water in the food, so when frying, it won’t splatter oil outside, and you don’t have to worry about getting burned. The presence of starch in the frying pan makes your food crisper and more fragrant.
But remember, use starch to prevent oil splattering, not to coat the outside of the fried dish. So, just use a little bit. If you use too much, it will burn and create a strong smell.
Add a few salt grains
Similarly, when frying savory dishes, adding a few salt grains to the oil also helps fry the food crispy and without splattering oil.
In addition to making the food crispy and tasty, to fry delicious food, you need to pay attention to a few more things:
Always dry the pan before adding oil
A wet pan with oil will cause more oil splatters. So, dry and heat the pan first, then pour in the cooking oil. However, don’t let the pan smoke, as this will make the oil acrid.
Heat the oil before adding the food to fry
An important trick to make crispy fried food on the outside and still sweet inside is to adjust the oil’s temperature before adding the food to fry. If you add the food when the oil is not hot enough, the outside of the food won’t be crispy, making it soft or break, and the inside will absorb too much oil, making it greasy or dry. So watch the oil, when it rolls and you can see a shimmer around it, add the food to fry. This way, it fries quickly, the outside is crispy, and the inside remains sweet.
Remember to thaw the food completely or pat it dry before frying. Avoid putting food that hasn’t completely thawed into the oil, as it will cook on the outside while continuing to release water from the inside, causing the food to break, lose crispiness, and become soggy. Before frying, you should also pat dry the food if it’s too moist.
When preparing to remove the food, increase the heat slightly to drain off excess oil. If you keep the flame low, the oil will seep into the food a lot, and when lifted out onto absorbent paper, it won’t absorb it all because the oil has already seeped inside, so the food will be greasy and then quickly become soft.
