Deep Frying and Indian Cuisine

Deep frying plays an essential role in making breads, desserts, and snacks. At present, the temperature is just based on experience. The frying oil temperature, should adhere to guideline, the time to fry the food varies according to the size. The commercial frying oils are optimized for 350 to 365º F, as it is the most common range in American cooking. The frying oil temperatures for Indian Cuisine are presented here from my experience.

How does deep frying work?

When the food is immersed in the hot oil, it converts the moisture in the food to steam. The steam forms a barrier preventing the oil to penetrate. The barrier is also strengthened by the browned exterior of the food, specially the batter. If the oil temperature is too low, the moisture escapes slowly and surface takes longer to brown. If the exterior surface does not create a strong enough barrier, the oil penetrates resulting in oily foods.

If the temperature is too high, the outer surface browns before the internal temperature rises enough to finish cooking.

What is par-frying?

Par-frying is also known as blanching or half-frying. The foods are fried long enough to let the internal temperature to reach 160º F, the outer surface is still not brown. The par-fried foods are cooled down to room temperature and may be stored away in refrigerator or a freezer. The commercial French Fries are always par-fried to prevent the potatoes from turning brown when frozen.

Par-fried foods are fried again to crisp brown before serving. This results in crispier surface. Samosa, Pakora, and French fries should always be par-fried and then fried again before serving.

Method of Deep frying

The age old method for deep frying in India is to use Karahi. Karahi resembles Chinese Wok.

1. Fill Karahi with oil about 1½ to 2" high. The amount of oil should be about six times the food to be fried in a single batch. The amount of oil is fixed by the size of the Karahi, so one must limit the amount of food in a single batch being fried.

2. Turn on heat till desired temperature is reached. As a general practice, the cook drops a piece of food in the oil and times by how long it takes to surface or fry based on experience. As a general rule, cut a 1"x1" piece of white bread slice. Now, put the piece of bread in the oil to fry and time it. The piece of bread will turn brown as follows:

350º F: 60 seconds

365º F: 50 seconds

382º F: 40 seconds

390º F: 20 seconds

3. Introduce food to be fried. As you add food to the hot oil, the oil temperature drops, this is the reason to limit the amount of food in a batch being fried. You need to maintain temperature of oil as steady as possible.

Common Deep Frying Temperatures

The deep frying temperatures vary from dish to dish, the actual ingredients in the dish etc. Here, I will give the temperatures for most commonly used recipes.

Gulab Jamun 230º F

Gulab Jamun are fried at 230º F. If the temperature is too high, the Gulab Jamun will develop surface cracks.

Goal Guppa: 320º F

Goal Guppa are fried at 320º F. After the steam puffs up the Goal Guppa, this permits enough time to let most of the moisture to escape to make them crispy.

Besan Paapri, Maida Paapri 300º F

Paapri are fried at 300º F to permit moisture to escape before turning brown.

Samosa 320º F

Higher temperature will form surface bubbles

Pakora 350º F

Poori 350º F

Khasta Kachori 275º F

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