In one of the Mumbai newspapers this week: How to prepare perfect American-style french fries.
So, let's make it Indian by adding extra steps (that do, admittedly, makes these crunchier and even less healthy). After cutting the potatoes into strips, soak them in salt water for several hours. Then boil for about 5 minutes. After draining and patting dry, deep fry. Remove from oil and let sit on towels to drain off excess oil. Then fry once more to a golden brown.
Indian cuisine is delicious and frequently involves multiple cooking steps. For example, a cooked filling that gets rolled, steamed, and finally, fried. What's not to like when many items are fried in ghee (clarified butter)? I've been trying to cook "healthy" by steaming and roasting -- but that's definitely not traditional Indian cooking!
Today's picture has nothing to do with this story, except that beef goes well with fries!
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| My turn to pose with the ubiquitous cow. |
Ha! I have seen the soaking step in American recipes too - it's supposed to get some of the starch out of some kinds of potatoes so they fry more crisp-ily. Too much effort! You are right about Indian recipes, though. The cookbook John gave us has a lot of "boil this, then fry these things together, then add to your boiled stuff, cook it all, then put it in a casserole and bake for an hour" business.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think that the Indian Way is to maximize the amount of labor in a product. I guess this makes sense in a country with a huge population and a need to find a meaningful job for everyone. Efficiency just isn't in the culture here.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Americans are too efficient. Quantity can come at the cost of quality. A bit more time can result in a significant improvement in quality.
On the other hand, it took me three hours to make last night's dinner -- a luxury I didn't have when the kids were young and we got home at 8:30 and we all needed to get to bed soon. So a half-hour of meal prep was the norm!