Originally Posted by
cockpitvisit
Shocking to hear this from someone who is half(?) Spanish
Originally Posted by
jib71
I'm not an expert but, from my travels in Spain, I don't remember deep-fat frying being a signature of Spanish cuisine. I think it's more common in the UK.- and I've heard that the British were introduced to deep-fried, battered, fish by the Portuguese ... who also introduced tempura to Japan. Why they gave the daikon oroshi and ponzu to the Japanese and malt vinegar to the British is a mystery.
I’m not
that kind of Spaniard.
Before the Thermomix phenomenon caught on, a deep fat fryer served a certain kind of Spaniard the same way as microwave ovens serve a certain kind of Brit (or North American). There used to be whole shops that only sold frozen food destined for the deep fat fryer. Even now, in the supermarkets you’ll see plenty of food for that category.
Saying all that, my grandmother never ever deep fat fried food, nor did her sisters and I know plenty of households who still never use one either. Not surprising that jib71 didn’t come across them much on his journeys.
When I was little the deep fat frying was for treat food, we were taken to certain shacks (1970s and early 80s) where vats of oil on big petroleum barrels produced churros in the morning or potato chips in the evening. Both were stunning.
We do plenty of shallow frying, but I’m just too fond of olive oil to want to cook in large vats of something else. Nevertheless, I did find a way to reproduce some of that taste of chips cooked in a drum from my child-hood. I have a Phillips AirFryer. Means I can brush olive oil onto potatoes and whack the heat up to 220C without completely smoking up my kitchen and slathering it in a nicotine coloured sticky film.