Yield: 20 to 30 pieces
Deep-frying is as simple as it gets in India. Take a Chinese wok (or “kadhai” as we say in Hindi), add enough oil to thoroughly cover the materials you need to cook, heat the oil, and then add the ingredients to the hot oil.
Ingredients:
1½ to 2 cups oil
20 to 30 pieces of food
Directions:
- Heat the oil over moderate to high heat until a frying thermometer reads 325°F to 350°F. If you drop a little piece of food into the oil at this temperature, it will take fifteen to twenty seconds for it to float to the top. This temperature is crucial since too high or too low a temperature might provide less than optimum outcomes.
- Do not overcrowd the pan while adding food items. Fry for about a minute, or until a golden colour is obtained. Hold each piece against the wok’s edge for a few seconds with a slotted spatula to allow extra oil to drip back into the wok. then go to a tray covered with paper towels.
Spices, Nuts, & Flours Dry-Roasted
Yield: Approximately ½ cup
Basically, we brown dry spices, herbs, nuts, dals (legumes), and chosen flours on a skillet without the use of any cooking fat or liquid. This method improves the flavour of essential oils, which is what we truly need while filtering out undesirable raw flavour. We’ll look at a few of the specific items that we must dry roast for Indian cuisine below.
Spices (Masalas)
Almost all spices may be dry-roasted, and some of the most popular dry-roasted spices are cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, sesame seeds, and black peppercorns.
- Place 12 cups of any one type of whole seeds in a small cast-iron skillet, saucepan, or “tava” and roast over moderate heat, tossing and shaking the pan, for about two minutes, or until smoke rising from the pan and the seeds seem somewhat darker.
- Turn off the heat and give the room time to cool. Squash them until they are roughly crushed using a mortar and pestle, the back of a large spoon, or a rolling pin. Alternately, finely ground them with a coffee or spice grinder.
- Place within an airtight container and put the container in a cold, dark location. may be securely kept for about a month at room temperature or for six months in the refrigerator.
If you have a pepper mill, fresh ground roasted black peppercorns may be made before each usage.
