New Tool

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I usually wax ecstatic when I get a new saw, a new screw gun, a laser level, and so forth. My days building stage sets for high schools, grade schools, and community theaters are not that long past, and I want to do it again. But, the new tool I got today is in a whole different realm.

My oldest son and his wife have been getting spectacular results when they deep fry a turkey for holiday dinners. I have not had one yet, but I am intrigued. The size of the propane fryer for a whole turkey, though, has held me back. Living in a large trailer is great, but space must be conserved. Still, it sounded so good that today, I got a counter top electric fryer.



It was about $30, by Presto, and I got it in a fine grocery store here in California. It takes four cups of oil, and it automatically heats the oil to a pre-set temperature (which I guess is about 300 degrees Farenheit). It takes ten minutes to heat up. Tonight, I used vegetable oil (soybean, it says). Its flavor was nice, and neutral. I also bought some corn oil for another night. Of course, I can re-use the oil as long as I keep it clean and cool.

What to cook? Well, I bought some shrimp, and I always have fresh chicken thanks to Lacy. But I don't have time for a lot of cooking preparation at night. So, I searched the frozen food case, and it was simple. I looked for foods I like, and I checked to see if they had a "deep fry" set of instructions on the back, in addition to the normal stove top, oven or microwave instructions. Sure enough, more items than I cared to get today! I settled on some breaded, pre-cooked chicken nuggets, and some prepared shrimp tempura from Thailand. I cooked six small chicken pieces for 3 minutes, and then five shrimps for 3-1/2 minutes.

Wonderful! I need to cook more chicken, because Lacy didn't even try to hold back out of courtesy or any memory of good manners. I ran the exhaust fan, of course. This is not a diet I will eat every night (though the variety of "healthy" cooking oils is not bad today), but it is definitely fun and also nice to have control of how much time something spends in the oil. Using pre-cooked food is a good idea, I think, because if I cut the cooking time too short (to reduce the time something soaks in oil) I won't automatically poison us with uncooked food.

Next, I will make some simple batter for chicken breasts and plain cooked shrimp, maybe in a couple of days. And maybe a 3" thick slab of turkey breast, to see what the excitement is all about!