While those doughnuts hang out in the oil, let’s take a quick detour to talk latkes. You can deep-fry latkes, but most recipes call for shallow-frying them in a skillet. One recipe I love instructs to “heat ¼ cup oil in a 12-inch skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking.”
Simple! But not exactly precise. The temperature of the oil is so important when frying—too low and things get greasy, too hot and things don’t cook through—so I asked Yoo if he could get nerdy with me. If I were to take my thermometer to the oil when I’m shallow-frying, what temperature should I be looking for?
“I would suggest 375,” he answered. It’s harder to retain heat when shallow-frying, he noted, because you have less oil in the pan. A temperature of 375℉ ensures the oil will be hot enough to get your latkes crisp.
If the oil’s hot enough, latkes are pretty straightforward: cook until undersides are golden, then turn them and cook the other side. Transfer the finished latkes to a 200-degree oven, setting them in a single layer on a rack set in a sheet pan, to stay crisp (more details this stage of the frying process are below). Then start on the next batch.
If you have problems, they’ll probably start here. Latkes are delicate things, and when you turn them, little bits of potato are likely to break off. Those potato remnants are hard to remove from the pan, so they stay there. And they keep cooking, and keep cooking, until they’re just tiny crumbs of pure carbon that are releasing smoke into the air and bad flavors into your oil.
How do you prevent that? Yoo told me that, sadly, you just can’t.
“After your second or third batch, I would suggest taking that oil and passing it through a chinois or some sort of colander, to catch the residual potato,” he said. “Clean out the pan with a dry paper towel, put the strained oil back in, and start all over.”
I understand that that’s not what any of us want to hear. But you know what’s worse to hear? The smoke alarm going off.
Finishing the Fry
The doughnuts aren't done until they've been properly powdered.
Whether you’re deep-frying or shallow-frying, there are a few things to know about the finish.
When you’re finished frying, you really want to finish frying. Hot oil is no longer your friend, but your enemy—any residual oil that stays on your food will just make it greasy.
So follow the two-step process of the shake-and-strain.
First, the shake: when you lift your doughnut or latke from the oil, give it a light shake in the spider to get it as dry as possible. (Don’t go overboard here—you don’t want hot oil flying around your kitchen, especially if there’s a live flame under your pot.)
Next, the strain: place the food on that rack you already set out, or on those paper towels. Either will allow your food to drain any unnecessary oil, staying light and crispy instead of damp and greasy.
Now break out the salt. “You should immediately salt fried foods,” Yoo says. “Fried food will absorb salt the best when it’s hot.”
Your perfectly-salted, expertly-fried food is ready to eat now, and now really is the key. Hanukkah lasts for eight days and nights, but latkes and doughnuts? They’re perfect for only minutes.
