"Nunya Bidnits" > wrote in
message ...
> Nonny said:
>
>>
>> Nuke sweet potato about 8 minutes until barely fork tender.
>> Peel
>> and gently roll out between your hands to make solid
>
>
> Can you elaborate? I don't follow what you were doing there.

I found it necessary to remove the skin from the sweet potatoes
before running them through my "residential-grade" french fry
cutter. They're too hard, without softening to go through without
excessive and damaging force to the plastic cutter. If I had a
good SS or cast french fry cutter, then I'd do them raw and
include the skin, since I love the skin of a potato and feel it
adds to both the flavor, texture and nutrition. By "nuke," of
course I refer to the microwave oven, which I use to soften the
sweet potatoes. After peeling off the skin, following a nuke, the
sweet potato is pretty chewed up, so I round it back up before
using the fry cutter.

With the way this explanation is going, Marty, I might also see
what it's like if I used a potato peeler and did the skin with it
BEFORE softening the sweet potatoes. I just never tried it, so I
have no opinion. . . yet. <grin>


>
>
>> Cut potato into 1/3" strips and arrange tightly on baking
>> sheet,
>> sprayed with Pam. Spray surface of sweet potato fingers with
>> Pam
>> as well. Sprinkly to cover with cheese blend.
>>
>> Place under broiling pan in oven broiler and go as long as you
>> can
>> before burning the cheese. The longer the crisper and the
>> better.
>>
>> The sweet potato fingers can be deep fat fried, if you have a
>> fryer going. They're even better if you shake them in a bag of
>> potato flour or potato starch, but that's up to you.
>
> The Parmesan mix doesn't make a mess in the deep fryer? I'd
> think some
> coating would be pretty important.

Again, I'm guilty of a bad explanation. I've experimented with
frying, but then laid them out on the baking sheet THEN added the
sprinkle and did a quick trip through the broiler.


>
> I'll divert to my latest love in deep frying, tempura-panko
> coating.
> Whatever it is (usually shrimp, mushrooms, or onion rings around
> here, going
> to try it on chicken wings next) gets prepped as follows:
>
> Kikkoman dry tempura mix (I use a commercial pack but I'm pretty
> sure it's
> available in a grocer pack too)
>
> equal amount of ice cold "sparkling" water (I added the
> sparkling part, not
> called for by label)
>
> Panko style bread crumbs
>
> Season food as desired. Dredge pieces in some dry tempura mix
> just until
> very lightly coated.
>
> Mix equal amounts of water and tempura mix. It will foam up.
> Stir only until
> the foam subsides and dry mix incorporated, do not over mix.
>
> Dip each piece of food in the tempura, shake off excess, and
> quickly lay it
> in the panko, one side, then the other. Don't try to mush it
> around in there
> or you'll just ruin the panko with the batter. Start with small
> amounts of
> panko, and if you start getting a lot of big clumps, pull them
> out and add
> more crumbs.
>
> Set food on a rack as you finish, but don't hold, fry as soon as
> you finish,
> or you can drop one basketfull while you dredge up the next.
>
> Fry each batch at about 340F for 3-4 minutes.
>
> The resulting coating is a great combination of delicious crunch
> and the
> subtle puffiness of tempura.
>
> I'm thinking the sweet potato recipe above would be very
> interesting with
> this treatment. Chances are it will happen soon.

Since it sounds like you have a handy fryer and use it frequently,
give this a try and let me know what you think:

Cut the sweet potato (raw) into fry-shaped strips using a knife or
commercial fry cutter and then shake them in POTATO flour. Deep
fry. This might give you less of an oily taste and the flour
would brown up/crisp up well.



>
> Now for longer cooking foods, like chicken, I can't give time
> and temp.
> Typically jumbo wings have to go 8-9 minutes at a lower temp,
> say 330-335,
> and when I've deep fried with panko in the past, that's been too
> long to
> prevent it from getting too dark and somewhat burnt tasting,
> definitely over
> crunchy.
>
> Has anyone used panko for deep frying longer cooking items like
> chicken?
> Comments?
>
> MartyB in KC
>

Have you tried it using 2 stages? Fry the wings a bit "naked,"
then remove, drain, dip and fry more.
--
Nonny

Have you ever wondered if the bills
in your wallet were ever in a stripper's butt crack?
Have a nice day ..