the best
crunchiest
batter
After completely humiliating myself in front of friends by making Dan Hong’s batter and substituting the rice flour for potato flour I lost half of my stuffed zucchini flowers and had a horrid sloppy goey mess that was binned. Dan Hong’s batter is very crispy and gluten-free, but not that easy to handle…none the less, we still love Dan Hong’s crispy Eggpant, Hot Sour Chilli Sauce.
This batter was an experiment. It was an absolute fluke that it turned out so well and so very easy to manage….also so very simple self-raising flour and glutinous rice flour that can be purchased in many supermarkets or your Chinese grocer. To be honest, unless I have a diagnosed coeliac as a guest, I will use this batter when I am making Dan’s fab eggplant dish.
I try not to make the batter too far in advance, but weigh everything out so that I just have to add the water right at the last minute. If I’m frying a lot I sit the batter in a bowl of ice the same as for tempura batter.
A lot of chefs and home cooks no longer salt their eggplant, but I think you get a better result if you do.
22 february 2025, TWEAKED EVER SO SLIGHTLY 19 JUNE 2025 AO
so far
The batter has been used to great acclaim for whiting fillets, chips [very naughty but so good] and even better when reheated in the air fryer, small zucchinis split in half lengthwise.
I recently served battered eggplant as a side dish with this wonderful salad [pictured below] click on the image to go to the recipe. This salad can be fully made the night before…again using the air fryer to roast the capsicums for peeling in less than half the time it would take in my oven. We were just six guests and at least three big pieces of eggplant per person…be warned none came back to the kitchen and they last couple of pieces were fought over. It seemed, that a few more pieces might have been appreciated. Eggplant does shrink a bit when you salt it.
and guess what?
in advance airfryer magic!!!
When I have guests, I try not to spend too much time in the kitchen, so I don’t very often do last-minute frying, which can take time. However, recently, with vegan guests for dinner, and at a loss for a hot vegan entrée, I made Dan Hong’s wonderful eggplant dish [pictured left] and I kept a few cooked and battered pieces aside to do an airfryer test.
Refrigerated overnight and re-heated in the airfryer, 10 minutes @ 180°C, no pre-heating, they were perfect. I am guessing this will only be good for vegetables, but a bonus not to be stuck in the kitchen or to have last-minute disasters. the only thing I would do slightly differently is to make the initial cook a little shorter.
21 June 2025 ao
click on the image for the salad recipe…vegetarian and vegan if you don’t add the boccincini
the batter recipe
5g Nigella or sesame seeds
5g fine sea salt
10g double-action baking powder
175g SRF
100g glutinous rice flour
350g cold water
ice if you’re making the batter in advance
clean vegetable oil, not canola, we like corn oil [available from Omega Foods]
Weigh the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir them to properly distribute them. Weigh out the water. Slowly add the water and whisk until you have a smooth batter.
Sit over the ice if you want to keep it for a while…otherwise go for it….hot clean oil about 180°C
hot chips
These can be made the day before, they come up brilliantly in an air fryer. I might choose to omit the Nigella or sesame seeds. Pictures were the first try…an experiment.
day one
Peel and cut your chips, cover them with cold water and refrigerate for 24 hours.
day two
Drain and dry on paper towel. Make your batter and heat your oil. Dip the chips one at a time into the batter and cook flicking over until they are crisp on all sides. DO NOT ALLOW THEM TO COLOUR TOO MUCH.
Drain on paper towel and complete cooking all your chips. Refrigerate until you are ready to use…can be the next day.
pre heat air fryer to 180°C
Reheat the chips for 10 minutes, season with fine sea salt and serve…we love chips with Mayonnaise and maybe Lingham’s Sweet Chilli Sauce.
Whilst we haven’t tried it, I suspect you could freeze the chips and put them in the air fryer at a later stage.