Deep Fried Shallots

Vietnamese Deep Fried Shallots (aka Hanh Phi)

I love deep fried shallots and always have some on hand. They add a very nice crunchy, savory flavor when used as a topping for grilled salmon, casseroles, and salads. In Vietnamese cuisine, they're also eaten with glutinous rice, broken rice, and "burnt" rice (com chay in Vietnamese) which is the burnt rice found at the bottom of the rice pot if you cook it "incorrectly."

Deep fried shallots have a wonderful flavor. There's no sulfurous, biting, sharp edge and they're not sweet like they would be if you cook them low and slow. I think they're fantastic stirred into soups and simmered for a few minutes. I also save the cooking oil which my family uses for making fried rice. I also use it to drizzle onto rice and soup.

Deep fried shallots add a very distinctive rich, savory flavor. When I'm making a soup, and it tastes like it's "missing something" I'll add deep fried shallots which impart a lot of deep umami flavor without my having to resort to MSG (which I don't use in my cooking) or meat (which I don't always have a spare piece on hand).

I often see directions for making deep fried shallots in cookbooks and other websites, but I think it's much more helpful to have pictures of the process along the way because this is more about recognizing what to look for than following a recipe. The first few times I made these, I waited until the shallots were a beautiful golden brown before I drained it. This is a mistake because the shallots continue to cook while they're drained and by the time they cool off, they're acrid and bitter. Then I made the mistake where I ended up accidentally making the shallots soft and mushy because the heat of the oil I used was too low. The onions ended up sweating rather than frying -- I added chicken broth and made an impromptu onion soup which didn't taste bad-- but it wasn't what I was looking for. Don't be afraid of high heat.

Directions:
1. Peel and thinly slice shallots
2. Heat some vegetable oil in a dutch oven or saucepan.
3. When the oil is hot, put the sliced shallots in and stir. There should be lots of bubbles and vigorous activity in the saucepan. If the shallots aren't "dancing" around much, the oil's temperature is too low and you'll need to turn up the heat.
4. When the shallots are ready (see pictures below), drain them and let cool.

 Pick out some shallots

Trim and peel 

 

Thinly slice 

 

After oil has heated up add the sliced shallots. There should be a lot of bubbles as the water from the shallots boils off. If you're new to frying, don't be afraid of all the noise. It's normal. Just don't put your eyeballs close to the action.

Continue to let the shallots cook. After a few minutes, you'll see some pieces that are starting to tan. 

 

Gradually more and more of the shallots will change color. Here, the mixture between the purple shallots and the tan shallots is about 50/50.

 

Continue to let them cook a bit more.

 

When it looks like this, drain it. I know that not all of the shallots have tanned up yet, but they'll continue to cook as you drain them.

 

Here they are freshly drained and a bit shiny from the oil. They are still cooking a bit at this point so don't worry about some of those pale guys -- they'll tan up in a few minutes.

 

After a few minutes of cooling, they start to dry and crisp up and finish

 

 Golden, brown, and delicious!