When I was a short order cook I learned the prevalent American style of deep frying which involved hydrogenated oil with a floating layer of silicone to prevent oxidation, heated to 375F.  Frying was done to a timer based on the size and density of the items.  In later research I learned about the twice frying used by McD’s to make their trademark fries.  Wandering around developing world food stalls I saw that this technique was not developed at Hamburger U., it had been used forever and was crucial for many diverse tasty tidbits  ( good example– the ubiquitous fried dumplings in SE Asia  ).

With twice frying the food is cooked to 80-85% and then set aside to await finishing.  It continues to steam off moisture after being taken out of the oil and therefor crisps or browns better in the second frying.  In experimenting with which foods benefit from this I came to tostadas and had a good eureka moment.  Twice frying tortillas at 300F makes for lighter crispier tostadas without making them too dark.  This is a relief for Herself who has ideas about what color tostadas should be.  As we sidle towards the Mexican cena  ( a light meal of snacks, tapas, bocadillos, botanas etc. taken in the early evening ) style of hot weather meal planning making better tostadas is an important addition.

For most seafood I would still use the single fry at 375F but I’m going to keep looking for things that would benefit from twice frying.  I’m sure there is doctrine on this in the industry but here we specialize in reinventing wheels of all kinds.  Naturally I’d seen little Mayan ladies doing this countless times without registering it.  Duh.

In the South frying is part of the cultural identity and I’m working on it.

*apologies to Townes VZ