Deep Frying... or how I learned to not buy a fry daddy

First of all, I love fried food, right? Especially Tater Tots. I always resisted owning a fryer of any sort out of fear of ballooning past my already progidous girth, but every now and again I find myself needing to make real tot's. How to do this, when no fryer is available? Do I own a frying thermometer? A frying basket? Nope... Just the stuff I have floating around in my kitchen.

First off, I grab a large saucepan (mine is a relatively ancient all-clad 4qt).

I also grab my probe thermometer (you know,  the one I use for turkey)

 and a large ACCO binder clip, like the one shown below.

I clip the probe of the thermometer to the side of the sauce pan using the binder clip, and then I fill the rig with 2 qts of Peanut Oil.  I set the alarm for 350 degrees, and fire up high heat. 

While the oil is heating, I prep my draining and staging areas.

Draining area is a large sheet pan covered in old newspaper (no colored print tho) with a metal cooling rack sitting upside down on it (thanks Alton).

Prep area for tots is a large colander filled with frozen tots (I try to eat FEWER tots when they are fried, by the way, so think 10 tots a person). 

I use a spider (thank you molto mario) as my loading and unloading device.

So, I load up 10 or so tots onto the spider, and wait for the alarm. When it beeps, I gently lower the tots into the oil, making sure to keep them from sticking together (TOT CLUMPS = Lower crust to squishy interior ratio = not good). The oil temp will drop rapidly. Watch the temp closely, as you need to keep it from going much above 360 degrees. 3 minutes later, the tots should be perfect. Unload onto draining rig, and serve immediately (or you can hold the draining rig in the oven on 200 degrees or so). 

When all is done, I just poured 7 bucks worth of peanut oil into my pan, and I'd like to keep it.  Right now, a funnel and paper towels works pretty well, but I need to tweak the arrangement (too slow).  Then I store the used oil in a large jug in the back of the fridge. 

YUM

Thanks

- J