Fried Shallots and Shallot Oil

Preparing these fried shallots and shallot oil is a necessary step for preparing most of the recipes in this book. A mountain of thinly sliced shallots are prepared, and they are fried in peanut oil. The instructions tell you what to expect - and my experience was very close to that described. At first there is an impossibly large pile of shallots, but as they give up their water they fit down into the oil. And then they slowly turn a golden brown. Mine took about 15 minutes longer than the recipe suggested (about 30 minutes) and they didn't get particularly crispy after removing them. But oh the fragrence!

I purchased asian shallots as I was in my asian market, but when I repeat this I will use european shallots. The asian shallots are small, and I spent a lot of time pulling off the skins, etc. With the large european shallots, I think the slicing would go much faster.