Pan-frying skill - Kids' Kitchen
Pan frying is an important skill to learn and will unlock endless recipe possibilities for you to cook. BBC Good Food's Kids' Kitchen videos, recipes and advice will guide you and your children through essential skills.
BBC Good Food’s series of Kids' Kitchen videos, recipes and advice will help you and your children learn essential skills for cooking, teaching you and them how to use these skills to create a variety of delicious dishes from scratch.
Pan frying is an important skill to learn and will unlock endless recipe possibilities. Pan frying can be done with little or no oil or fat, as opposed to deep frying where lots of oil or fat is used. This is a fast cooking method, perfect for cooking meat, fish, eggs, tofu, most vegetables and stir-fries. By cooking something over a high heat in a pan, you can achieve toasted or caramelised flavours and juicy meat and fish.
Recipes that use the pan-frying skill
Rainbow fried rice with prawns & fried eggs
Spiced lamb burgers with minty yogurt
Kitchen kit
Frying pan – these come in a variety of sizes; look for one with a small lid around the edge to keep the food in the pan as you stir or flip. A sturdy handle is also important.
Griddle pan – this is a frying pan with risen bars across the surface. You can use a griddle pan to cook meat, halloumi or veggies like peppers and onions for a charred, smoky flavour.
Wok – a wok is a bowl-shaped frying pan used to cook stir-fries. The high sides make it perfect for tossing veggies, noodles or rice without spilling the ingredients.
Steps to success
- Make sure your pan is the right size for the recipe you’re cooking: too small and the ingredients will spill and may splash hot oil, too big and the ingredients could burn.
- Check the handle on your pan is long, heat-resistant and sturdy. Handles can sometimes become loose and wobbly, if this happens, ask an adult to tighten it.
- Always add your oil to a cold pan, then turn on the heat.
- Monitor the pan at all times – a frying pan left alone with hot oil can cause a fire.
- When adding ingredients to a hot pan, tip or lay the ingredient into the pan away from your body to prevent the hot oil splashing you.
- When stirring or turning food in the pan, make sure you hold the handle at all times to keep the pan steady. Use a small cloth to hold the handle if the heat from the hob is too intense, but make sure it doesn’t hang down near a naked flame.
- Keep your hands and wrists away from the edge of the pan and the heat under the pan, which will be extremely hot and could cause a burn.
- Use a long-handled wooden spoon, tongs or a fish slice for stirring or turning.
Recipes that use the pan-frying skill
Rainbow fried rice with prawns & fried eggs
Spiced lamb burgers with minty yogurt
Visit the Kids' Kitchen hub to learn even more skills.
We’d love to see what you’ve been cooking. Send your pictures to us at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk or tag us online with #gfkidskitchen.
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