A week ago Sunday, Luke, AC and I made my favorite dinner: Steak frites. I think this was the third or fourth time we’ve made the meal together and by now we all have our jobs down pat. Luke is in charge of the steaks, AC handles the béarnaise sauce and I am the fry cook. Here’s what I do:
I use baking potatoes, otherwise known as Idaho potatoes. I’ve had really good luck with them and I seem to remember reading something about how the starch content makes them perfect for French fries (you’ll have to ask Andi about that). I peel the potatoes (this is optional) and then use the mandoline I got for Christmas several years ago to cut them into sticks. I would not make French fries if I didn’t own this device. Not only is it incredibly timesaving, but it allows me to make the fries as thick or thin as I like and, once locked in place, makes the fries consistent in size. A detail the perfectionist in me holds dear.
As I cut the potatoes into sticks they go immediately into a bowl of water so they don’t turn brown. No one likes brown fries.
After they’ve soaked for about 30 minutes in the water, I grab a handful and dry the strips with paper towels. Then I (carefully) toss the handful of dried potatoes in the deep fryer for about three minutes. There are nowhere near done in three minutes. In fact, they will look kind of limp and pathetic. Not to worry. This is just the first go ‘round.
I flip the basket of not-done fries on a baking sheet covered with paper towels and do another batch. I keep doing this until all the fries have been deep-fried once. Notice the glass of wine in my hand in the photo below. This makes the process much more fun but, like peeling the potatoes, it is optional.
This time around AC devised a great way to deal with all the half-done fries. Very space efficient and a definite improvement.
Then I slightly increase the temperature of the deep fryer and fry all the strips again. The double frying keeps the inside soft and the outside crunchy, just the way I like. Once the fries look golden, I flip them on yet another baking sheet lined with paper towels and sprinkle them with kosher salt while they’re still a little greasy so it sticks. (It sounds like I’m using a lot of baking sheets, but really, I only used three. I just keep them in rotation. I did plow through a bunch of paper towels though.)
Last Sunday I used two potatoes per person. That was a little too much but there are certainly worse things in the world than too many French fries.
Behold the delectable golden wonders!
