An easy way to make French fries

LIVING IN THE KITCHEN

Quite some time ago, I wrote about cooking a beautifully seared, perfectly rare steak without filling your neighbourhood with smoke. It’s time for the other shoe to drop: the french fries.

In terms of outcome, there’s nothing  wrong with cooking these the traditional way: in moderately hot fat until cooked through, then in immoderately hot fat until golden brown and crisp. But in the typical home kitchen there are obstacles. Mustering enough heat to keep enough fat hot enough to do the job; the danger of splattering or even overflow; the cleanup; and the lingering odour. So, unless you have an atypical home kitchen, french fries, made from scratch, are probably not often on your menu.

Simple tricks
The trick is to put the potatoes into cold oil and slowly bring it up to frying temperature. I’ve known about this for decades. Back in the 1970s, my friend told me that this was how his mother always did it. This sounded so loony that I didn’t try it until a couple of years ago. It is amazingly successful. You use (far) less oil and there is almost no odour apart from the pleasant aroma of potatoes, you don’t need any special pans or fry-baskets, you don’t have to stand over a fryer; there seems to be no danger of bubbling over or splattering, and the oil remains relatively undamaged (it never reaches the high temperatures that traditional french-fry cooking demands) and thus can be strained and reused a couple of times.

When I started doing this, I researched the technique and was reminded that Joël Robuchon wrote about it, and  Jeffrey Steingarten subsequently wrote about Robuchon writing about it. So this will not be new to readers who keep up with such things — and it was certainly no innovation to Tom’s mother back in the ’50s.

Step by step guide
Cut your peeled potatoes into whatever shape you like, but probably no skinnier than three-eighth of an inch. Rinse them and shake off the water (part of the genius of this technique is that a little residual water won’t cause splattering, so you don’t need to towel-dry the potatoes). Put them in a heavy pan — a straight-sided sauté pan is ideal, but anything not too shallow will do. They should ideally be in a single layer, but this is not always practical: aim for it, though. Add room-temperature fat just to thoroughly cover and put the pan over low heat, without a lid.

As the oil temperature slowly rises, the potatoes will, in effect, poach in fat and their excess water will gently evaporate (hence the lack of splattering). Yes, the oil will bubble, but reassuringly, not alarmingly. Every now and again, use a thin-bladed spatula or a long-handled spoon to make sure they are not sticking (their starch has a tendency to cause this) and give the pan a shake. Be very careful. At a certain point they will be very, very fragile — cooked but not yet crisp. I cannot help thinking of the nightmarish way a caterpillar liquefies in its cocoon before emerging as a butterfly.

When the potatoes are very tender, you can raise the heat, but only a little. Say, from low to medium-low. They will finally start to crisp and turn golden, and will ultimately become french fries. Excellent ones.

The one down side (apart from the limit on quantity) is that this can take as long as an hour. So, plan ahead and be ready to sit down and eat as soon as they’re done, drained and well salted. Whatever you’re eating with them will probably benefit from a few minutes’ rest anyway.

I’ve referred generically to “fat” and “potatoes.” You have lots of options here. For fat, I often use a mixture of neutral oil (such as canola) and olive oil. Whatever you normally fry in will work here, including clarified butter. Remember, at these relatively low temperatures, the oil will not be badly damaged and once it is cool you can strain it and keep it in the fridge for one or two further potato-frying sessions.
You can, incidentally, cut your potatoes into big wedges, resulting in something like roast potatoes. The gradual heating automatically ensures that the potatoes are thoroughly cooked before they get crisp. In fact, you could probably throw whole potatoes into the pan, though I haven’t tried this. Just be sure that all the pieces are around the same size and shape.

So now you’ve got your steak and you’ve got your fries. If you feel that’s not a complete meal, you’re on your own.
Edward Schneider
NYT