After having my family room, in which a dedicated corner is my craft room, filled with children in excess of my own for more than three weeks (extended winter break due to snow), I had some OCD tendencies to engage in and tidied and straightened and rearranged and cleaned and am finally ready to sew today. I did do a few little things which I'll show you in another post (I haven't taken pictures yet!) and I, of course, cooked.
Night before last I decided to try this recipe/method from Shawnee at Delishes-Delishes for making home-made Real French Fries. It seemed weird, but it did give us what we wanted...fries that were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The trick has got to be the soaking and the frying twice. The entire family deemed it a keeper, even though I didn't peel the potatoes first. So, here is the recipe I followed:
Homemade French Fries
First peel (or not, depending on your preference) several Russet potatoes...however many you want. Cut them into french fries, and put them in a big bowl of cold water. Let them soak at least an hour. [Mine soaked for 2+ hours and I had no problems.]
After they've soaked, heat your oil to 350. No more, no less. I make mine in an electric skillet, if you have a fryer, that's great. Stovetop frying is touchier and more difficult to keep the oil at the proper temperature. [I used my fryer. I love that messy little baby!]
Dump your potatoes out into a colander while the oil heats and allow them to drain. If they're still pretty wet when the oil is hot, use a towel to dry them a bit more. Again...oil and water don't mix! Set out a cookie sheet covered with a couple layers of newspaper which in turn is covered with paper towels. The newspaper does a good job of soaking up extra grease. [I used a brown paper grocery bag.] Add some of the potatoes to your oil. Again, I can't tell you how many, just don't put too many in or the oil temperature will drop and you'll end up with greasy fries. Swoosh the fries around a couple of times to make sure they're not sticking together. After 3-5 minutes, the fries will look like this:
[This is my picture, not Shawnee's. I thought it only fair to show you what mine looked like!]
Pale, soggy and un-fried looking. That's fine. Just put them on the paper towels and move on to the next batch. Keep going until you've cooked all the potatoes. Now raise the temperature on your oil to 400 or 425. My electric skillet only goes to 400, so that's what I do, but the higher the oil, the browner your fries will end up. [My fryer says 375 is max, so I turned it all the way up!] Dump your french fries into the colander to free up your cookie sheet. Replace the newspaper and paper towels if necessary. Once the oil is at 400 [or at your maximum temperature], put your first batch of fries in the oil. Then start watching. After a bit, they'll start floating. Start watching for them to get nice and golden brown. Scoop them out of the oil, season and eat as soon as they're cool enough to handle.
There you have it, homemade french fries. We served ours a variety of ways...Valiant and Superman are ketchup men, Buttercup is a ranch dressing girl, and I liked mine with garlic and parmesan.
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