French Fries with Aioli!
I don’t eat a lot of French fries, except when homemade or purchased from a restaurant that specializes in home style cooking. Hard to believe that over 6 million pounds of potatoes a year are processed into frozen fries. We take for granted that this staple food has been around forever when in reality its only been accepted as an edible food by the Western world for the past 200 years.
The potato was discovered in South America by the Andean Incas as early as 750 B.C. It was a guarded secret by the Incas until the Spanish conquered the Incan empire in the 16th century. The Spaniards weren’t too sure about this ‘edible stone’ but the soldiers used the potato as emergency provisions.
Ok, enough history let’s get back to cooking it!
I have found that first you prepare the potatoes and then let the spuds sit in water for about 30 minutes. This is to help convert the sugars in the potato to starch which then gives more of a crunch to the fry. Dry the cut potatoes with paper towel. Heat several inches of oil until the frying thermometer reaches 360F, I use a wok. Add the potatoes being careful not to over crowd the pot. Move around with a slotted spoon until a light golden color. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel. Repeat the process until all potatoes are fried. Once this is done, put the lightly fried potatoes back into the hot oil for a second time and fry until golden brown or to your likeness. Sprinkle with sea salt and enjoy!
The Culinary Chase’s Note: It’s the water from the potatoes that make the hot oil sputter and spray so make sure the potatoes are dry. I find the best ones to use are baking potatoes. I do like ketchup with my fries but I’m also a big fan of aioli (garlic mayonnaise). Yum!
This is something I ate all the time before the South Beach Diet! Now, once in a while. In Utah everyone favors a concoction that’s called “fry sauce.” It’s a mixture of ketchup and mayo, often with a little bit of pickle juice mixed in as well. Quite yummy on the fried potatoes.
“Fry sauce” sounds good although I cannot seem to picture dunking a fry into a pinkish looking dip! 🙂 Cheers!
hey there, thanks for dropping in my blog 🙂 oo..french fries in HK hehe, well, what can I say, eat what you crave..I had lotus root fries..so,there you have it, right ? Cheers & have a wonderful, prosperous Chinese NY 🙂
What an interesting history on fries! 🙂 The best fries I’ve ever had were in Belgium…they also fry it twice as you’ve indicated here. I’m with you on the aioli! Ketchup is nice but I love my fries with mayo…mayo and sate sauce actually 🙂
I will eat anything potato. And I love my fries fat and stubby. In the Philippines, we love the ketsup-mayo dip. Didn’t know it was called fry sauce 🙂 Yup, it’s a crazy pink color and takes getting used to. The mayo tones down the sweet-sourness of the ketsup.
Hihi what is the best type of potato to use? Russet potatoes?
I use Russet potatoes as they’re more common but you can also use purple potato, Bintje potato etc. Just make sure the potato is old! I find the ones growing sprouts are good! Cheers!
hehe thanks lot! 🙂