Moe Jones wrote:
> Last night I put some chicken on the grill and figured I would make some
> homemade French fries but they were not to my liking and wanted some
> feedback on what I could have done different.
>
>
>
> 1. Used Russet potatoes.
>
> 2. Peel and cut up potatoes.
>
> 3. Soak and rinsed in water to remove the starch.
>
> 4. Pout them in the freezer.
>
> 5. Heated up the oil up to 400 degrees & cook them.
>
> 6. Put them on paper towel and salted them.

Moe, you used the right potatoes, IMHO. When I do them, I do small
batches at 375f until they start floating. Perhaps I could improve mine
by soaking and chilling them, but room temperature seems OK for my
taste. As Emeril says, always salt things right after removing it from
the frier. I also have a very uniform fry, since I use a fry slicer.

The slicer is similar to the 'dicer' seen on TV infomercials. I got
mine at Fry's, which is a mega store electronics chain that sells about
everything under the sun, including appliances, computers, televisions
and french fry cutters. <grin> It was about $12, as I recall, and came
with a large and small grid. Personally, I like the smaller grid- about
3/8", since we like our fries a bit crispy. All I do is wash a few
Russets when doing my chicken livers, gizzards or oysters, then almost
immediately pop a handful into a 375f fryer.

BTW, I've hand cut up leftover chilled baked potatoes, and as mentioned
elsewhere, they're very good. If you really want to surprise folks, get
a couple sweet potatoes and do them like french fries.

As for chilled potatoes, my Dad once had a small restaurant when I was a
kid. The cook would peel and boil Russet potatoes for hash browns or
fries. When they were ALMOST, but not quite, fork tender, she'd put
them in a kettle of ice water to stop the cooking, keep them white and
chill them to help keep them firm. I don't know if she put lemon in the
water or not, but I'd personally consider it to keep the potatoes white.
When an order would come in for hash browns, she would use a plain old
grater to grate up enough for a serving, right onto some oil on the
griddle. The oil would help spread the heat out and prevent sticking.
The hash browns were soft and white in the center, but crispy and brown
on the outside of the pattie. Likewise, there was a wall mounted fry
cutter (an SS, expensive version of the $12 one I bought at Fry's) that
she'd use to do a couple of the boiled potatoes for fries. I don't know
her frier temperature, but 375f is pretty standard. Again, the finished
product was soft in the center and crispy on the outside, since the
potatoes were chilled.

Nonny

--
---Nonnymus---
You don’t stand any taller by
trying to make others appear shorter.