Oct 08: French Fried Potatoes

About a year ago, I was watching a PBS show, "Hubert Keller: Secrets of a Chef" where he was making dishes using potatoes. He segment on the perfect French fry looked delicious and involved a double soaking in water overnight.

Even though I don't like deep frying at home, I thought I'd give it a try, especially if it involves a long, drawn out process.

This is my attempt at his recipe.

2 Russet potatoes, peeled
Oil for frying
Salt for seasoning.

1) Peel and soak the potatoes in water overnight.


2) The next day - cut the potatoes into 1/4" fries.
Here's were I unintentionally deviated from his recipe. I ended up soaking the cut potatoes 5 days. At work, I picked up extra assignments from people how left the company. We had a big deadline due so I put in massive amounts of OT to get the job done. Well... by the time I got home, I wasn't up for deep frying. The potatoes ended up sitting in the fridge until I got done with work.


3) Drain and dry the potatoes.
Deep fry at 250F for about 8 minutes.
Remove the potatoes from the fryer and set on a towel to drain and cool

The parcooked potatoes shown below are about 85% cooked. They're holding their shape, but squeeze a fry and you can feel the potato underneath the surface is soft and mealy (in a good way).



4) Heat the fryer to 400F.
Drop in the fries and allow to crips up, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Drain... Toss in a bowl with salt and you're ready to eat.


Considering I don't have a deep fryer, I ended up using a sauce pan to be the deep fryer...

The potatoes turned out nicely - soft and potatoey inside with a light crust on the outside. I was hoping for a crispier outside, but small fryer had problems keeping up with the potatoes.