Homemade French Fries Recipe
So I’ve got a good one for you guys today. I know that we all like French fries. I do hope you like French fries. Our family loves them. So we’re gonna make French fries together. I’ve got some wonderful little tips for you. We’re gonna get the potatoes, you guys, I use rest of potatoes when I make French fries. They’re perfect for it because, you know, they’re just starch qualities just right in them. And then I’m gonna make a few yummy dips with you that are gonna be so good, some little salty stuff. Canola oil is perfect for French fries because the, I’m going to deep fry them. I know, don’t grin, you can bake them if you want to but deep fried French fries does the best. So I’m gonna deep fry them. I’ll use canola oil because you can get the temperature a lot higher without it smoking or burning. You could use peanut oil if you want. A lot of people don’t with the whole peanut allergy business. But anyways, let’s go make some French fries. So my potatoes are all beautifully washed and when I do these wonderful yummy French fries, you guys, the thing is you can cut French fries to any size you want. My tendency is to cut them a little bit thicker and here’s why I do that. With French fries if you cut them really super tiny, like fast food kind of French fries, what happens is lots of oil goes on them. So if you cut them a little bit thicker, you don’t get as much oil on your French fries which is kinda nice. So I try to keep a very consistent-sized to my fries because here’s the deal, if I don’t then all my French fries end up burnt if there are little tiny skinny ones versus big fat ones. But you know, this is all I do, I just either cut them into quarters if you want them a little bit smaller than this you can do that like if there’s a bigger one like this then you know I give it one more slice. But I try to keep them kinda chubby because I think it helps my French fries just not get as much oil on them. So once I got all my fries cut, this is an important piece and it will save you hugely when you’re actually deep frying your fries, throw up a bowl with water, dump a bunch of ice in it, then for about 30 minutes let your French fries have a little cold bath. You can go and have one too if you want. But you know what this is for is, what it does is rest of potatoes have a lot of starch in them which is what makes them really great for deep frying and stuff. And when I put them in the water, it will pull some of the starch out of them so that when you put them in, your oil the first time they won’t get all slimy and icky instead they fry really nicely and the cold from the ice is great also because it will allow them to not absorb the oil quite as quickly, they’ll fry really beautifully and that is what you’re looking for in a lovely French fry. So the deal with the frying French fries is, it’s good to have a deep fry thermometer. I use a candy thermometer coz that’s what I’ve always had. But if you got something like that, it’s essential and the reason it is, is because you, you know, you’re looking for the temperature of between 350 and 375. You want it that hot so that your French fries actually go, you know, plunge into a very nice hot oil. And I use my big casteronpap which you know I have a love affair going on with it anyways. But if you got a deep frier, of course use that. But if you don’t, you know, go ahead and use a big pan. You’re looking for, you know, anywhere from 3 to 4 inches of oil and, you know, I’m gonna get mine started. I’m gonna watch it so it gets up to 350 to 375. In the meantime, my French fries have been sitting in this water bath for a good 30 minutes. Listen, you can leave in this bath overnight if you want to. You’re not gonna harm the little guys. All you’re trying to do is, like I said, you can see in the water all that starch and everything like that from the potatoes. Good to get rid of all that out of the potato. So you want your French fries to be really dry when you plunk them in the oil because you know, the classic science project, it will pop if you don’t , so really make sure that while your oil is heating up, you really dry your fries very, very well. And if you wanna take them all a little bit earlier and dry them up, then go ahead and do that. So while my oil is heating up to that 350, 375 range, I grab some paper bags. You can use paper towel, you know whatever it is you guys have. I ripped this one open. So basically once they’re done cooking, I pull them out and plunk them on this paper so that you know, soaks up some of the oil and everything. The other thing you can do while you’re waiting for your oil to get hot is you can prepare some little clam to this. You know I’m gonna do a great ketchup, a little mayo, and you know some little funky salt makes you them think will make them much more gourmet and delicious. So why I love ketchup and so do our kids with their French fries coz of course you know it’s the all American thing, ketchup and French fries. I also love to kinda do the Belgian thing so you know with mayonnaise. And here’s the deal with doing mayonnaise and French fries, first of all, it’s killer with French fries so I just use a good safflo or storebuck mayonnaise and you guys this is so no brainer, I put a little bit in a bowl, I mix in a little bit of mustard, this happens to be a yummy wasabi mustard. And then I’ve got some wonderful little herbs here I happened to have grabbed time out of my herb garden. I just give it a whirl. If you don’t want herbs in your mayonnaise, it’s also really good when you put the salt and stuff on your French fries that you put herbs right in there. You know it just makes some a little bit more interesting in this. Let’s just taste. Mmm, that’s really good. And then I love flavored salts, you know I’m always telling you guys, you try to keep a good mix of different flavored salts and things like that. Well this happens to be one my sister gave me, and it’s just you know this happens it’s got like this tropical hibiscus salt. It could be whatever you got. I’m gonna mix in a little red pepper flake to it to just give it a little bit of you know interest and spice and everything. And I think this will be great so when the French fries come out, and they’re nice and hot, and they got a little oil off them, then I will dowse them with lots of salt and pepper because I love French fries when they’re really salty like that. And then the other one I’ll do is French, is ketchup. So you know you can dip a little there, you can dip a little there and make you a little fantasy French fries. So my oil is nice and hot. And my salt, I just wanted to, you know one of the things you do when, when you’re tasting the salt is just make sure you got like a nice balance of spice, salty, peppery. I put it all in one little pot so it’s really, really tasty. And I’m about there. This is a good tool to have on hand so you guys if you don’t have one of this, it’s called a spider, you know they call it, sometimes they’re called, they have bamboo handles are called Chinese wok tools or spider tool but it’s just really great because when you’re pulling the French fries up you know, you can do it with a tong or that kind of thing but these are really great to have with you, get used to doing French fries. So very, very carefully, put your fries in because hot oil on your skin is not very becoming. So I don’t put in too many at all. I usually do, you know, a nice handful at a time. And then, I let them fry up for about 4 to 6 minutes until they’re kind of a nice, light golden brown. I’ in about 5 minutes right now and that’s usually where I set my timer and then I always come over and I’ll take a little peek. So for instance, I can tell right now they’re really light brown and I want them to just go a little bit further so I’m gonna let them go another minute or so. You really have to watch them. You know you might like yours going a little bit further or you might like them a little bit lighter. But I, since these are really nice and thick cut, I’m gonna let them go just a little bit longer yet. So if you notice that a few of your fries are a little more golden, maybe there are a few pieces that are smaller, just kinda fish those out and plunk them on your paper bag. You know kinda keep an eye on the rest of them, you know, this is the kind of thing you don’t really want to walk away from. So the rest of my fries are ready, you know, this fries, some of the thicker ones, actually kinda went around the 7 minute range, so like I said, just keep your eye on them, and hold them out. Now, before you throw a new batch in, just make sure your oil got up there again in your temperature and everything else. I let this drain just for a second before I salt them, and my oil does look pretty good, so I’ll throw in another batch. But the other thing I wanna tell you is, if say you’re, you know, making hamburgers or something like that with your dinner, the one thing that you can do is, if you so choose, you can fat fry this again. Now, I know that’s a very scary thought, coz it is for me too, the idea of something getting done, you know, fried twice is, you know, big taboo thing here in the states, but you can do it, and the reason you do it is that, you know, your French fries are sitting here, don’t salt them then, you go out, you’re doing your hamburgers over, they can sit here for 10 minutes or half hour, then just before you’re ready to eat, get your oil back to 375, plunk them back in the oil for like a minute or so, and then pull them out, they’ll be ready to go and they’ll be really crispy, so, it might be worth the try. And now, okay, so, this look pretty good to me, enough oil I can tell has gone off of them and all I’m gonna do now is just salt them, I like salting them, when they’re still pretty hot like this, because I just think it sticks nicely to them. And then what is so cute about this, see, you can see it I got them all salted up is, I have this great little paper bags that I’ve made and the kids love them this way because you know it’s such a cute thing to do, so this are just lunch sacks, and all I do, you guys, is that I just roll down the edges, and ahm, if you wanna just rip off the edges a little bit you can, to roll them down, but you know it just takes a second to just kind of flip the edges over, see this ones ripping a little, which is fine, it helps it roll a little bit easier, and then I just put some fries in, which is so cute, and each of the kids gets their own little sack of French fries, and you know, what’s a good rule of them, if you’re making a French fries is basically think about, one roset potato per person, and if you really like French fries, I might do two.