Golden, crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside – perfect fries. It’s not so easy to make them at home, if you do not know one of the most important rules used by professional chefs, who always fry fries twice. How to make french fries?
It is only potatoes fried in deep fat, and yet the fries have something that makes people around the world love them.
The homeland of potato sticks is Belgium, from where they first conquered Great Britain, and then the United States – a fast food nourishment, which would not exist without chips. They can be an independent dish, served with only salt or various sauces, or as an addition to fish and meat. They are delicious, if good prepared. Contrary to appearances, French fries are very easy to break.
Traditional home-made potato fries
Preparation time: approx. 1 hour
Ingredients :
- approx. 1.5 kg of potatoes
- approx. 1.5-2 l of rapeseed oil
- salt
- favorite herbs, ground paprika
- to serve – ketchup or other sauce
- First of all: we get rid of the excess of simple sugars, which turn brown too quickly during frying, giving the fries a bitter taste and a very dark color. Fries from uncooked potatoes often get too dark before they become crispy.
- Secondly: we change the outer and inner texture of the fries – they will be softer inside and crunchy on the outside and will not shine so quickly. Boiling potatoes makes the starch granules swell and eventually break, giving the impression of fluffiness. On the surface, however, the starch partially turns into a gel, which during frying turns into a crunchy coating.
- Third: when we cook in salted water, we have the opportunity to season the inside of the potato. French fries should be salty, right? Why, then, cannot they be salty in their entirety?
- Fourth: we deactivate enzymes that are responsible, among others, for potato darkening. If you are going to dry the fries to further improve their crunchiness, you can not give up this step!
Chef Steps team method
It consists of cooking fries at exactly 90 degrees for 15 or 25 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fries – 9 mm or 18 mm) in a solution containing 15 g of salt, 2.5 g of baking soda and 2.5 g of sugar for each liter of water. The solution and fries must be the same, so it is recommended to use bags for vacuum packaging and a sous vide circulator, but if you have a thermometer and a good hob, everything should go well. Then the fries are dried and fried twice, first at 130 degrees and then 190 degrees. The addition of baking soda makes the fries extremely fluffy and has a deep, dark color (which for some may be a disadvantage), and the controlled cooking temperature protects them from falling apart.
