Homemade Fries

I have discovered something incredibly dangerous.  I have learnt to make spectacularly delicious, crispy fries, in less than 15 minutes, with basically zero effort.

I foresee this discovery leading to bowlfuls of homemade fries every day.  With steak and Bearnaise sauce, with mussels in winey broth, with lemony schnitzels and salad.  Oh well, I'm going to embrace it for now, and hope the novelty wears off soon.

All you need to do is this:

Slice floury potatoes into fry-sized batons (thick or thin, though thin tend to work better).  Rinse and pat dry, if you can be bothered.  Put in a large heavy-based saucepan, and cover with canola (or other similar frying) oil - maybe 1cm over the tops.  Whack on the full heat.  Once it's boiling, use a metal spoon or tongs to poke them around, making sure they don't get stuck on the bottom.  Then just wait until they are darkly golden brown - nicely dark, to be very crispy.

Remove from oil with a slotted spoon onto a cake rack over a layer of newspaper or paper towel (not straight onto the towel, as they will go soggy.)

Into a bowl, douse with crunchy salt, and eat!  Mayonnaise or aioli optional but recommended.

I could go into a great amount of detail as to why these work, but do yourself a favour and procure a copy of Jeffrey Steingarten's The Man Who Ate Everything.  He first saw it done this way in the home kitchen of famed French chef Joël Robuchon - also mentioned on the Bon Appétit website.


There are many great things about this recipe - far less time-consuming than the double or triple fried versions traditionally done, uses much less oil which makes for easier disposal, and simple enough to do for a regular dinner.
But ultimately, they are just really delicious.  I first became hooked on skin-on fries during my first trip to America, aged 12, and on our most recent trip (2 years ago now) became thoroughly obsessed.  They are ubiquitous in Boston, and they really do have the richest, most entirely potato flavour.  If you don't like it, though, of course just peel them first.