French Fries Recipe

Name: French Fries Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 lb Potatoes; ⅞ cup Cooking oil (amount for nutrition purposes only, for actual frying we need as much oil as much covers the potatoes completely)

Need a tasty side or just something to dip and snack? Check out this French fries recipe that tastes the best!

Nowadays when we don’t really have to think twice about what to put in our shopping cart and we are easily able to afford to pay extra for colorful logos and fancy packaging, we don’t care much about wasting food, not to mention wasting calories.

Probably many of us have already heard about wasting food is bad, thanks to the myriad of nonprofit and governmental organization that try hard to bring the issue into our attention, but according to statistics, no one really cares about it that much.

So, it doesn’t come as a surprise that even fewer of us cares or at all heard of wasting calories which simply means that we take more calories in that we need.

When we take in excess calories, thanks to a thousand of years old, hence somewhat outdated survival mechanism, our body stores it as fat for less prosperous times. Luckily, those times seem edging further away by each passing day in the modern society.

Which brings us back to our fat padded body, that is apart from not conforming very well to the beauty standard of our current era, carrying it around produces a wealth of undesirable healthy issues too.

If it were only for beauty’s sake, we could probably put up with an amorph body. Afterall people didn’t shower for thousands of years, and they could bear each other’s smell too, but we try so hard to live forever or at least healthier, that we even submit to losing weight every now and then.

Apparently, giving up eating seems much harder than anything else, so taking up exercising for the sake of keep stuffing ourselves with excess calories seems like a more desirable option.

Unfortunately, the amount of calories we are capable to gulp down is so enormous, thanks to the refined industrialized food production practices, that there is not enough time in a day to jumping-jack them down, let alone what we try to do with those puny 30 minutes daily dash exercises.

French fries are the uncontested champion of deep-fried food and with that, the prime standard bearer when it comes to pointing fingers at unhealthy food.

Although potatoes aren’t as bad as other starches like white flour or rice, after all it helped Europe beat scurvy, thanks to its vitamin C content when it was introduced from the New World but throwing them into unreasonable amount of saturated fats can degrade any superfood onto the nutritional level of deep-fried Mars Bars.

Before industrialized farming, no one would have thought of using enormous amount of edible fat or oil for the sole purpose of preparing a dish then discarding the whole batch because of its unhealthiness.

Sure, people cooked using lard or pressed oil from olives but throwing out anything edible at the time when food security was meant to survive until the next harvest, was not really an option.

Not today though. When our biggest concern is to avoid long lines in the grocery store or be at home when food delivery arrives, we happily fill up our pots with a month worth of edible calories just to use it as a preparation method for another food.

Thanks to the obesity pandemic and the various cancer research studies, now many of us are aware of the dangers of deep frying and we seek alternatives that can save our oils-soaked starches so we can still eat it.

Roasting potatoes in convection ovens or investing in their little sibling, the air friers seems to be a working solution, reducing the amount of fat needed to prepare the dish, minimizing the calories we waste having them.

Sure, the simplest and healthiest solution would be to stop looking for replacement for something that is not good for us, but then how on Earth we could have our burgers without fries, not to mention what we’d use to dip into our sauces on the side.

Ingredients

1 lb / 500g Potatoes
⅞ cup / 200g Cooking oil (amount for nutrition purposes only, for actual frying we need as much oil as much covers the potatoes completely)

How to make French fires

Best potatoes for frying are Maris piper, Sebago and Russet, among others, of course. Peel the potatoes or if we like them with skin on then rinse and clean them with possible contaminants and dirt.
Cut the potatoes up into ⅓” / 1cm wide chunks. To avoid browning, keep the potatoes in cold water until start frying them. Some like to soak them in milk before frying for a couple of hours or even overnight for extra fluffiness.
To create fluffy interior and crunchy exterior, precooking potatoes before deep frying is essential. This can be done in water or in oil. If we choose to precook the potatoes in oil then drain them from excess liquid to minimize the possibility of oil splattering all over the kitchen and burn us. Precooking oil temperature should be around 266°F / 130°C which results gentle bubbling of the oil when the potatoes placed in there.
Remove the potatoes when it’s possible to break them in two easily, about 7 – 10 minutes. Place them apart as possible that will allow them to cool to room temperature faster.
Heat oil to high 360°F / 180°C temperature which will result a crazy bubbling frenzy of the oil once the potatoes are placed in. Mind not to overcrowd the dish as it can painfully slow down the frying process. Submerge the precooked then cooled potato slices in the hot oil.
Deep fry until the potatoes give a hollow sound upon tapping them with a cooking utensil and golden brown or preferred color is reached, about 3 – 5 minutes.
Take the potatoes out then let them drip of excess oil.
Season and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

F.A.Q.

What are the best potatoes for frying French fries?

The best potatoes for frying French fries include Maris Piper, Sebago, Russet, and other varieties known for their starchy texture. These potatoes provide a fluffy interior and a crispy exterior when fried.

Why should we precook the potatoes before deep-frying?

Precooking the potatoes before deep-frying is important to achieve a fluffy interior and crispy exterior. This can be done by either boiling the potatoes in water or precooking them in oil. Precooking helps ensure that the potatoes cook evenly and maintain their shape during the frying process.

What is the recommended temperature for frying French fries?

The recommended temperature for frying French fries is high, at around 360°F / 180°C. This high temperature ensures that the fries cook quickly and develop a crispy exterior while remaining soft on the inside.

How long should we fry French fries?

French fries should be deep-fried for approximately 3 to 5 minutes, or until they turn golden brown and give a hollow sound when tapped with a cooking utensil. The frying time may vary depending on the thickness of the fries and the desired level of crispness.

What can we do to minimize the use of oil when frying French fries?

To minimize the use of oil when frying French fries, one option is to precook the potatoes in oil and then drain them from excess liquid before deep-frying. Another alternative is to use convection ovens or air fryers, which require less oil compared to traditional deep-frying methods. These methods reduce the amount of fat needed to prepare the fries and help minimize the calories consumed.

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