Crispy Fries

I love watching America's Test Kitchen. They do all the work for you and always come up with recipes and cooking tricks that are interesting and helpful. One such recipe is the easier to cook 'crispy on the outside, creamy in the inside' French fries. And it really is not complicated at all. The secret to the crispiness is adding uniformly cut [into batons] Yukon Gold potatoes to room-temperature oil instead of preheating the oil. Once the oil and potatoes start boiling [over high heat], the potatoes are cooked without stirring for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, the chips are separated with tongs and cooked for another 5 to 10 minutes until golden brown and crispy. I love it sprinkled with flaked sea salt and dipped in malted vinegar.

for added yumminess, I added a cup of rendered duck fat to the oil

Want Some Fries With That?

duck fat fries: the most delicious fries ever

The answer is definitely yes, large size please, actually just the fries...and some mayonnaise or malt vinegar. I used to be addicted to McD fries in Manila. There was a period when I had their fries every morning before going to work. I still buy them here once in maybe 6 months when I get the craving but it seems to be getting more and more insipid since the use of tallow has been banned. I don't know what oil they were using in Manila and Hong Kong but the fries tasted better when we were there.

A few days ago my daughter asked what my bag of duck fat is doing in the vegetable bin and on the same day I read in the Gourmet magazine fries that are fried in duck fat. I interpreted the coincidence as telling me to make some fries using duck fat. Well, I just had for lunch the most amazing delicious fries that are less greasy, so flavorful, and only needed a few grains of sea salt to enhance its yumminess. These fries definitely don't need ketchup, mayonnaise, or vinegar. I ate one whole large potato all by myself and will fry some later for dinner to go with Steaks With Pan-fried Cherry Tomatoes which I will write about in a future post. Aah, I'm feeling like a contented cow, and there goes my diet.:D