Homemade Fast Food French Fries
Author: Jeanne via Kelly the Kitchen Kop
Optional step if you remember to start ahead of time (to make them even healthier): Here's a way to ferment potatoes to reduce the starch content and reduce the formation of acrylamides. Just slice them and soak the night before with about 1/2 cup of whey or fermented vegetable starter and enough filtered water to cover. The next day, drain and continue with recipe. It's easy but just takes thinking ahead a little, which I actually rarely do! So if you don't start the night before, just continue with the next step... Slice potatoes for frying — I usually leave the skins on after cleaning well. (***I use my Bosch with the attachment that cuts them into perfectly shaped fries in a matter of moments!) Dissolve 1/3 cup sugar in 2 cup warm water. Place potato strips in water for 15 – 30 minutes. (This reduces cancer-causing acrylamide formation at least some, even if you didn't soak them overnight.) Heat tallow or lardI to 350*. (I like this kitchen thermometer.) Drain and dry potato strips. When thoroughly dry place in oil for 1 minute. Remove from oil. Bring oil back up to 350*. (It will have cooled down when cooking the first batch.) Place potatoes back into the oil and cook until golden brown. Remove from oil, drain and add sea salt to taste. Note that nowadays we use deep fryers instead of a pan on the stove (it's safer and makes me feel better, especially since we had a kitchen grease fire when I was a kid and the sound of bubbling grease still freaks me out), read more in this post: Recipe for Deep Fried Heaven. There are links there for beer battered fish, onion rings, homemade chicken nuggets, and more! These are the fryers I wish I had. But I see they're out of stock, so then I found this bigger fryer with a stainless steel interior! It also has a nice temperature control and a handy basket -- whatever you do, don't get one with Teflon. (Read about when I ditched my Teflon electric frying pan too.)
