Bourgeoisie Chips

Let's face it...french fries are the ultimate suburban white food. Oh, but aren't they soooooo super yummy?

Last night the D and I decided to make home-made fries (erm, chips if you must) for dinner (oh and a token piece of fish.) We went whole hog! No short cuts on this adventure!

Here's how you make super yum homefries (better than any you've ever had, and this is no exaggeration).

1. Gather a few good-sized, scrubbed russets.

2. Fire up the deep fryer with some good peanut oil (oh gosh, you have to have one even if you only use it for chip making) to 320. (We made a concession with the peanut oil, but lard would be even better.)

3. Use your brand new mandolin to make gorgeous raw chips out of your russets. If you don't have a mandolin, cajole someone else into taking on the responsibility of making the chips as uniform as possible.

4. In small batches, fry the chips for 2-3 minutes at 320. You are going for undercooked, pale and floppy. (You will do a second fry in a few minutes).

5. Drain par-cooked chips.

6. Repeat until you have a nice pile of soft, floppy undercooked chips.

7. Raise temp in your fryer to 375.

8. Using small batches again, refry chips for 3-4 mintues until golden and perfect. Drain and salt liberally.

9. Get someone else to make token fish (ie. dredge fillets in seasoned flour and lightly pan fry).

10. Eat chips and rave about how delicious and wonderful and nutty and decadent they are. Argue about whether using sauce/mayo/aioli/whatever actually enhances or detracts from their perfection.

mmmmm!