If you like to go to fast food restaurants or use to buy bags of frozen potatoes you will be used to a t
type of crispy and tasty potato that you are often not able to reproduce in your home using the basic - and unique - components of this recipe should have : oil, potato and salt. You usually get a potato that softens and has an unpleasant appearance. Forgive me if that's a wrong guess I do.
I am going to explain you how to make french fries in your house exactly like those you like. It is not that I agree with the process, but it is worth explaining the manipulations that food must undergo to obtain an idealized taste and texture. If this is the process that must be followed by a food consisting of three ingredients, I do not tell you what the treatment of more complex foods should be: it must be something worthy of the special effects of a Hollywood blockbuster.
First of all you have to cut all the fries with the same shape and length. I know this is difficult, so it is best to make long, cylindrical potatoes and cut them using a mandolin. Using this device the size will be similar and all will be fried in the same time.
Second, the potato starch content must be reduced, which is responsible for making them soft and graceless when we make french fries at home. To do this we fill a bowl with cold water and introduce the potatoes we just cut for at least 5 to 7 minutes. After this time we take them out of the bowl and we will see that the water has become cloudy due to the starch. We discard the liquid.
Now we are going to fill another bowl with boiling water. In order the potatoes acquire the desired golden color, we will dissolve 3 tablespoons of sugar and one of corn syrup or, or if you do not have corn syrup, a teaspoon of honey. Yes, indeed, you have heard correctly: sugar so that they turn golden brown. The explanation is the Maillard reaction in the presence of carbohydrates. Maillard's reaction is essential in cooking but very complex to explain, so we'll leave it for another time.
Then you introduce the potatoes in the hot water where we have dissolved the sweeteners and let them stand for 10 minutes.
After that time you carefully extract them - the water must still be very hot - and drain them so that there is no water left. When they cool you put them in the frozen for half an hour.
You take them out of the freezer to fry them. For the frying you will use canola oil at a maximum of 180 degrees celsius (356 F). Better to use a fryer with temperature control, but if you don't have it use a pan over medium heat.
When the oil is very hot you introduce the potatoes so that their frying is bubbly. You keep them only 3 minutes. After that period of time you take them out with the basket, let them drain the oil and let them cool for about 10 minutes. Return to the fryer, same oil temperature and now the final frying for 8 minutes.
You remove the fries, you leave them to drain the oil and then sprinkle salt ... really crispy and tasty.
If you do them without anyone noticing they will think that you have gone down to the Burger or the McDonals to buy them, such is their resemblance.
But due to what has already been said, do not let yourself be carried away by success and use this recipe in moderation.