Homemade French Fries

Great homemade french fries are not as easy as they seem to make. Getting the crispy outside and soft, pillowy inside takes some work. I think they are the greatest side dish of all-time and are totally worth going the extra mile for. In fact, I would rather overcook a burger or burn the pizza rather than screw up the fried spuds – they are just that important.

Most people just cut the potatoes and then drop them in oil. This results in decent fries but often they are way overdone and too crunchy or cooked just right without the crispy outside. Such high hopes for the work it takes to cut them often ends in the devastating realization that the french fries are below average or just plain suck.

In order to get the best results, good fries need to be cooked twice and cut as evenly as possible. Most restaurants that make fresh cut fries will first fry them at a low temperature until they are just cooked through, let them cool and fry them again at a hotter temperature to get the crispy outside.

In order to avoid the maximum grease intake, I like to boil the fries first in water to cook them through, then frying them to crisp them up. Just one bath in the hot oil results in less grease absorbed by the potato and there isn't much of a difference in taste.

The boil then fry technique is how I made this batch of fries, which resulted in some damn good crispy spuds. I used my knife to cut them instead of a french fry cutter and that turned out to be their one real flaw. The inconsistent size resulted in varying degrees of doneness and crunchiness. The batch was pretty good overall, but they would have been much better had I dusted off the fry cutter to get one consistent size. With french fries – consistent size matters.

After making these, I have decided to try and master the beloved homemade french fry, it will take some work but I consider this the beginning of a quest, a culinary journey to make the perfect fry. I have no disillusions that mine will ever top McDonald's, the greatest french fries the world has ever consumed, but something that comes close.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
2 Idaho potatoes, cut into french fries
1 quart of oil

Cover potatoes with water in a pot. Bring to a boil and cook through, 8 to 10 minutes. (This may vary according to the size the fries are cut into) Drain and let cool to room temperature. Heat oil to 375° in a large pot. Fry potatoes in batches until golden brown and crispy 4 to 5 minutes.  Remove to a paper towel lined plate or bowl. Immediately season with salt to taste. Let cool slightly, then serve.

Chili Cheese Fries

Chili Cheese Fries

I made a pot of chili recently and instead of just eating a bowl of it for leftovers, I threw all dietary concerns out the window and smothered a platter of french fries with it, then topped it all with cheddar cheese!

Chili cheese fries!

This batch of chili was really tasty and I had eaten a couple of leftover bowls the previous day. It was time to mix it up a little and add some tasty little french fries to the equation. I always keep a bag of frozen french fries in the freezer as a go-to side if I need.

This might not be the prettiest or healthiest dish around, but man was it tasty!

Eat well, cook often ...

CHILI CHEESE FRIES
1 Serving, 25 minutes
1/2 C chili (recipe here)
Enough French Fries to cover a dinner plate, fully cooked
1/4 C Cheddar cheese. shredded

Cook french fries according to package directions. Preheat chili in microwave or stove top. Pile fries on a plate, top with chili and cheddar cheese. Heat under broiler or in a microwave until cheese is melted, then serve.

Roasted Chicken and Cheddar Potatoes

Roasted chicken thighs and cheddar mashed potatoes with snap peas

This was an "in between" meal for me.

I purchased a 5 lb package of bone-in chicken thighs on sale for 87¢ per pound. Half of it I de-boned and made into green bean chicken stir-fry. The other half I roasted and shredded for chicken salad. Instead of shredding all of it, I grabbed two of the perfectly cooked thighs after they came out of the oven to enjoy for lunch and the end result was this plate of food.

While the chicken roasted, I made the cheddar potatoes. I steamed them in the microwave and mashed with cheese and unsalted butter. I didn't have any milk or cream to fluff them up so I couldn't call them actual "mashed potatoes" but they were tasty and a great compliment to the chicken.

This lunch took about 45 minutes, which was really just the time it took to roast and rest the chicken.

Like I said in the beginning, this is the "in between" meal, nothing fancy. I got creative with the other recipes I made using the thighs. I just couldn't resist eating a couple of them hot out of the oven, the aroma that filled my home was way to much to resist.

Eat well, cook often ...

ROASTED CHICKEN THIGHS
45 minutes; 1 to 4 servings
2 to 8 chicken thighs

Preheat oven to 400° Season thighs all over with salt and pepper. Place on a foil lined sheet pan fitted with an oven safe baking rack. Put chicken in center of oven and roast for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° and roast 15 minutes more or until meat in thickest part of thigh reaches 160° on a meat thermometer. Let rest 5 to 10 minutes, then serve.

CHEDDAR MASHED POTATOES
Serves 2; 10 minutes
1 large or 2 medium russet potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks
1 cup cheddar cheese
4 Tbs unsalted butter

Place potatoes in a microwave steam bag. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon of water to the bag then seal. Place in microwave and cook on high for 8 minutes or until soft and cooked through. Time can vary depending on microwave. Remove from bag and place in bowl. Add butter and cheddar cheese, mash with a potato masher until cheese and butter are melted and all is combined, then serve.

Creamy Cheddar and Chive Mashed Potatoes

Printable version

If I’m eating roasted turkey with gravy, I love to have mashed potatoes on the plate. Creamy spuds are my second favorite Thanksgiving side dish behind green bean casserole and when I say creamy, I mean creamy! No lumps, lots of butter and nice wispy peaks.

Earlier this fall I made basic creamy mashed potatoes and I prepared this batch the exact same way, but this time I added cheddar cheese and chives to punch up the flavor.

I could eat this stuff by the fist full! And that is what I basically did when I served them. I used my finger to scoop a bite out of the bowl every time I passed by and no one was looking. Mashed potatoes to me are like frosting on cake and it’s nearly impossible for me to walk passed without snatching up a sample. Adding further to the temptation was the flavorful cheddar cheese and fresh chives.

BEHIND THIS BITE

Cheddar and Chive Mashed Potatoes

As I mention in the introduction, I documented a prime rib dinner back in September and creamy mashed potatoes were part of the spread. I made them as basic as possible because I knew that I could use many of the elements again whenever I wanted to make mashed potatoes for a new post. Most of the photography in this recipe information graphic was originally shot for the basic creamy mashed potatoes. Only the last stage featuring the chives and cheddar and the final shot at the bottom of the recipe are new. I made this exactly like the basic version until I made the additions of cheddar and chives.

I have been re-using photographs of prepped ingredients for a long time, but this is a relatively knew technique I’ve started to develop involving basic recipes. This allows me more time to be creative and less time doing production work. Look for another mashed potato recipe soon, because Christmas dinner wouldn’t be as special without a batch of creamy spuds.

Eat well cook, often ...

THE RECIPE

Cheddar and Chive Mashed Potatoes

 
Serves 12 to 15; 40 minutes
5 lbs Potatoes, peeled, diced
3 Tbs salt
1 stick Unsalted butter
1/4 to 3/4 C Milk
1 C Sour cream
2 C Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 C Chives sliced

Cook potatoes
Put potatoes in a large pot. Fill with enough water to cover potatoes by at least 1 inch. Stir in salt. Place pot over high heat, bring to a boil and cook potatoes until tender. 12 to 15 minutes.

Drain, mash, serve
Drain potatoes in a colander. Return to pot and add butter and a splash of milk. Mash potatoes until creamy and smooth with a potato masher. Add more milk if necessary to achieve desired creaminess. Stir in sour cream, cheddar cheese and chives, place in a bowl and serve

Cheddar Chipotle Potato Cakes

Printable version

For my last post I created Nacho Potato Skins, which left me with 3 cups of cooked potato that I could either throw away or put to good use. Rather than throw it out, this is what I made – Chipotle cheddar potato cakes! They were fun to make and tasty to eat. I got dirty and used my fingers to make the patties for this one. It was just like mixing together a meat loaf, I could’ve used a spoon but it’s easier and more thorough to use the fingers and just get messy.

The potato is really just a canvas used to hold and present the other flavors. I decided to use my holy trinity: cheddar-bacon-chipotle, or creamy-smoky-spicy. I love that flavor combo. I bet I ate 7 or 8 of these myself, enough for the spice of the chipotle to give me heartburn and for me, That’s a lot! On second thought the pickled jalapenos as garnish may have contributed to that also. Hard to tell, one thing’s for sure though – I ate a bunch of these.

BEHIND THIS BITE
It took me a batch in the skillet to get these right. At first I had too much oil in the pan and I wasn’t getting the crust, so I had to change course. That’s when I cleaned the skillet and used just enough oil so the cakes wouldn't stick, and I left them alone until they were sizzling. It took a little patience and a change of direction, but I got the crispy skin to compliment the creamy and cheesy center.

I ate them with sour cream and pickled jalapeno but these could have been put in a sandwich just as easy. Any number of ingredients and flavors could be used to make them and I highly recommend trying something like this when there is left over baked or mashed potato. Actually, I’d be willing to cook some potatoes to just make more cakes like these again.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Make 10 to 12 cakes; 30 minutes
3 C Potato, fully cooked or mashed
1 C Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 C Bread crumbs
1/2 C Bacon, crumbled
1 Egg
2 Tbs Chipotle pepper, minced
Pickled jalapenos and sour cream for garnish

Mix ingredients, form patties
In a large bowl mix together potatoes, cheese, bread crumbs, bacon, egg and chipotle pepper. Thoroughly combine. Roll about a 1/4 cup of the mixture into a ball and flatten into a patty. Repeat until mixture is gone. Should make 10 to 12 patties.

Cook and serve
In a large skillet with a little oil cook patties in batches until golden brown. 3 to 4 minutes per side. Remove to a plate, garnish with sour cream and pickled jalapeño, then serve.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Printable version

I made this soup with the potato I had leftover form making potato skins. I knew I would have a good amount reserved as well as extra bacon and cheddar cheese – which is perfect for making loaded potato soup. I view this dish as a liquid with everything wonderful about a loaded spud from a steak house blitzed together into drinkable form! (With a little depth added from the root vegetables.)

Using bacon in the base of any potato soup is pure culinary gold. Bacon in general is culinary gold, but the smoky hint that it provides next to the mild flavor of potato just seems to be a magical combination! Add the mirepoix and garnishes and BAM - you’ve got a winner on your hands. 

BEHIND THIS BITE
This soup and the potato skins from my last post are a great combination for a Super Bowl party because it’s like getting two for one. Both are made from the same batch of baked potatoes. Heck, if you get lazy or tipsy on booze while baking the potatoes you can quit right there and have a yummy baked spud if need be.

There are many different direction that this soup could be taken, I went with the loaded theme simply because of the extra ingredients I had around. I could have very easily went with potato and leeks. (which is my favorite soup of all-time) Potato soup is a nice compliment to the skins and both are great in any party spread.

Eat well, cook often ... 

THE RECIPE
Serves 4; 45 minutes
4 strips Bacon diced
1 C Onion diced
1/2 C Celery diced
1/2 C Carrot diced
1 Tbs Garlic minced
4 C Chicken broth
3 C Potato cooked
DIVIDE AMONG BOWLS
1/2 C Cheddar cheese shredded
1/4 C Green onion sliced

Make base
Over medium heat in a soup pot, sauté bacon until cooked through, 7 to 8 minutes. Add onion, celery, carrot and garlic cook until soft, 6 to 8 minutes more.

Finish soup, blend, garnish and serve
Add chicken broth and potatoes bring to a simmer and cook 15 to 20 minutes. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Carefully move soup to a blender. Process until silky and smooth. Pour into a bowl and garnish with cheddar cheese and green onion.

Cheesy Baked Potato Skins

Printable version

Potato skins remind me of a part-time job I took at the Texas Roadhouse soon after relocating to Indiana in the Summer of 2010. They used leftovers to make them. Baked potato is an item that is not made to order, there has to be large batches prepared ahead of time. The Roadhouse utilizes leftover baked potatoes to make the skins as an appetizer the next day. I’m sure there are many restaurant that do this, but, I thought it was an interesting fact. That little tid bit has stuck with me long enough for me to mentally regurgitate it here.

A typical order came with cheese, bacon and a side of sour cream. I always took it a step further and would often smother them with chili. Looking back, that was a little overkill, but I would get them after busting my butt waiting tables. It's hard to not be over the top with food after you have served more than a $1,000 worth to customers and not been able to eat one bite.

One of the great benefits about making this recipe at home is that there is plenty of potato leftover, enough to make another potato favorite - which will be featured in my next post.

BEHIND THIS BITE
I never thought I would be doing something like waiting tables at a steak house. But, I had been in Fort Wayne for about three months and was really digging my new found spot at a little paper as the Visual Food Columnist, the only problem was that there was no pay. To me, getting the print space was all that mattered.

I had to build a portfolio of work and see if I could sustain it for the long run. In the news business, you have to be able to do your job, when the last thing on your mind is your job, meaning that your work has got to be good when it’s at it’s worst. Generally, you can look at a year’s worth of work and determine if your in the right spot.

In order to save money while I built my portfolio, I took some part time employment with my sister waiting tables. I thought it would be easy, but I will tell anyone this right now – to be a good server at a busy restaurant and make good money – you have to bust your ass!

It took me a couple of months learning the new trade. In the beginning, I totally sucked, I literally had to learn how to carry a tray of drinks.  During that process I drenched a baby with a glass of ice water - true story.

I worked hard and was determined to be good at it before giving up. The work paid off and I did become a good server. I’m proud to say that during the 9 months that I worked at the THR, I was secretly evaluated by customers working for corporate headquarters twice (neither was during the first couple of months thankfully) and both times I received a 100 percent score.

I proved I could sustain my food column and picked up the skills necessary to be a good waiter in the process. That said, I’m glad I don’t have to do that now. I quit waiting tables exactly a year after starting my food column, I could not wait to cash out my last table and I hope that I never have to do that again, but I will if I have to, waiting tables is probably the most lucrative part time job in Fort Wayne. The experience has made me work even harder at making a living as a food columnists - which is still a work in progress.

Eat well cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Serves 6; 2 hours
6 large Russet potatoes
1 Tbs Vegetable oil
1 Tbs Kosher salt
DIVIDE OVER POTATO SKINS
1 C  Cheddar cheese, shredded
5 strips Bacon, cooked & crumbled
1/2 C  Sour cream
1/4 C  Green onion, sliced 

Bake potatoes
Clean and rinse potatoes. Pat dry. Toss potatoes with salt and vegetable oil. Poke three deep holes in each potato with a knife. Place potatoes on a baking rack over a cookie sheet. Roast in a preheated 350° oven until cooked through, 1 hour and 30 minutes. Remove and let cool, slice in half. 

Make potato skins, garnish and serve
Scope flesh from potatoes with a spoon leaving a thin layer of potato attached to the skin. Reserve flesh for later use. Fill potatoes with cheese and bacon. Return to pan with baking rack and heat in 350° oven until cheese is melted and potatoes are heated through, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove and garnish with green onion and sour cream, then serve.

Microwave Bake Potatoes - Loaded!

Printable version

My mom is a twelve degree black belt in cooking with radiation, or what I like to call a microwave ninja. She mastered the art of 30-minute meals long before anyone had heard of Rachael Ray and one of the main appliances she uses is the microwave – mostly for side dishes like pasta and vegetables.

In my opinion, the most impressive thing she makes in the microwave is potatoes – baked or mashed. Potatoes are really ideal. The microwave uses radiation to heat water molecules, effectively steaming things from the inside out, which is a great way to prepare a potato. Using ziploc microwave steaming bags, which are available at nearly every grocery store, a baked potato can be on the plate in 20 minutes, which is what I create for this recipe.

With the hottest part of the summer looming, this is a great dish to accompany steaks from the grill, just start the potatoes right before putting the steaks on and they should be finished just in time to slice into the meat.

BEHIND THIS BITE
I have been wanting to make this recipe for my column for nearly two years. I was staying at the family campground and I scribbled “My mom is a microwave ninja” in my notebook. That’s all it took to inspire an entire recipe – a crazy, miller-lite-fueled quote.

It is 100 percent the truth, and my Mom has a million tricks for putting dinner on the table.

She comes from a long line of great cooks that felt it was their duty to put dinner on the table every night. She has carried on that tradition even though she works full-time. My Dad cooks too, and can put dinner on the table as well, but Mom makes dinner HER burden. She really likes to provide for the family, and dinner has always been her way of doing that on a regular basis.

It's her daily family devotion.

My Mom and Dad’s generation, or the Baby Boomers, ushered in a great change with the American family. Unlike anything that planet Earth has ever experienced, the majority of women in America began to share the family financial burden. Which is the equivalent of defending the nest in a capitalistic society.

This created a new dynamic in the family life of men and women.

The catalysts for this change was World War II.  The feminist movement started long before the war, but it created the conditions for the movement to take hold.

When the Untied States entered World War II, the men went off to fight and the women worked to build the war machine – while still caring for the family. When the men returned, America women weren't completely willing to go back to the way things were. They proved that they were capable of more than just being mothers at home and started their own revolution. For the most part, that revolution was carried out by their daughters – The women of the Baby Boom.

The revolt continues for women, but in the last 60 years, American women have completely changed – and proven – that females on this planet are just as capable as any male.

Today, if one parent’s job is to stay home, raise the kids and make sure everyone is fed, then that family is truly blessed. Full-time home makers, whether it be a man or a woman, are harder and harder to find and a rare breed to say the least.

This recipe is an innovation that my Mom uses to make sure that she can put dinner on the counter each night after a day of work. (Mom and Dad eat in front of the TV, so it would be wrong to say table) Mom does this because she wants to, not because she is supposed to, or has to, but because of the satisfaction she gets from cooking for the people she loves the most.

She's an American woman – I think she's awesome.

Eat well, cook often ...

Beef Stew to Warm the Soul

Printable version

There is a lot of stuff about the cold weather that I really don’t like – blizzards, frost bite and having to change my wardrobe to pants instead of cargo shorts. One thing I do like about cold weather is comfort food. To me, slow cooked cuts of meat are as delicious as a tender ribeye off the grill in the summer.

One of my all-time favorite comfort dishes is beef stew. I consider the potatoes and fork tender beef as just the icing on the cake in this dish. Like a great drummer in a rock band, the real star of a good beef stew is the gravy like liquid that brings everything together.

Some stew recipes call for the liquid to be thickened at the end of cooking. I like to thicken it near the beginning - with root vegetables mixed in to imparted their flavors into the beef as it is cooked tender. Also, I add carrot and potato chunks near the end of the process so they aren’t over cooked.

For this recipe, I broke out the cargo shorts and spent a couple hours in my cozy kitchen creating a dish that will warm the soul.

BEHIND THIS BITE
I documented this dish the day before Thanksgiving – six days before it would go to press – and the weather in Fort Wayne was unseasonal to say the least. We have been enjoying a rather warm fall so far. I worried that this recipe would run in the paper and it would still be warm out. The forcast called for a cool down - But you never can tell with the weather.

I grilled a Turkey breast on charcoal for Thanksgiving thanks to the warm weather. The day after, the high temperature was in the lower 60s and I was wearing my cargo shorts while raking leaves and covering stuff up outside – basically using the warm weather to get things ready for winter. Our mild fall allowed this work to occur after Thanksgiving this year rather than after Halloween.

As if on cue though, old-man winter swept through and dumped four inches of snow on us the day before this recipe went to press. Sometimes the stars aline just right and a project comes together. I knew the cold was coming and really wanted to share a favorite comfort dish which is why I chose stew. It would have been odd to publish this recipe when the weather man was calling for highs in the 60s. Instead, when readers got this, the ground was covered with snow here in northern Indiana. Which I hope made it seem even more appetizing.

I really hate to pack away my shorts in the winter, I usually keep a pair out for lounging around the house. In the summer, I will go months wearing shorts – it takes a wedding or a funeral to get me to do otherwise. Well, it's cold and wintery here now, and it will be that way for the next several months – I need a winter home in Florida!

Eat well, cook often ...

Fries with a Side of Burger

I started out creating this recipe with the intention of featuring a gourmet burger. It was in creating a side of potatoes to go along with the burger that the focus became the "grill fries."

It took me a while to get them right – tender and fluffy on the inside with a crispy outside. I used a technique employed by many restaurants that make their own french fries. To get the inside and the outside right, the potatoes are cooked twice: pre-cooked to make the inside tender and then cooked again, after a resting period, at a much hotter temperature to get the outside crispy. All of this usually done in a fryer. For this recipe, the first cook of the potatoes is done with boiling, the second with grilling.

The potatoes were so much work that I simplified the sandwich and focused on the fries, which are, coincidentally, my favorite food. If I was stranded on a desert island and I had a choice of food to survive on, it would definitely be french fries -- no ketchup needed!

THE COLUMN
As I just mentioned, french fries are my favorite food. Always have been. The side of burger with my fries theme has always been a joke of mine when eating out and I was glad I was able to share that philosophy in the introduction. Also, it's fitting for this recipe because the fries were more work than the chicken burger, which is nothing out of the ordinary except for the chipotle mayo and pepper jack cheese to give it a spicy kick.

In the "layer the burger" step I tried something different from my past "build a sandwich" technique. I photograph layers individually, creating a fan of the entire sandwich. Notice the difference in how I layered the shrimp wrap in this recipe vs how I have layered the chicken burger.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I had a lot of fun writing the introduction of this one. It's a window into my often wacky thoughts about food. And it's a great way of creating crispy potatoes on the grill. It was the fulfillment of a culinary quest to bring my favorite food into the backyard barbecue without the use of a fryer!

Eat well, cook often ...