Ketchup? Not on my frites!

I probably wouldn't post about this if I was not trying to avoid writing a final paper - possibly the last paper I ever have to write for school. It's not very exciting and neither are french fries - messy, labor intensive and unhealthy, but I felt like making em. I originally planned to use the potatoes I had, in a recipe for smothered pork chops, but it will probably appear soon on my blog.

This might be the first time I fried anything in my apartment, I can't remember, but it took about a half gallon of oil to fill the wok. In the end, everything in my kitchen was covered with oil, including myself. As a lay on the floor, stuffed to the gills, making oil-angels in the puddles, I could only think of how happy it made me to have a perfect french fry. None of that crap they serve at Dick's.

I fried them twice, since that's how I understand you get a crispy product. After I cut them, I soaked em in ice water for 1/2 hour and then dried thoroughly with a clean dish towel. Fried at 350 degrees for about 6 minutes until they started to brown. Laid out on a cooling rack. I looked up a recipe that said you're supposed to let them sit for at least 20 minutes and up to 2 hours. I'm not quite sure what the logic was behind that. But chef Raymond Capaldi does:

The perfect French fry
Science is a wonderful thing. You take the French fry, you steep it in water for 20 minutes and then you’ve got starch breaking up around the potato. When you fry it, that gives you a nice glass, crispy French fry, simple as that.

By the time I finished the first fry, the first batch had probably been sitting for 20 minutes. They went back in the oil, splashing like little sea otters, getting all crispy, before I pulled out a perfect french fry.

The aioli was nothing special, just garlic mixed with chopped chipotle and mayonnaise. Unfortunately some of the adobo oil got in the mix and broke it. That's why it looks all nasty in the picture. The garlic I used was old and spicy so it had a nice punch. This was an amazing sauce, I have to say. I ate it along with some leftover roasted chicken, mmmmm.