REAL GOOD FRIES

Madrileños must like crisps. If you take a walk in pretty much any of Madrid's neighborhoods, you will soon come across one of those frutos secos shops, with a giant wall of crisps showing off from the shop's window:




It's usually good stuff, try them if you have the chance.

Things get more difficult if you are looking for a good portion of French fries, though. Proper fries for me (for everybody, I guess) should be soft on the inside and crispy-crunchy on the outside; also, the REAL GOOD fries, the ones that you can find for example in Belgium, sold by incospicuous street stalls, tend to be rather big: not the frozen thin parallelepipeds from supermarkets, nor the meh little thingies of Burger King/Mac, but big, luxurious potato wedges.

Unfortunately the fries you can find in Madrid's bars tend to be limp.
Limp fries=nono. I looked for venues where to get good ones, and I found out there is a pretty little Belgian place right next to Plaza Mayor, it's called Cafeeke (which means "little café" in Flemish, I am told). It's pretty good, with nice atmosphere, old dark wood furniture, many great beers and street food that Dutchmen and Belgians love, like frikandel... Some other time I'll talk about it in detail, here I just wanted to note that even the fries sold there are not REAL GOOD fries. They are certainly very good, better than Madrid average; but they don't reach The Belgian Excellence in my opinion, at least because of the size. Besides they are expensive, 4.50 for fries is not fair price.*

So in the end I decided to try making them at home. After some research and a good amount of experiments, here is where I stand.

Basic principles of Belgian fries

Learning to fry
The general consensus is: if you want them crispy, you need to fry the potatoes twice; first at low temperature and for a fairly long time, then at high temperature for a short time. In between the two fryings you have to let the potatoes rest - or sweat, like someone says - for a while.

(obviously I am assuming you are starting from fresh, uncooked potatoes. The frozen packets you buy at the supermarket already went through the first phase, which is why you can fry them for a few minutes and they are ready; by the way, even using those the final result is crunchier than the average stuff you find in Madrid's bars :))

Now, you might be asking: ok, at what temperature exactly should I fry the potatoes then? and for how long?

It depends. If you google it, you'll see that different sources give different numbers: could be

130º for 5 mins/15 mins rest/160º for 2 and a half mins

or

160º for 6 mins/30 mins rest/180º for 2 mins

or many other combinations; the time of the first frying can go up to 10 mins or more. Some even say you should fry the potatoes 3 times for best results. Heston Blumenthal as usual describes a hardcore procedure: 10 mins boiling followed by some resting time in the fridge, then first frying, then more resting time, then second frying (kind of long, but your fries are supposed to be perfect at the end of all this).

My impression is that temperature and especially cooking time can vary depending on the size of the potato pieces you have cut. Bigger fries need more time. Below I will give you the numbers I usually apply, but I guess some trial and error on your side might be unavoidable.

Agua
Another variable that can affect crispyness is the amount of water present in the potato: more water means more chances to have soggy fries. This has a few consequences:

*The variety of the potatoes you are using can be important. Buy "patatas para freír" at the supermarket, supposedly they contain less water.

*If you wash the potatoes after peeling them, remember to pat them dry. This will also prevent the oil from doing funny stuff when you throw the potatoes in.

*There is a size limit: if the fries are too big, they'll retain too much water and always end up limp. I would not go past 1 cm thickness when cutting the potatoes.

Oil
I use olive oil (aceite de oliva sabor suave). I don't think it's worth using extravirgen, as it doesn't give better results besides being more expensive - and less heat-resistant, according to some people. By the way, I plan to write a post soon about the types of oil commonly used in frying.

Deep fryer or pan?
Well, a deep fryer (freidora) allows you to set the temperature of the oil, so obviously it makes things much easier. You can also use a thermometer like this, that's even more precise. If you only use a pan, again you might have to go through some trial and error before getting things right, but you will have wonderful results just the same.

What is starch again?
I read somewhere that it's a good idea to soak potatoes in cold water for half an hour or so before frying them (or alternatively keep them under running water for a while). By doing that, I believe you are doing some stuff to the starch inside the potato (I have no idea of what, exactly) and the final result is supposed to be more crunchy. If you want to give it a try, go for it, just remember to pat them dry once you are done.

My way
Here is how I do it. I peel a lot of those patatas para freír (because you can never have enough fries), trying to pick the ones that have roughly the same size. I wash them quickly in cold water, then carefully pat them dry. I cut them in pieces more or less of the same size: my standard fry is about 7 or 8 mm thick (precision is everything :)), or in any case thicker than 5 mm and less thick than 1 cm.

I put oil in the freidora. I put the soon-to-be fries in the bucket of the freidora, without overloading it (I cook them in batches if I have a lot - I usually do). I set the temperature at 150º, then fry the potatoes for 8 minutes. They should not yet gain a golden color at this stage, or maybe just a little bit; if they do get a lot of color, the oil temperature is too high.

[Alternatively, when I don't have a freidora, I put a lot of oil in a deep pan, and I heat it. From the start I throw in a piece of old bread: according to my mother, this prevents the oil from burning:), and also it tells you when the oil is ready, as you will see the usual little bubbles that the frying oil creates around the bread. Throw in the potatoes when the oil is still not very hot, i.e. when there are few bubbles around the bread. Keep the heat on low or medium low for the whole 8 minutes, and remember the fries should just start to get a little bit of color at this stage, but no more than that.]

In the meantime, I put some oven paper on a flat, heat resistent surface that I don't mind staining with oil - could be the oven tray, for example. After 8 minutes, I remove the fries from the oil and distribute them on the oven paper. They should not touch each other, and they should rest for approximately half an hour. I generally use this time to fry a second batch (also this second batch will need to rest somewhere for half an hour, of course).

I prepare some kitchen paper in a deep plate, for when the fries will be ready. After half an hour, I heat up the oil again, this time to 190º.

[When I don't have a freidora, I just heat up the oil until there are a lot of bubbles around the piece of bread, and during the frying itself I keep the heat on high.]

I throw the potatoes in, and I fry them until they have a color I like; it usually takes no more than a couple of minutes, so better keep an eye on them to avoid burning. I take them out, I drop them in the plate with the kitchen paper, and voilà! Proper fries.


*I like alliterations :)