French fries: the five mistakes we usually make

TO EAT

Belgian or French?That these two countries still dispute their paternity, has not prevented fried potatoes from becoming one of the most popular garrisons in the world.The reasons are obvious: they are easy and fast to prepare, like both young and little and marry well with anything.

But although we have prepared them millions of times, we may still be in something.And it is that technique is required, and if not they ask the renowned British chef Heston Blumenthal, of The Fat Duck restaurant, who studied how to do the perfect fried potato and even created his own recipe.

We do not choose the right potatoes

Each type of potato has peculiar characteristics that make it more or less suitable for a recipe or other.To fry, the most recommended are those of late maturation - for its compact consistency and its low water content -.A good choice is the "sour" potato, which presents few sugars and a fair proportion of starch and water.With other types of potato, they could get rid of or be too hard to fry.

We cut the potatoes badly

We do not say that they cannot be cut to taste, but if we cut the potatoes with different sizes they will need different times to fry, both inside and out.However, it is recommended to cut them in the form of a cane with no more than five millimeters thick.

We do not let them soak

The potatoes contain starch, and to eliminate it we must soak them once we have cut them for at least half an hour.Thus they will be more crispy and will not stick to fry.Keep in mind that after letting them be soaked, they must be drained and dry.Putting something wet in boiling oil is not a good idea.

We are little generous with oil

It is a frying.There must be a lot of oil, until the potatoes drown in it.You must completely cover each piece of potato that we put in the pan, so we will have to use a large amount of oil.In this way, we will make sure that each piece is done inside and out of the same way.

And although we throw a lot of oil, many potatoes should be taken into the pan;It is better to do them for batches.If they end up hitting, the heat of the oil will not penetrate well into them.

We fry them bad (and little)

Yes that's how it is.The temperature at which we are fry is very important.If we put the potatoes when the oil is too cold they will be oily.With the oil too hot, they will burn on the outside and will be raw inside.In the first frying-yes, there is more than one-the oil must be at about 130-140ºC.We remove them when they are somewhat golden and let them cool on absorbent paper.In the second frying, we fry them at 180ºC for about two minutes.

The triple cooking of Heston Blumenthal

If two fried foods already look like many, wait to see the process followed by The Fat Duck chef, Heston Blumenthal.The chef boils the potatoes until shortly before they begin to get rid of.Then the dry - so that they do not get rid of the fryer - with a vacuum packaging machine.Subsequently, fry at 130ºC for approximately 5 minutes, and put the potatoes again in the vacuum machine.Finally, fry the potatoes at 180ºC for about 7 minutes until they are golden and crispy.