How to make the perfect chip
Heaven knows why, but most chip shops in southern England make appalling chips. Saggy, sodden, sorry things. We all want crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Anyway, how to make the perfect chip:
- Peel and chip your potatoes. Some swear by Maris Piper. I like Vivaldi.
- Now boil your chips until they are flaky and about to fall apart.
- Empty your soft boiled chips onto a baking tray and give them a shake to get the edges roughend up
- Place in fridge to cool down and let the starch bond again
- Meanwhile heat your oil to 220° C (or as hot as your deep fat fryer will go. You do have a deep fat fryer, right?)
- Once the boiled chips are cool to room temperature, put them in the hot oil
- Shake occasionally. Should take about 5-10 minutes to get a nice golden brown around the edges
- Serve with salt and vinegar.
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Dude, that's a recipe for chip-shaped roast potatoes...
Thrice-cooked chips are all the rage these days, apparently. Bit of a piss-about though. Poaching the chips in the first stage in warm oil is the way they usually recommend doing it.
Joel Robuchon has a trick for doing it at home that I've never tried, which involves putting the raw (washed starchy gunk off first) chips in cold oil, and bringing it up to optimum frying temperature with chips in situ (thus combining the cold and hot frying stages into one session). GREAT Jeffrey Steingarten piece on cooking chips in The Man Who Ate Everything (optimal fat to use is - apparently - from around a horse's kidneys O_o)
Since when did you roast your potatoes in a deep fat fryer?
But yes, since Hester Blumenthal came out with his perfect chips everyone seems to be doing the thrice cooked thing. To be honest, I got no benefit from double dipping. Par-boiling, cooling and frying produce optimal return for investment, IMO.