Frites: Mandolin makes it easy.

Steak Frites w/o the Steak

I couldn’t find Idaho Potatoes while we were shopping for supplies at Whole Foods, so I sub’d in Yukon ones. Since our dinner was for two, we only used two potatoes instead of four as the recipe had called for. I used a mandolin to get a consistent matchstick sized cut on each fry. Then when we were about 5 minutes out from the finishing of the steak, I dumped about half of the fries into the deep fryer at 350 degrees. After 5 minutes , I took the fries out, but they were a little limp. Lee suggested to go at a higher temp, and I had just noticed on the roto-fryer that it recommended fries at 370 degrees, so I up’d the temperature. Also, Lee had noticed there was a “steam” coming out from the vents, and that might be causing the sogginess of the fries. So we kept the lid open to get all the steam out.

The second round yielded much more crispy fries. But since we changed two elements, I’m not sure what fixed the problem (the higher temp or the opening of the lid to keep steam out). We added in the herbs and salted the fries. We also tried a few deep fried sage leaves like we've seen at Cesar in North Berkeley. The result of the second batch were much better and had a better crunchy texture. I put some on top of the steaks like they do at Bistro Jeanty. It made the steaks looks more dramatic, in my opinion, and hide the sauce which didn't look so appealing.

Using the mandolin to make fry cuts in a matter of minutes.

Cut potatoes.

Submerged!

Coming out of the deep fryer.