Poulet Frites

Poulet-frites reminds me of Lisbon more than anything else. On a couple of occasions we went to the Rei dos Frangos (The Chicken King) on the Travessa de Santo Antao near Restauradores. I remember getting hit with a blast of heat on the way in and sitting down to roast chicken and piri-piri sauce with huge piles of fries.

This was our menu a couple of days ago

Roast chicken (from Athens Locally Grown)

French fries

Steamed zucchini

Cucumber vinaigrette with dill

I am going to concentrate on the frites part of the menu here so I won't discuss the entire menu in detail, as great as it was.

The zucchini came form a garden of one of Alice's constituents. It was excellent. In addition she brought back dill which we combined with a vinaigrette and served with sliced cucumbers, a dish that reminded us of Polish food. For the roast chicken I use Thomas Keller's recipe which is almost a non-recipe. In fact, it is mostly devoted to which parts of the chicken are reserved for the cook as s/he is carving it. Keller's restaurant is the French Laundry north of San Francisco. It was also used to develop the kitchen animation for the movie Ratatouille. I will go through the roast chicken prep another day, however.

Who doesn't love good French fries? I mean really good ones. I double fry mine. Here's how it goes down:

Cut potatoes to the size you want. It's easier if you have a mandoline, but hardly necessary. In fact I always cut by hand the potato ends that I can't do with the mandoline without shaving off a finger or two.

Heat your oil to about 350 degrees. You will need a big pot with several inches of oil. Peanut oil works well because it doesn't deteriorate so easily when heated. I use a fryer with a small basket. You can buy your own for 40 bucks or so. I store the fryer with the leftover oil in the reservoir and change it only occasionally.

Soak cut potatoes in ice water for 45 minutes. Drain and dry. A towel works well for this, but I use a salad spinner. In any case you want to get rid of as much water as possible.

Fry for 3-4 minutes in small batches until they begin to brown a little.

Remove fries to drain on newspaper and let cool.

Refry in small batches at 350 until brown.

If you are doing a lot--and there never seem to be leftovers--heat the oven to 275. Put a quarter piece of newspaper at the bottom of an oven-safe bowl. When the first batch comes out dump it in the bowl and salt. Put bowl in oven to keep fries warm and do the next batch. Use another sheet of newspaper for that one, salt, return to oven, etc. until you have fried and salted the whole mess. Remove the newspaper sheets and dig in!

Caution: it is really easy to forget that your French fry bowl is hot, especially if you are doing several things at once. Having learned the hard way (ever see Raiders of the Lost Ark?), I balance a potholder on the handle of the oven door so that I remember to use it whenever I open the oven