Categories
Everything Else Family Life

Random Ramblings & A Recipe For French Fries

Close up of french fries on a plate

Yesterday we posted a mid {school} year recap so I thought we’d also do a random ramblings post about non-homeschool stuff.

The new computers are doing well. It’s nice to have dual monitors so I can spread out all the stuff I have going on everyday. The boys love having more power in their systems.

Have you checked out our Way Back Wednesday post this week? We found a 15 episode mini-series of Dick Tracy and shared it this week. And you can participate by commenting on the post or writing your own Way Back Wednesday.

We’ve picked up new kitchen appliances and have put them to work on many occasions. We’re eating more homemade breads from the bread maker, refried beans from the pressure cooker, and a variety of foods from the casserole dishes.

We spent yesterday in the kitchen with our new deep fryer. We love quartering up a ton of corn tortillas and frying them to make our own tortilla chips. After the chips, we made our double fried french fries.

Close up of french fries on a plate

Double Fried French Fries

Fries are a staple in many homes around the world. This recipe will have you making fries at home that are far better than any fast food joint. And you can make them in large batches to save in the freezer for a quick snack anytime.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Side
Cuisine American, French
Servings 6
Calories 104 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 2 pound baking potatoes like russets
  • Peanut oil or other oil for frying
  • Salt to taste

Instructions
 

Prep the potatoes

  • Pour oil in a deep fryer or heavy saucepan to reach halfway up the sides of the pan. Heat to 325 degrees F, use a deep fry thermometer to determine this.
  • While the oil is heating, peel the potatoes and push through a French fry cutter to form uniform sticks. As you go, place the cut potatoes in a bowl of ice water to release some of the starch and to keep them from browning.

Par-fry the potatoes

  • Dry the potato strips thoroughly, this will keep the oil from splattering. Fry the potatoes in batches so the pan isn’t crowded and the oil temperature does not plummet.
  • Cook for 3 minutes until they are soft but not browned.
  • Remove the potatoes with a long-handled metal strainer and drain on brown paper bags.
  • Repeat for additional batches.

Fry the potatoes again

  • Bring oil temperature up to 375 degrees F. Return the par-fried potatoes to the oil in batches and cook a second time for 4 minutes until golden and crispy.
  • Drain on fresh brown paper bags then place in a serving bowl lined with paper towels.
  • Salt generously.
  • Repeat for additional batches.

Notes

We prefer to do bigger batches and freeze at the par-fried (first fry) stage. To freeze, let fries cool to the touch and place in Ziploc or freezer containers. When ready, fry from a frozen state for a minute or two longer.
Keyword finger food, freezer friendly

This post written as part of Blogelina’s Week-Long 100 Comments On My Blog Event.

By Angelia Embler

Angi grew up in southern Arizona but now lives in central New Mexico with her husband, two sons and three dogs. She creates, she responds to Yoast support requests, and she loves to ramble on about anything. When not doing those, she can be found curled up with a good book or watching any one of her favorite TV shows, movies, or an American football game.

84 replies on “Random Ramblings & A Recipe For French Fries”

My husband & kids would love these homemade fries! I want to know how to use a pressure cooker for beans! Will you teach me or if you can a post, could you please point me in that direction! Thanks

Thanks for the reminder to add the links to the recipes. I sometimes forget to go back to old posts and link to the recipe when I post a recipe. We use our pressure cooker to make perfectly soft beans and then pan fry them in lard. Perfect refried beans every time. In fact, I’m making a double batch today. And we’re having tostadas for dinner because it’s easy to make ahead so we can watch football.

Been busy fighting off a stupid cold/respiratory illness. Blah!
Other than that an blogging, just general household stuff . . Laundry, cleaning (or trying to avoid cleaning!), grocery shopping, cleaning out my coupon binder, etc.

I used to have a deep fryer…I got rid of it though. It made too much deliciously greasy stuff and my waist line suffered!

We are french fry addicts around here! I’m going to have to try this recipe. Although, I don’t have a french fry cutter… 😀

I’ve been trying to take it easy this week as it’s my week off, but I do have things that just have to get done, week off or not! I got my laundry done, and have gotten some much needed rest, since I apparently have a sinus infection. Saw the doctor on Tuesday who confirmed it and prescribed some antibiotics that I think I’m having an allergic reaction to. Going to give him a call in the morning to let him know. Thankfully it’s only a mild reaction and nothing more serious but he’ll probably have me stop taking it anyway. What else have I done? I’ve almost finished commenting on all of the blog for Blogelina’s 100 Comments on My Blog event, and then I’m going to clean out my closet and sell the clothes that don’t fit or just don’t get worn.

This week has been a blur of blogging and cooking! Mainly writing upcoming blog posts and participating in Blogelina’s 100 Comment event! Thanks for the fry recipe. I love fried food, for that reason and others I wonder if I should’ve been born in the south? 🙂

This is a great recipe. I will have to stay away from it. I have a hard enough time resisting sweets.

We make homemade french fries at home but I didn’t know the trick was to double fry. We will have to try this.

Congrats on the dbl monitors. Takes some getting used to but so helpful when you need more space. And yum on the french fries. Too bad I gave them up this year. I can accept baked versions 😉

It sounds like both you and your husband work from home and homeschool the kids- that sounds great. I look forward to a time in our lives when both parents can stay home all day too. 🙂 And isn’t it amazing what a couple new computers will do for a homeschool? 🙂

I remember making homemade French Fries when we were kids and waaaayyy before it was the ‘norm’ to make things like that at home! I also remember Dick Tracy – when he was a young boy… ;-} I home-schooled my 2 for a couple years, trying to get my daughter through Jr. Hi. – Thanks for sharing!
Lynden
http://aneleganttouch-lynden.blogspot.com/2012/02/100-comments-event-wwwblogelinacom.html

https://www.facebook.com/pages/An-Elegant-Touch-/162889457132788

Wow – never heard of double-frying the fries. Good idea. I love crunchy stuff. Thanks for the tips. Deb (Dick Tracy? hahaha You’re dating yourself. I remember reading those comics when I was a kid… back when dinosaurs first started laying eggs.

Ah, the good ole deep fryer, I need to blow the dust off of mine and fire it up!

Stopping by from the 100 Comments event!

Grandma Deb doesn’t eat much fried foods but she loves these fries. They are very light on grease as we use peanut oil and we drain them on a cooling rack over a baking sheet.

Oh Yum! My husband would love for me to get a deep fryer…but the hot oil scares me. I know, that sounds stupid. Also, I keep trying to get us to eat healthier and I know that if we had a fryer, I’d just eat fries every single day. Hot, salty foods are my achilles heel!

Hot oil is worrisome. We always keep ours away from the counter edge and remind anyone in the kitchen that it’s plugged in and hot. These fries are not to bad from a health point. By double frying, it seems like they absorb less oil than when we used to single fry them.

I’m going to have to google a dual monitor so I can see exactly what that is. I love to make small appliances work for me too. My breadmaker and my kitchenaid are my best friends. Visiting from the Blogelina event!

Dual monitors are so nice to work on. I use them at work and would love to have them at home. The fries look great. Do they taste like McDonald’s?

What a neat idea .I’m sure they must be nice n crispy. Don’t think Hubs would approve of all the oil used 😉

Sounds like a busy house to me 😉 Have you tried making sweet potato fries in your deep fryer yet? I have always wanted to try that…and thanks for the tortilla chip idea…our boys will love it!

We were just recently introduced to sweet potato fries when Ore-Ida added them to freezer shelves. They were fantastic so I can only imagine how much better they’d taste if we made them ourselves. I’ll have to give it a try one of these days.

The best part is that you can make them as crunchy as you prefer. I always leave the last batch in a little bit longer because I like crunchy fries.

Glad I found you fellow homeschooling mom. I like the way you use your cooker. You mentioned three of my absolute favorite foods, tortilla chips, beans and french fries. Check out my blog for a recipe using your leftover/or stale chips in a breakfast dish.

Hello fellow homeschoolers! I love to read about the journeys of other homeschoolers. By the way, you can’t ever go wrong on a good fry recipe! Thanks for sharing.

It sounds like there’s a lot going on in your household.
I never thought about using a deep fryer to make homemade tortilla chips. What a terrific idea, thanks so much for sharing that tip.

We made a small batch with leftover corn tortillas and they are already gone. They go perfectly with our homemade salsa and guacamole.

A tip for those who are deep frying: drain foods on a cooling rack over a baking sheet. The cooling rack keeps the food elevated out of the oil unlike when draining on paper towels or brown paper bags.

Hey! Another homeschool mom! I’ve homeschooled all five of my kids, my oldest graduated a few years, and this year my 16 year old went to public school (he’s a straight A, AP student, and finally feels like the ‘smart kid’ because apparently up until now, he never felt smart! What?) Anyway, the rest of the kdis are still homeschooling and we’re enjoying the journey. I’m thrilled to have found another homeschool mom! I thought I’d see a lot more homeschool mom blogs out there, but yours is only the second I’ve found.

We love homeschooling. I have a label in Google Reader just for homeschool blogs. I love hearing what others are doing with their kids. I’ll check yours out later this evening. I’m just breaking while the kids are bathing.

You can cook rice, steam vegetables, cook meats and even use it for minor baking. We haven’t tried much more than beans at the moment. The recipe book that came with it was filled with yummy sounding dishes.

And it makes perfect beans. I’ve never been able to get beans to cook on the stove to this perfection. They are usually over or under done.

I forgot to mention our fry cutter. We’ve tried a lot of fry cutters only to cut them by hand because the fry cutters break on us. So, we splurged and bought a commercial quality fry cutter and we LOVE it.

We’ve tried a lot of recipes but the fries always lacked that crunch when you bite down. Plus these fries are fantastic cold or reheated in the microwave.

Love my breadmaker! What a great way to have fresh bread without the preservatives easily! I haven’t given a pressure cooker a try yet – a bit scary for me, but I’m glad to hear you are using it for beans – another healthy and inexpensive food item most of us should be eating more of!

We’ve been making dough without a bread maker for a while but the bread maker is much easier for loaf style bread.

The pressure cooker we have is an electric one. It’s pretty set and forget. Beans take less than an hour and are perfect every time. I don’t think I could ever go back to canned refried beans.

I picked up a 15 pound bag of potatoes yesterday and wondered if I could freeze them! YAY! I can! I don’t have a deep fryer, I wonder if they would turn out okay if I baked them instead? Have you tried this?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating