Bookmarked! - Tuscan fries for the fryer-phobic

 

Bookmarked! From BBC Food by Nigella Lawson, these are the Tuscan Fries from her latest Italian food series. The idea is hob-top skinny fries, started in cold oil, with garlic and herbs thrown into the boiling oil for that extra thrill of white hot fat spatter. 

I bookmarked this recipe because it looks like a fryer-phobic friendly gateway project. I blooming love fried food but had never before taken the greasy plunge into making it at home. And the sort of oven chips I can buy in supermarkets I can walk to (so not the big ones) are just nasty.

What I changed: I scaled the quantities down to suit a two person portion. Then I ate it all myself. I have no shame. I also used a fresh basil and dried thyme mix and less garlic than vampire-slayer Lawson. And my frying method was definitely the wimp's way out, using a saucepan and small batches instead of the recommended heavy frying pan. I think it worked very nicely though so I'm sharing it here. 

Tuscan Fries, made unintimidating

400g of waxy potato (I used two baking potatoes)
About 200ml rapeseed, sunflower or vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
4 thyme sprigs (leaves pulled off and stems chucked)
about half a loose handful of fresh basil
salt and pepper

1. Cut the potatoes to make skinny fries. Not shoestring, if you're like me you'll burn them. Just shy of a cm square. 
2. Put the oil into a saucepan. You want a couple of cms depth. Add the cloves of garlic.
3. Using two batches, fry those fries! Nigella starts hers in cold oil but as we're using two batches, let's ignore her here. If you don't have a thermometer (I don't) a moderate, but not aggressive bubble is what you're after. 
4. Using a slatted spoon, put fried fried onto a kitchen papered plate and get going on the second lot. The two batch system is to minimise the amount of turning you'll have to do to get fry perfection, but the high sided saucepan allows a certain amount of redistribution for the ones poking out of the oil. You might break a couple but those'll be the delicious crispy bits later.
5. Remove and ditch the garlic. Or be like Nigella and keep it for presentation.
6. When it's all done and looking lush, turn the heat up a bit. This is that aggressive bubble we weren't after earlier. Add ALL the fries (both batches) back to the pan. Shake and stir to get them all loved up and tip the herbs in. Fry for a minute or so. The saucepan saves you from a lot of the herb induced spatter, but stand well back. 
*(You know those fancy 'double cooked chips' pubs charge more for. That's what we just did. Exciting Sunday night stuff, people).
7. Do your thing with the slatted spoon again, pat dry with kitchen towel then salt and pepper way more than is advisable. 
8. Scoff like a pig.

  The thyme adds the most flavour but the basil was a total surprise. It went crispy and savoury, like kale chips but more...basil-y (I know, I have such a way with words.) Anyway, I'd recommend using basil. I threw in some chilli flakes too because I was feeling too fancy for ketchup. 

"Bookmarked" Chapter 1 is a success!