<http://schema.org/description>
"There were surely few lowlier, more stupid moments in American history than when a few boobish media whores started talking about changing the name of French fries to \u201CFreedom Fries.\u201D First of all, the French call them frites\u2013and could hardly care less what we call them. (I\u2019m sure that, if anything, they were amused at the mini-controversy, as it seemed to confirm their worst assumptions about the savage and \u201Cuncultured\u201D Americans.)\n\nSecond of all, frites are very likely a Belgian invention. Third, if you really want to hurt the French, just keep opening McDonald\u2019s franchises and Euro Disneys. And, of course, continue making better movies and popular music than they do. They really hate that. Which is to say it\u2019s never a good idea to mix politics and food. I\u2019m no fan of Donald Rumsfeld, for instance; but if he makes a good sandwich, I\u2019ll certainly eat it.\n\nWe\u2019re famous for our fries at Les Halles. Many have said that we make the best fries in New York. Naturally I agree. Your fries, on the other hand, very likely suck. Most people don\u2019t bother to make fries at home. There\u2019s the oil disposal problem for one. After cooking one batch of fries for dinner, you\u2019re stuck with a few quarts of heavy, messy, used oil that you can\u2019t dump down the drain, can\u2019t pour in the garbage, and can\u2019t throw over the fence into Flanders\u2019 yard. Unlike a restaurant, which can and will reuse the oil until it\u2019s dead (and get money for selling the used oil to renderers), it\u2019s not likely you\u2019ll be regularly frying spuds at your place. As well, restaurants have large, professional deep fryers that are drained at the end of the night by a dishwasher or porter.\n\nThere\u2019s plenty of room to cook lots of fries in those things\u2014and you don\u2019t even have to clean up afterward. Chances are, the first time you made fries, you put too many potatoes in the oil at one time, and they became greasy, limp, and inadequately caramelized. Maybe you didn\u2019t even bother to blanch them. In the end, no matter how hard you tried to suspend disbelief, you knew your fries just didn\u2019t make it.\n\nReasonably cheap deep fryers are available for home use. They cost around fifty dollars and are probably your best option for trying the following at home. You can regulate the temperature. Most make it easier to dispose of the oil. There\u2019s plenty of room. And there\u2019s all sorts of other fun you can have: making chips, spring rolls, croquettes, frizzled garnishes, batter-fried fish, and so on. Alternatively, you can fill a heavy-bottomed pot with a load of oil, crank up the flame, and use a thermometer to tell you when it\u2019s at the right temperature. Later, presumably when it\u2019s cool, you can pour the oil back in the containers it came in and dispose of it.\n\nThere are a few very important factors in the making of a really good French fry:\n\nTHE OIL. You need lots of it. You can\u2019t make a decent fry in a skillet with a pathetic inch of oil in it. The fries won\u2019t cook evenly. Peanut oil is what we use at Les Halles. And peanut oil is what you should use. In a perfect world, we\u2019d love to render down some beef fat, or the kidney fat from veal, and fry in that. But these fats break down quickly and would be prohibitively expensive and difficult to work with in a busy restaurant situation: You\u2019re chucking out your oil after one use anyway, though, right? So you might, after mastering the peanut oil version, try that out yourself. It makes a real difference.\n\nTHE POTATO. An Idaho potato, roughly peeled, is what we use. Specifically, we use what\u2019s called a GPOD 70 potato\u2014meaning it\u2019s an Idaho potato of a certain size conducive to perfect fry-dom. It comes 70 to a case.\n\nBLANCHING. If you don\u2019t blanch your fries first, you\u2019ll get a scandalously bad result. Blanching is a must.\n\nFRYING. To the right doneness. Not too many at a time. The fries should float free in the hot oil, not be lumped together so they stick.\n\nDRAINING AND SEASONING. So, let\u2019s make fries. But do it right. There\u2019s no half-ass way to make a French fry. Respect and observe the tenets of fry-dom and you\u2019ll be well on your way."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cookstr.com/Side-Dishes/Les-Halles-Fries>