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MacKenzie

The Experiment

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I had the idea to deep fry some SV potatoes. Had some fingerling ones that I cut more into wedges than anything else. SVed them, vacuumed sealed and froze them. Next it was into the deep fryer.

 

I think when I froze and then deep fried them the cell walls exploded. But oh my did they taste good.

 

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These were yellow potatoes. They had a nice tender crispy crust with SV cooked insides.

 

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Next experiment I'll get serious and cut proper fries, SV until just cooked, cool and then fry. If that doesn't do what I want I'll do the same thing but freeze them before deep frying.

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Twice-cooked starch is an entire revered category. Fried rice is better from leftover rice. Fried polenta has been chilled first. The poster child here is a classic french fry, which is always twice cooked.

 

Sous vide as pass one for twice-cooked potatoes is a staple for us; we've easily made it dozens of times. Prepare potatoes raw into exactly the form one wants to pan-fry (peel or not? chunk size and shape?), vacuum pack, and cook in a circulating water bath at 85 C for an hour to 90 minutes. To taste, depends somewhat on the potato, but one wants the potatoes to fully cook.

 

Now, chill the packet(s) in ice water, or spread the pieces onto a silicone nonstick baking mat on a baking sheet and put in the freezer for a bit. Once chilled but not frozen, pan-fry at high heat in ghee (clarified butter) till very nicely colored. Salt, perhaps black, MaraÅŸ or other pepper to taste.

 

Sous vide is vastly superior to any alternative for the first cooking pass. It neither adds nor removes moisture. It does not overcook. If one is lucky, one can accomplish an acceptable first pass by other means, and finish exactly as described after a four hours to overnight chill in the fridge.

 

This passes my "technique disappears" test as you can't tell I used sous vide, but you're wondering how I executed so well.

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Thanks, Syzgies. I just finished a batch and cut the potatoes 3/8th by 3/8th sous vide for 15 mins at 194F. At this point they were just cooked. Cooled them to room temp. then deep fried in Avocado oil, starting temp. 360F, for 5mins. The potatoes were sprayed with oil before SVing.

 

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They do bubble up and the bubbles have died down some for this pix-

 

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After 5 mins. in the oil they look great. Here they are on the paper towel and lightly salted.

 

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Back to the drawing board, they didn't stay crisp, tasted fine but soft.

 

I have a few more already SVed potatoes to test tomorrow;)

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I cooked the frozen ones and while they were a little more crispy, they are far from what I want. The good news is that I did like the interior and they did taste very good.

 

The oil was hotter this time 370. It may have worked better if I'd stuck with 355-360F as the temp before putting the potatoes in the oil.

 

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Can't say I'm suffering having to eat these fries. :)

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