It's funny, but the culinary battles are fought over even such banality as french fries.
I know many will now say that french fries are not at all the dish that you can and should write about. Like, the adversaries brought it to us, popularize it - the Americans in their godless McDonald's and other fast food outlets, but we, as bearers of ancient Russian culture, need to eat a simple fried potatoes.
But let's be honest: fried potatoes are delicious, French fries are tasty too... And potatoes are delicious in a country style. Everything is delicious, well prepared and of quality products. But someone likes watermelon, someone - pork cartilage, so every tasty dish has a right to exist, and someone may like it more, someone less.
But back to the fries.
The Belgians claim that they, and not someone else, cook the most delicious French fries in the world.
I confess I did not notice any special or fundamental difference. Rather, it's about marketing. In Belgium, there is a legend that resourceful residents of the city of Namur began to fry French fries when another product for frying, fish, disappeared (due to the river frozen in winter). It is called, by the way, not fries, but friet.
For example, Belgian fries are made exclusively from one potato variety: Bentier. I looked for a versatile, mid-early Dutch potato variety with medium-sized, elongated-oval tubers. Since it easily adapts to any climatic conditions, it grows in Russia, but it is poorly stored.
However, we, as lovers of eating, not growing up, are interested in something else: starchiness. In Benthier, the starchiness of the flesh does not exceed the level of 14.9%, so yes, it is ideal for chips and fries.
It also has a yellowish flesh. So if you don't find exactly it, then you can replace it with similar starch indicators.
How do we cook
We wash, clean, cut into cubes by a centimeter thick, no longer than ten centimeters.
Some suggest soaking potatoes before frying, but... If the variety is selected correctly, then you can do it. The main thing is that after cutting it is better to lay out on a towel so that the potatoes are not wet.
Now we make the first run: heat the oil to 150 degrees and fry the potatoes until the pulp is ready, but there is no crust.
Ideally, beef tallow should be used to make the dish more authentic. But, alas, now authenticity is not always found in Belgium either. Therefore, we take oil.
When the potatoes have cooled down after the first frying, we send them to oil or fat heated to 180 degrees again - and then we bring them to a crust.
We take it out, let it drain off the oil, salt, in order for the salt to be distributed, shake well.
Oh yeah, eating Belgian fries with ketchup is considered almost sacrilege in Belgium. So you have to choose some other sauce.
Bon Appetit!