Chef Seiji “Waka” Wakabayashi at bushi-tei in San Francisco’s Japantown introduces French fries with a crunchy outside but tender inside. With a few extra steps, you can enjoy great home-made fries.

Ingredients:

Potatoes.....4 (medium)
Oil.....Appropriate amount
Good salt and pepper....To taste

(1) Wash potatoes and cut them into sticks about a quarter-inch thick. You can remove the skin or leave it on depending on how you like it.

(2) In order to remove some starch, soak the potatoes in water for 15 minutes, until you see white, powdery starch at the bottom of the container. As an alternative, you can boil them for few minutes and soak them in water briefly.

(3) Take the potatoes out of the water and dry them well with paper towels.

(4) Heat some oil in a frying pan to 350 degrees.

(5) Fry the potatoes until the sizzling sound and bubbles coming out of them decrease.

(6) Leave the potatoes on the side for a minute, then fry them again for 30 to 45 seconds. This makes them crispy.

(7) Add salt and pepper, and blend with spices and condiments to flavor, while still hot.

Points!

- Soaking the potatoes in water and frying them twice are the most important points. As long as you go through with these two processes, you can make great fries regardless of the kind of potatoes.

- Peanut oil, cotton seed oil, and canola oil are good for this dish. Peanut and cotton seed oil tend to be expensive, but blending a small amount of them with other oils can add good flavor.

- Adjust the amount of oil depending on how much potatoes you have. You need just enough oil for the potatoes to float.

- Instead of cutting them into sticks, you can use a slicer to make them shoe-string thin. In this case, wash them very well under hot running tap water to remove starch. The rest of the process is the same. You can enjoy shoe-string French fries with steamed mussels and salads, dipping the fries in the sauce.

Fun flavors for fries

- Ground Parmesan cheese

- Dried chives (If unavailable, mince green onions, soak in water for a minute, and dry well with a paper towel)

- Dried basil leaves (This is a kind of seasoning called “yukari” in Japanese. If unavailable, mince basil leaves that come with umeboshi)

- Umeboshi paste (Do not use umeboshi paste in tubes. Make your own by taking the pits out of umeboshi and mincing the rest with a knife until it becomes paste)

- Packaged Japanese rice seasoning (called “furikake” in Japanese)

Fun dip sauces for fries

- Mexican salsa

- Tartar sauce

- Mayonnaise sauce (mix 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise with a half-teaspoon of lemon zest)