Freedom Fries! (exceptionally good, high labor)

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dtanner
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Freedom Fries! (exceptionally good, high labor)

Post by dtanner »

I started with a recipe that was the easier method of a 5 star restaurant fry that is fried in duck fat. Many different cooks and 17lbs of Russets later, this is the current method. 90% of the people who try them say that it's the best fry they've ever had, the other 10% can't be understood because there are fries in their mouth.

I cut off anyone who calls them french fries!

Method:
- Slice up good Russet potatoes. Some sites list specific varieties of Russets that are the best, I'll seek them out someday. Slicing to 1/4" McD's size is too thin for us as they come out too crispy and you can't appreciate the fluffy insides as well, imo. Cut whatever size you want, honestly, from 1/4" to outrageously thick, it's all good. Experiment with different sizes. I now prefer something in the 3/8" range that is crisp on the outside but still soft and fluffy on the inside.

- Par boil. Rinse sticks. Put in a big pot of cool tap water. Add 1 T salt and 1 T vinegar per quart of water. Turn up the heat. At the first sign of boiling, rinse and cool with cool tap water. Put on a drying rack(wire rack on a roasting pan/cookie sheet) then into the freezer.

- Par fry. I used a dutch oven with 300° oil. Fry in batches so that the oil will drop down to 250°. Shoot for 275°F. 3 mins seems to be good. Put on a drying rack and into the freezer. Or vaccum bag and save for a future meal.

- Final fry. 400° oil, frozen fries will drop temp. Shoot for 375°F. Fry to desired crispiness/color. Dump on a paper towel or rack and immediately salt.

- Enjoy!

Even for crowds, I make small batches so they can be enjoyed hot. Many people enjoy them with salt only. We alternate dipping them in ketchup/mayo blobs and this ranch dip:
http://www.ketovangelistkitchen.com/ranch-dip/

This ranch dip is as life changing as the fries are. It's the only recipe that I haven't felt the need to tweak.

Frying.
I've used veggie oil, canola, peanut oil, lard and beef tallow. Peanut oil is good enough. Veggie/canola taste terrible to me now. Beef tallow is the hands down winner. Subtle flavor enhancement over peanut. Fantastic.

Yes, I've altered temps, skipped steps like freezing, par cooking and the vinegar. There were probably 15+ different variations. Please experiment and post up anything that makes them better - or worse! Cooking and load development are about continual improvement.

Use a thermometer! (kind of like saying to use a scale when loading)

References:
https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/how- ... nch-fries/
https://aht.seriouseats.com/2010/05/the ... fries.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20111115092 ... tml?cat=22
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Re: Freedom Fries! (exceptionally good, high labor)

Post by BJK »

Thanks. Right now I can't eat them, but eventually I'll decide to come out of ketosis. I miss potatoes and pizza more than you can possibly imagine.

The other unmentionable fries also par cook the 'taters but in oil, traditionally it's been peanut oil. I think par cooking is a huge "secret", also starting them in cold water as you here, but that's new to me for "fries".

And yes, canola oil is just horrid garbage.
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Re: Freedom Fries! (exceptionally good, high labor)

Post by dtanner »

BJK wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 5:13 pm Thanks. Right now I can't eat them, but eventually I'll decide to come out of ketosis. I miss potatoes and pizza more than you can possibly imagine.

The other unmentionable fries also par cook the 'taters but in oil, traditionally it's been peanut oil. I think par cooking is a huge "secret", also starting them in cold water as you here, but that's new to me for "fries".

And yes, canola oil is just horrid garbage.
Oh, I don't have to imagine!  

Ok, I'll come clean.  I've been on keto(Ketogenic diet, lchf=low carb high fat) for 5.5 years but that's a different thread!  I'm usually <20g carbs/day but we do cheat every once in a while.  It was demoralizing to go get fries and have them be disappointing.  That's why I hit the kitchen.  Also did this for pizza, brisket, ribeye and a few other things.

I did many combinations between the two pars, temperatures(the lazy girl doing the par at 325° was not nearly as good as 250-275°), no fridge, fridge and freezing.  Freezing definitely makes them more fluffy.  I don't really like that word.  The interior of the fry has a nicer texture to it when you freeze.

Most places do a single par fry, it is 100% necessary.  The par boil, par fry method is time consuming but worth it.
Another tip is to make a LOT at once.  I like having a big bag (with parchment separators) in the freezer to feed large groups without having to do any prep.  Freezer to hot oil and they are done in just a few minutes.

Pizza is another story.  Not sure if I should post what I came up with.  It'll definitely hurt peoples' health but it turned out really good.
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Re: Freedom Fries! (exceptionally good, high labor)

Post by BJK »

Yeah, I miss pizza too. People tell me that I make the best they ever had, or did, and now even I'm deprived.

I do a long fermentation of the dough in a cold refrigerator. I think the longest I ever did was 2 weeks. But the dough is a huge key to the flavor.

Today in keto I do a "doughless" pizza. But it's not even close.

I also miss bread but King Arthur has their keto "flour mix" or whatever they call it. And 1st flavors has "mashed potato" and "wheat bread" flavors. Added to the KA bread it's passible as bread. The last loaf I made I added a bottle of beer to it to give the flavors of fermentation. It was definitely better but of course it added carbs. Just count 'em and move on.
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Re: Freedom Fries! (exceptionally good, high labor)

Post by dtanner »

BJK wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:56 pm Yeah, I miss pizza too. People tell me that I make the best they ever had, or did, and now even I'm deprived.

I do a long fermentation of the dough in a cold refrigerator. I think the longest I ever did was 2 weeks. But the dough is a huge key to the flavor.

Today in keto I do a "doughless" pizza. But it's not even close.

I also miss bread but King Arthur has their keto "flour mix" or whatever they call it. And 1st flavors has "mashed potato" and "wheat bread" flavors. Added to the KA bread it's passible as bread. The last loaf I made I added a bottle of beer to it to give the flavors of fermentation. It was definitely better but of course it added carbs. Just count 'em and move on.
First, post up that pizza recipe so I can give it a try next month. I've never given that much attention to the dough and I have no doubt that it gives the crust a deep flavor that can't be had any other way.

Not close to great pizza but scratches that itch is using Mission carb balance tortillas. The wheat variety works better. Perforate the tort' with a fork or gently slash it up with a knife or it will puff up like a mylar balloon. Nuke it for 55 seconds on high to crisp it up. (experiment with shorter/longer times) Take it out and flip to let some of the moisture evap. Hitting the easy button, Rao's spaghetti sauce is lower carb than I can make. (Yes, it's painful to buy sauce as much as it is to buy loaded ammo) On that goes cheese, pepperoni and whatever else. It seems lame and off putting compared to a real pizza that takes a day(or two weeks) to make but it is oddly satisfying. It's a thin crispy crust and the rest is up to you.

For those who only know keto as a fad weight loss diet to get sexy fast, it has been around a long time. It came about in the early 1900's to treat children who had untreatable epilepsy. It worked surprisingly well until it was forgotten in the 30's when anti seizure meds came out. The truth is that it has fantastic efficacy dealing with seizures - and just about all brain ailments.

As a bonus, if you happen to be a Type 2 diabetic and haven't blown out your pancreas yet, there is a really good chance it can cure you and allow the dropping of all drugs. For Type 1's(pancreas is functionally nill), it won't cure anything but will reduce insulin usage and if you are familiar with the "aim small, miss small" concept of shooting and carb intake/insulin delivery.

Alzheimer's, cancer,.....

In a nutshell, you cut carbs, eat X amount of protein and the rest is fat. My staples are brisket, ribeyes, ribs, pork(belly, ribs, chops, rinds), bacon, fish(Scottish salmon, steelhead trout), eggs, cheese, heavy cream, sour cream, mayo, ribeyes, burgers, sausage, low carb bread, tortillas, brocco, cauli, asparagus, etc.
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Re: Freedom Fries! (exceptionally good, high labor)

Post by BJK »

Yup, I was pre-diabetic and have heart disease. But no one cares about my health more than I do and I know how to research things. It tunrs out that dietary fat is NOT the problem when it comes to cholesterol. There was one study that "proved" that it was, but as it turns out that one sturdy was produced fraudulently. The "doctor" knew what he wanted for a result and manipulated the study to get those results no one else has gotten the same results because they actually did real studies.

The end result for me is that I went into ketosis 25 months ago and my prediabetes disappeared. and with a statin to control the LDL that my liver produces my LGL/HDL hover near 80/80. My Dr tells me that people would kill to have those numbers.

The problem I have is the addiction to carbs. I don't know if the cravings will ever stop. I discussed it with a retired nurse and she told me that rat studies show carbs to be more addictive than heroin. I've never even tried H, but from my continuing cravings for carbs I can believe it.

Every once in awhile I'll have a sweet craving. I've been known to make my own "Crunch" bars but I'm currently out. Atkins makes "Endulge" bars that are low carb and so far the ones I've tried are delicious. I had a lemon tart bar yesterday that was knock my socks off delicious.
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2 pizza recipes

Post by BJK »

The following recipe is quite good. but not the recipe folks rave about. But for fast pizza it'll do.

It's from Americas Test Kitchen

Detroit style pizza

Think “Pizza Focaccia” and not Manhattan style pizza.

The dough would also make a decent focaccia. Sprinkle with oil, herbs, and cheese.

Uses a 9" x 13" steel baking pan, but I used pyrex and it worked fine.

Ingredients:

non stick veg’ spray (containing lecithin)
1 TBL EVOO

Dough:

2 1/4 cups AP flour
1 ½ tsp sugar
1 ½ tsps instant yeast
1 cup room temp’ water (definitely < 115°F)
3/4 tsp salt

Sauce:

1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1 TBL chopped fresh basil
1 TBL EVOO
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp dry oregano
1 tsp dry basil
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt

Cheese:

2 ½ cups shredded Monterey Jack


Directions:

Spray the pan, then add the TBL of evoo and fully brush the pan.

Put the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and whisk. Place onto the mixer, turn on and add the water. Allow to mix and hydrate and a ball to form. Cover with a damp towel, or plastic wrap, and allow the flour to further hydrate for 10 minutes.

Add the salt, and knead the dough for 8 minutes. The dough will develop a satiny look and become cohesive. Lots of gluten development.

If you used a KA mixer hand knead some more, using just enough bench flour to keep it from sticking. The dough will be sticky, so don’t knead it as much as whack it around. You might also try wet or oiled hands.

Transfer the dough to the oiled pan and allow to rest and rise for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel.

Remove the cover from the dough and with greased fingertips spread the dough into the pan. It won’t fill the pan 100% due to pull back, but do the best you can. As the dough rises it will tend to fill the corners.

Cover and allow to rise until tripled in size, 2-3 hours.

Add all of the sauce ingredients to a bowl and mix.

Uncover the dough and spread the cheese over the surface of the dough. Make an effort to get all the way to the edge of the pan. Now add the sauce in 3 thin “racing stripes” down the length of the pie.

Put a pan under it to catch any dribbles, expect it to rise bigtime. Put it on the low rack of a 500°F oven and bake for 15 minutes. The cheese will be bubbly and brown. Remove from oven and wait 5 minutes before cutting.

Run a knife along the edge to make sure the cheese releases. Use a spatula and slide the pizza onto a cutting board. Cut into half crosswise, then each half into half, then once down the centerline for 8 pieces.

And the other recipe...

I think the recipe says the dough can sit up to 3 days. I have a refrigerator out in the shop that hovers near freezing and out there I've kept the dough for 2 weeks.

Thin Crust NY Style Pizza
Makes two 13" pizzas

From Americas Test Kitchen season 12 episode 1208

Make the dough anywhere from 1-3 days ahead, then make the pizzas at your leisure.

These instructions are for a planetary mixer. Ankarsrum mixer instructions follow. Look for * for
changes that use the dough hook..

Dough Ingredients:
16 « ozs Bread Flour
2 tsps table sugar
« tsp yeast

1 1/3 cups ice cold water

1 « tsps table salt
1 TBL Olive Oil

Sauce Ingredients: (no cook)
1 28 oz can whole tomatoes well drained
1 TBL Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp table salt
1 tsp dry oregano
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp red wine vinegar

Additional miscellaneous ingredients:
Semolina flour ( a poor substitute is corn meal IMO, but it will work- it burns easily)
Additional misc olive oil

Toppings:
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (divided)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (divided)

Optional:
Anchovies (these really aren't optional IMO- it really isn't pizza w/o anchovies) :-)
thin sliced pepperoni
thin sliced dry cured salami
Fresh basil leaves torn and placed on pizza fresh out of the oven
Misc' veggies if done lightly
NOTE: DO NOT overload the pizza with extra cheese or toppings. One or 2 lightly applied
options at most.

Directions:

(Note: ATK did theirs 100% in the food processor, but we grew tired of cleaning ours of dough
long ago. I'll use the KA mixer and the dough hook for 100% of the mixing. But I've included
instructions for using the FP.)

1) Blend the 1st 3 ingredients. In the FP it's only a pulse or 2.

2) Add water to dry ingredients. Mix well, until the dry ingredients are mixed in.

3) Let sit for 10 minutes

4)Add 3rd set of ingredients. *4

5) Mix until it comes together and knead until the dough is satiny (15-20 minutes). In the FP it will
only take a minute or 2. The dough will be sticky. *5

6) Oil a work surface. Place dough on it.

7) Knead by hand a very little to aid in shaping. Shape dough into a round ball. Place in oiled bowl
and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator for a minimum of 24 hours and up to 3 days.

8) Take dough from refrigerator, divide and form into 2 balls, oil a cake sheet and place the balls on
it. Cover and allow to warm at room temperature for 1 hour.

8a) Put sauce ingredients in the food processor and process until desired consistency is reached.
I've also used an immersion blender and that worked fine. A blender on low speed would probably
also work. IMO, you don't want puree.

9)While dough is warming, preheat the over to 500øF, with a pizza stone at the extreme top of the
oven.

10) Use floured surface, and flour the top of a dough round. Using fingertips only form into an
(approx) 8" round. Leave a raised edge 1" around the dough. Continue stretching and rotate the
dough into a disk approx. 12" in diameter. The raised edge should still be intact and the center
shouldn't be too thick.

11) Using semolina flour, dust a peel (or use a pizza screen). Place the 12" disk of dough on the
peel and fish stretching it to a 13" diameter. Be sure you leave the 1" raised edge.

12) Using « cup of the sauce, spread it on the pizza. Leave a border for the cheese to melt onto as
an anchor.

13) Spread 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese evenly onto the sauce. Spread 1 cup of shredded
mozzarella evenly over the surface, but get some of it onto the raised edge to anchor it in place.

14) place directly onto pizza stone in the oven. Bake @ 500øF for 10-12 minutes, turning it around
midway time wise. The pizza should be bubbly and starting to brown.

15) Use the peel to remove from the stone. If the pizza was made on a screen, remove from the
screen. Slice into wedges and let the wolves descend.



Brians note: For the cheese we use 1.25# of domestic provolone (have the deli cut you chunks until
you get the amount), and one 8 oz block of aged provolone from the deli cheese section. No
parmesan or Romano at all. Shred them together and toss to thoroughly mix. Makes 4 pies.

*4: The dough hook and the mixer bowl don't like the addition of the olive oil after the dough is
mixed, so use a spatula to move the dough around and to work the OO into the dough. Once the
dough ball begins to move a bit you have it and can let it work on it's own.

*5: Using the Ankarsrum mixer and the dough hook there is no need to go past 1 « lines on the
speed control. Knead for 18 minutes. BTW, I've monitored the power consumption at this speed
with dough for 2 pizzas and at no time did the wattage exceed 90 watts. Most of the time it was
much lower varying between 60-80 watts. Light bulbs consume more energy than that.

1 cup pizza flour = 5 ozs
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Re: Freedom Fries! (exceptionally good, high labor)

Post by dtanner »

BJK wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 11:11 am Yup, I was pre-diabetic and have heart disease. But no one cares about my health more than I do and I know how to research things. It tunrs out that dietary fat is NOT the problem when it comes to cholesterol. There was one study that "proved" that it was, but as it turns out that one sturdy was produced fraudulently. The "doctor" knew what he wanted for a result and manipulated the study to get those results no one else has gotten the same results because they actually did real studies.

The end result for me is that I went into ketosis 25 months ago and my prediabetes disappeared. and with a statin to control the LDL that my liver produces my LGL/HDL hover near 80/80. My Dr tells me that people would kill to have those numbers.

The problem I have is the addiction to carbs. I don't know if the cravings will ever stop. I discussed it with a retired nurse and she told me that rat studies show carbs to be more addictive than heroin. I've never even tried H, but from my continuing cravings for carbs I can believe it.

Every once in awhile I'll have a sweet craving. I've been known to make my own "Crunch" bars but I'm currently out. Atkins makes "Endulge" bars that are low carb and so far the ones I've tried are delicious. I had a lemon tart bar yesterday that was knock my socks off delicious.
Thanks for taking the time to post up the pizza! I'll revisit it in a month or two when it's time to really hurt myself.

I see you are an ATK fan, it used to be the best show and resource before Kimball left. I've grabbed many recipes from them, one of the best is the crab towers with avocado and gazpacho salsas.

Sounds like you're aware of the heart healthy diet and food pyramid fallacies. I can go on for days on this subject. After being called out by a "healthy eater"(organic, minimal red meat, oatmeal, brown rice, minimal protein, very low fat) to go with them to get a cardiac calcium CT scan to see actual build up in and around the heart. I wasn't happy that their test wasn't good, they had moderate to heavy build up. I had a score of zero. Yes, this butter, mayo and fat eating glutton had zero cholesterol build up. It is confusing for people to grasp that they've been lied to about such a huge mainstream accepted truth.

I can sit down with a 2.5lb reverse seared ribeye and only get through a 1/4 of it. I'm full and very satisfied. Put any kind of carb in front of me and I can eat until I feel sick and still want to eat more. Yes, carbs do odd things to the brain.

In a nutshell for non low carbers:
The "heart healthy diet" and high fat = coronary disease are fallacies. The origin of the heart healthy diet came from bad science and an egomaniac doctor. Fat does not plug up your arteries.

The gov't issue food pyramid is the result of lobbyist donations and had nothing to do with science.

The brain can run on two different fuels - carbs(glucose) or fat(ketones). For most people, the brain works better on ketones.

Carbs make you fat, not fat.
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Re: Freedom Fries! (exceptionally good, high labor)

Post by rebel »

Hope you guys live forever -meanwhile, I'll make sawmill gravy served over home made biscuits.
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dtanner
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Re: Freedom Fries! (exceptionally good, high labor)

Post by dtanner »

rebel wrote: Tue Aug 03, 2021 9:11 pm Hope you guys live forever -meanwhile, I'll make sawmill gravy served over home made biscuits.
Hey, I do cheat but when I do it's for 99th percentile carbs. I LOVE exceptional biscuits and gravy. Post up your recipe for both the gravy and biscuits. I eat them maybe once a year so I have pretty high expectations!
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