This is a simple side dish popular in New Orleans Cuisine. It’s very quick and easy to make, and it will accompany just about any entree. Is does, consequently, rely on deep frying, hence we, in the North, do not taste them very often. Yet, when we do…
Serves 2-3
- 500ml Vegetable Oil
- 2 Large Idaho Potatoes
- some 1oog unsalted butter, cut in pieces
- 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 Cloves Garlic, Finely Minced
- Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste
- 2 tsp Italian Parsley, Finely Minced
- Scrub the Potatoes and cut into 1 cm (small..) dice (you can peel these if you prefer).
- Soak these in cold water for about 15-20 minutes.
- Drain the potatoes and wash under cold water, the object is to remove some of the starch.
- Drain and pat dry with paper towels, you want them very dry.
- Heat the veg oil to 360-375F/180C degrees in a 2 l saucepan.
- Deep fry the potatoes until golden brown, in batches, you don’t want to overcrowd the pan (see note).
- Drain on dry paper towels.
- In a frying pan heat the olive oil over medium low heat and saute the garlic until fragrant.
- Add the parsley and the butter, incorporating it in by constantly shaking the pan back and forth.
- Season the sauce with salt and pepper and pour over the potatoes, serve immediately.
**Note**: Overcrowding the pan when deep-frying does two things:
- Keeps the oil from surrounding the potatoes
- Lowers the temperature of the oil too quickly, which will result in soggy and greasy food, as opposed to crisp. When your temperature is too low, the food absorbs the oil in like a sponge.