Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Fries

Our dear friend and spectacularly talented photographer-- he was our wedding photographer and yes this is us -- also shot the photographs for Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook.  Since our friend wrote a personal note and signed the book, it has been one of my prized kitchen possessions for two years.  Beyond the sentimental value, the book has some terrific recipes and one of my favorites is the "Les Halles Fries".

This is of course, solely Chef Bourdain's recipe and these fries are so good I wanted to share them with you.  I also made them with a terrific mussels dish which will be my next post.

So, here's how to make the perfect fries, courtesy of Chef Bourdain.  By the way, if you get the book, the narrative about fries is hilarious.  But, trust him:  "There's no half-ass way to make a French fry."  If you're going to put the time in to make them at home, follow this precisely.

Ingredients:
Serves 4

4 Idaho potatoes, big long ones
2 quarts (2.25 litres) or more peanut oil to fill fryer or pot
table salt

Method:
1.) PREP:  Fill a large bowl with ice water.  Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1/2-inch/1-cm-thick sticks.  Put them immediately into the bowl of ice water to keep them from oxidizing.  Leave them in the water anywhere from 30 minutes to overnight, then rinse well in cold water to take out much of the starch.

2.) BLANCH: In a deep fryer or heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil to 280˚F/140˚C.  Cook the potatoes in batches, about 6 to 8 minutes for each batch, until they are soft and their color has paled from opaque white to a semitransluscent white.  Do not get impatient and yank them out early.  Remove them from the oil with a skimmer or wire basket and spread evenly on a baking sheet.  Let them rest at least 15 minutes.

3.) FRY: Bring the oil up to 375˚F/190˚C.  No hotter, no cooler.  Fry the blanched potatoes in batches for 2 to 3 minutes each, or until they are crispy and golden brown.  Remove from the oil with the skimmer or wire basket, shake off the excess oil/

4.) SERVE: Immediately drop the fries into another large bowl, which has been lined with a clean, dry lint-free towel.  Add salt to taste and whip out the towel.  Toss the fries around in the bowl and serve while still hot.

Comments

[Lisa (Homesick Texan)]

I love, love, love your wedding photo! So romantic, especially with the umbrellas!

[Marce at Pip in the city]

I just love Anthony Bourdain, but haven´t bought the Les Halles Cookbook yet (I do have A Cook´s Tour and The Nasty Bits and love his tv show). This recipe sounds intriguing because I had always heard of soaking the potatoes in ice cold water, but I never knew about the blanching process. Will have to give them a try soon. Thanks for the recipe!

[Brilynn]

Those look like perfect fries!

[Stephanie Beack]

Lisa, thank you. He has a lot of us on his wedding sites, actually. Yes, it was a rainy day, in the early morning, in Central Park. But, that's supposedly good luck for a happy marriage (so far it's true!) and indeed yielded gorgeous photos with a very special mood.

Marce, welcome to Scrumptious Street! Indeed, the blanching is the secret to perfection in my opinion. We made fries at home when I was a kid and never knew about blanching. These yield that spectacular result. The blanching cooks them thoroughly first and then the frying step just crisps them up. If you skip the blanching, you tend to get overdone on the outside and soggy or half raw on the inside.

Thanks, Brilynn. If you follow exactly, they are perfect! Of course, cutting the fries that uniformly takes a bit of time. :-)

[Cate O'Malley]

The Husband is the official french fry maker in the house, so I'm passing this on to him. They look divine!

[Stephanie Beack]

Thanks, Cate. I am quite sure you both with love them. If your Husband is the french fry maker, are you the grill mistress?

[flo]

Chef Bourdain is right on the money, there is no "half ass way" to make a French fry.

Thank you for sharing your lovely wedding photo....

[vanessa]

oh man, like, my favorite thing... I can feel the salty hot crispyness. drooooool.
(love the wedding pic!)

[Marshall]

well, most commercially available blast frozen fries are already "blanched" in one form or another. Whether they be pre fried or boiled.
Follow the directions for great fries.

[olaf675]

I remember watching the Las Vegas episode of 'No Reservations', where Anthony Bourdain goes into Thomas Keller's Bouchon. Bourdain states that he feels that Les Halles Fries are the 'best in the world'. That is, until he tries Bouchon's version...and gets quietly angry, jealous and bitter over the realization.

You can view the recipe for Bouchon's version of 'The World's Best French Fries - Pommes Frites' on Tony Aspler's website.

Sadly, I haven't made either version yet, but I think the major difference is that the blanching stage is cooked at 320°F instead of 280˚F.

[Stephanie Beack]

Olaf, welcome to Scrumptious Street! How interesting, thanks for sharing! I'm now going to have to do my own head-to-head comparison and see just how much that 40˚ temperature makes! Thanks

[olaf675]

You can view the segment in the first two minutes of 'No Reservations - Las Vegas 2/5' on You Tube. One off-color description heard in this segment is explained in part 1. His commentary makes it sound as if he's almost laughing at his restrained tantrum.

Several years ago there was some turmoil over the kind of potatoes that were used at Bouchon, when it was revealed that Sysco frozen fries were used - perhaps due to the volume, storage and costs of manually cutting them up -- or just consistency.

Rouxbe has slightly different cooking temperatures too.

I hope to see your comparison, though I'd rather do the taste test myself! :)