Heston’s Chips
Chips on their own or of course, with battered fish are a favourite traditional British meal. We can get them ready fried from fish and chip shops.
We can also get frozen chips from any supermarket which are ready for home cook to pop into the oven, or rarely we can make our own by peeling potatoes and then do the slicing and frying. Home made cooked chips obviously taste better.
However our top Michelin Starred chef Heston Blumenthal has come up with a recipe that makes The Chip king among chips :). To make these delicious chips is fairly labour intensive, but the effort is well worth it. Many restaurants in UK make their chips this way.
Jean and I tasted these wonders at the Cellarium Cafe & Terrace, which is set within the 14th Century store house (cellars) of Westminster Abbey, after our visit and attending a Service at the Abbey.
Ingredients
1kg Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and cut into chips (approx. 2 × 2 × 6cm)
Groundnut or grapeseed oil
Salt
Method
Put the cut chips into a bowl under running water for 5 minutes to wash the starch off.
Place 2 litres of cold tap water in a large saucepan and add the potatoes. Place the pan over a medium heat and simmer until the chips are almost falling apart (approximately 20–30 minutes, depending on the potato).
Carefully remove the cooked chips and place them on a cooling rack to dry out. Then place the rack in the freezer for at least 1 hour to remove more moisture.
Heat a deep-fat fryer or a deep pan no more than half filled with oil (to a depth of around 10cm) to 130ºC. Fry the chips in small batches until a light crust forms (approximately 5 minutes), remove from the oil and drain on kitchen paper.
Put the potatoes on a cooling rack and place in the freezer for at least 1 hour. (At this stage, if you don’t want to cook and serve immediately, the chips can be kept in the fridge for 3 days.)
Heat the oil in the deep-fat fryer or deep pan to 180ºC and fry the chips until golden (approximately 7 minutes). Drain and sprinkle with salt.