POTATO LATKE WAFFLE FRIES
THE PERFECT HOMEMADE FRENCH FRIES ARE, ACTUALLY, NOT FRENCH FRIES. NOT ANYMORE.
As a “foodie”, for a lack of better words, I hereby acknowledge and accept all ramifications of these following confessions:
Despite the inexcusable amount of opportunity and close proximity in the past couple decades, I have never, until last Wednesday, had a Shake Shack burger.
That is correct. Never wanted one. Never needed one. I suppose as a food-blogger who’s supposed to know these things, that oozes the same level of non-credibility as a cityscape Instagrammer who hasn’t been hit by a car — judgements ensue. But what can I say, because to me, burgers are like children. Despite the high hopes and dreams every time you wanted one, let’s be honest, most of them turn out to be a disappointing investment with negative returns. So as a general rule of thumb, I avoid both equally at all costs. Having said that, I have to admit that my first Shackburger experience — an honest portrayal of a classic cheese burger yet of high caliber — was undeniably satisfying. But blah blah, who cares, because today’s subject has absolutely nothing to do with burgers.
Instead, it has more to do with Shake Shack’s equally famed crinkled fries. And how it has nothing but also everything to do deep-fried potato latke waffles.
For the most part, I pride myself as a purist, almost as much as my other less honorable characteristics. When it comes it fries, it is no different. I contest the practice of wedge fries, shoestring fries, curly fries, spiral fries, or anything that deviates from the textbook-standard straight-cut 1/4″ thick eternal classic for that matter, is immediately frowned upon. As much as I would like to say that Shake Shack’s crinkled fries had changed my mind, it did no such thing. But what it did, in common with all the other attempted contestants, was that it brought an important subject into the considerations for a fantasy French fries — maximized surface area.
In all fairness, each of these criminal deformations done to an innocent straight-cut French fries, were all good intentions to increase the surface area in contact with the frying oil in order to bring more crispiness to their overall performances. They mean well. They really did. Except that in most cases (curly fries, wedge fries and most waffle fries in particular), it has achieved the exact opposite. Shake Shack’s crinkle fries had came close but unfortunately not close enough to this ideal, still held back by its excessive girth and fast food chain-standard paleness (In fact, the company’s 2013 correct ambition to revamp their fries succumbed to the demands of blindly nostalgic customers, an example where democracy fails). But its admirable failure had left me fantasizing a perfect world where uneven and warped surfaces could, perhaps, achieve the same level of crunch and crispiness as well-made staight-cut fries. While it certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea, so far, it remained a theoretical hypothesis like Matt Damon on Mars.
Well, that was until Freedman’s potato latke showed up on this Month’s Bon Appetit.
It was a crispy potato enthusiast’s wet dream, where the maximal amount of surface area that could exist inside a 7″ wide and 1″ thick disk is transformed into a sharp, fracturable and golden browned starch-suit, where geometry meets food porn.
Impressive no doubt, but upon my first trial to test the reality of such dream, I immediately realized that its true genius lies not only in its final magnificence, but in how its process has successfully eliminated the No. 1 enemy of making anything that resembles French fries at home. The despicable requirement of multiple blanching and re-frying. Anyone who has attempted to create French fries from scratch at home understands deeply both the heinousness as well as the necessity of such process, which removes enough starch and moisture from the potatoes during its first soaking and second blanching so that the ultimate crispiness can be achieved in the final high-heat frying. It’s a process that, some insist, could take more than a day…
…where potato latke waffle, does not.
All the stunning amount of liquid inside the potato is easily extracted in the shredding step, from then it further evaporates during the brief toasting inside the waffle iron where the potatoes cook and set in shape. Roughly in a well-spent 20 minutes, the waffle becomes a homogenous body of soft and creamy potatoes held together by their own starchy content and lightly browned hems, which I’d like to point out can be kept inside the freezer on call, en route for greatness. Inside a shallow pool of hot grease, the granular makeup of the cooked potato disbands subtly around the edges, creating jagged hot spots of glorious crispiness in the same manner throughout the rest of its geometric surfaces, underneath which, the creamy and molten potatoes are captured and sealed, awaiting for the liberation of an audible fracture. Crispy. Potato-y. Incredibly.
With too much respect to this culinary enlightenment, I am almost reluctant to call it a potato latke as it originally intended, or waffle fries as it literally is. I am almost insistent to say that it is the perfect homemade French fries, when the perfect homemade French fries are, actually, not French fries. Not anymore.
But in the very moment when I paired them with smoked trout that was still cold to the touch as they do in Freedman’s, and smeared a barbaric stroke of whipped butter and creme fraiche to its zigzag surface as they totally should too, I immediately lost the need to differentiate. It works undeniably as a perfect potato latke; it works brilliantly as fries. When something works so sublimely outside the box, throw away the box.
Ingredients
- 3 medium-size starchy potatoes like Russet or Idaho (waxy potatoes won't work)
- 1/4+1/8 tsp salt
- Canola oil for brushing and frying
- Flakey sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
- 4 tbsp (52 grams) unsalted butter, cold
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) creme fraiche
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- Smoked salmon
- Fresh dill and chive
Instructions
- MAKE POTATO LATKE WAFFLE: Preheat the waffle maker/griddle on medium-high heat. Peel the potatoes and shred the through a fine cheese shredder (Don't use something like microplane grater. The fine cheese shredder on your box shredder works perfect). Toss the shredded potatoes evenly with salt, which will season them, prevent them from turning brown, as well as extracting excess moisture. In small fistfuls, squeeze out as much liquid out of the shredded potatoes as you can, and set them aside.
- Brush the waffle maker with canola oil (even if your waffle maker is non-stick!) Stuff and spread the potatoes evenly into the waffle maker, making sure every nooks and crannies are filled and packed, especially around the outer rim. You should have to press down quite forcefully to close the gap between the top and bottom griddle, ensuring that you have a tightly packed latke-waffle. Three medium-sized Idaho potatoes should be perfect for one regular-sized waffle maker. Now cook for 3~5 minutes, checking once in between, until the latke-waffle is slightly browned around the indentations, but still pale and sad-looking on the edges. Turn off heat and leave the waffle maker open, and let the latke-waffle cool for 10 minutes inside waffle maker. This helps excess moisture to further evaporate, and setting the shape.
- Once cooled, use a scissor to separate the latke-waffle into quarters, then carefully remove them with your hands. You can fry them immediately, or leave them on a parchment-lined sheet-tray and freeze until hard and transfer into a zip-lock bag until needed.
- MAKE WHIPPED CREME FRAICHE BUTTER: In a food-processor, whip unsalted butter until light and smooth. Add creme fraiche and sea salt, and run until smoothly blended.
- TO FRY THE LATKE-WAFFLE: Add enough canola oil into a frying pot until it reaches 2" deep. Heat over medium-high heat until the oil reaches 300~310 F/150~155 C, or until it bubbles up gently around an inserted wooden chopstick. Gently lower the latke-waffle into the oil, constantly moving it around to encourage circulation and flipping once in between, until crispy and golden browned on all sides. This should take about 4~5 minutes. If your latke is browning too fast, that means your oil is too hot.
- Remove the fried latke-waffle with a tongs, shaking it gently over the pot until NO drop of oil can be released after several shakes, and set it over a cooling rack. Repeat with the rest. Season the latke-waffle lightly with sea salt and black pepper, and serve it with smoked salmon, whipped creme fraiche butter and fresh dill and chopped chives.
Bernard Ber
08.23.2018at6:46 PMWhat an innovative way to make/eat fried potatoes. Thank you for sharing that. I will post this recipe today on my Reddit Web page about food at:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskRedditFood/
I’m also in the process of posting a ton of your recipes there. You are super talented in cooking :)
MAISARAH IBRAHIM
08.23.2018at7:21 PMblogwalking here!
https://messarah.blogspot.com/2018/08/ragam-customer-online-yang-annoying.html
Vickie Tate
08.23.2018at9:45 PMI may just have to make these this week. I love rostie so these should be perfect prep ahead food. Thank you
Tai Wright
08.24.2018at2:42 AMMandy, do these need to be defrosted if we freeze them before frying?
mandy@ladyandpups
08.24.2018at11:36 AMTai, no :). Straight into the fryer.
Tamara
08.24.2018at10:22 AMEvery time I read one of your posts I gush at the pics, drool over the ingredients, laugh out loud at your iokes and smirk at your wit. Just love everything about it. Thank you for putting yourself out there for all of us to enjoy!
Emmeline
08.24.2018at3:35 PMMy mouth was wathering just reading the description! Thanks for a great starchy alternative that seems quite quick & easy to pull off (love homemade fries but yeah, the hazzle…) ! I think I’ll try this as a straight-off replacement for fries for some kinda meat or duck or something, like a kind of potato cake. And serve like in your suggestion for a brunch next weekend. And… okay off to try it basically.
Norma
08.25.2018at2:26 AMGreat recipe! I’ve found that squeezing (potatoes, spinach, shredded zucchini, whatever needs less water), is most efficiently done with a potato ricer if you have one in the kitchen. Mine is from an old second hand store and works great for jobs like this, besides making ultra-smooth mashed potatoes.
mandy@ladyandpups
08.25.2018at12:17 PMNorma, thanks for the tip:)
Georgia
08.29.2018at2:04 AMHi Mandy! These look incredible. Do you think adding a grated onion (prepared/squeezed in the same manner as the potatoes) would work here? Hard to break free from my classic latke mindframe ;) Thanks!
mandy@ladyandpups
08.29.2018at12:03 PMGeorgia, onions will not crisp up as well like potato and it may compromise the overall texture. I would suggest adding it later as a topical element.
Laurie
08.30.2018at12:07 AMThis looks fantastic! Are you saying 3 potatoes make one waffle? Thanks!
Dusty Simi
08.30.2018at8:03 PMWhat brand of waffle maker are you using”
mandy@ladyandpups
08.30.2018at8:16 PMDusty, it is a random Chinese brand. Nothing fancy.