Batatas Fritas-Potato Chips- The Food of Portugal Cookbook

By amaliana

The potatoes of Portugal have a deep earthiness and intense nutty flavor. Fried in a mixture of peanut and olive oil, they're light and crisp and put our own potato chips to shame. Most pousadas put out little plates of freshly made batatas fritas for you to munch with cocktails-and replenish the supply as fast as you wolf the chips down.
Note: The oil in which you fry the potatoes can be recycled to fry other foods in later. Cool it to room temperature, strain it, pour it into a bottle, cap tight, and store on a cool dark shelf-not in the refrigerator.

Ingredients

• 4 medium Idaho potatoes
• 1 quart peanut or vegetable oil
• 1 quart olive oil
• Salt to taste

Details

Servings 4

Preparation

Step 1

Peel the potatoes and slice very thin. Spread the slices out on several thicknesses of paper toweling, top with more paper toweling, and pat very dry; leave the potatoes in the toweling while you heat the oil. Pour the peanut and olive oils into a deep-fat fryer, insert a deep-fat thermometer, set over moderately high heat, and heat to 375 F. Ease a handful of potatoes into the fat, separate the slices with a long-handled fork, and fry until richly golden-3 to 4 minutes. With a skimmer or slotted spoon, lift the potatoes to paper toweling to drain. Let the temperature of the fat return to 375 F before adding each subsequent batch of potatoes and keep the deep fat as nearly at that temperature as possible by lowering and raising the burner heat as needed. Serve the chips at once, lightly salted if you wish, as an accompaniment to meat or as a cocktail snack.