Today is party day, celebrating 200 followers. I joined Steemit out of curiosity. Today, 50 days later, i am fully invested, i am VIP on the ecotrain and oh my God, i am so addicted.
To say thanks, I share with you the authentic recipe to make the one and only true Belgian chips. If you think that vegan recipes are always health-conscious, think again :-)
The Belgian chip can be found on any corner in the Belgian streets, it is one of our national products together with beer and chocolate. In Belgium we call it 'frieten' and the place where they sell it is called a 'frietkot'.
Last month the European commission has been accused for crime against Belgium because they proposed that the original recipe would be changed, hot topic these days, more about it later…
Let’s get down to the recipe
Step 1 – Choosing the good fresh potato
Choose big potatoes, you are looking for the kind that you would use for mashed potato, we say “bloemige aardappel”, literally translated “flour-like potato”, not too hard, one that doesn’t become dark after baking.
Bintje is our favourite potato, other good potatoes are Agria, Désirée, Première and Santé.
Peel the potatoes and put them in water so they don’t discolour.
Step 2 – Cutting the potatoes
There are specialized tools available but nothing beats the hand-cut chip. Have a good look at the size and decide to cut in 3, 4 or 5 slices lengthwise and cut them further into stripes.
The patented perfect size of the Belgian chip is 13cm, that is a very big chip, I mostly cut around 10-11cm for getting the best results
Step 3 – Choosing the oil
Some Belgians will say that animal fat is the only way to go but that is absolutely not true. Vegetable oil is also qualified for the authentic recipe. It is a bit like dark bitter vs milk chocolate, a personal preference. We will go vegan here and choose vegetable oil, the best candidates are neutral arachide oil or sunflower oil. Olive oil is not suited, the taste is to dominant and it is harmful when heated too high.
Step 4 – Let them swim
Heat your oil to 140 degrees Celsius and pre-bake your chips for 4-5 minutes, we call this process “let them swim”. You want your potatoes to get ready and lose their humidity. When the temperature is too high, the outside gets closed and the water cannot escape. If you don’t have temperature control, watch the oil, it should bubble lightly.
Here is where the European commission attacked our Belgian tradition. They want to force us to blanch the potatoes first as frying them raw would release a toxin called acrylamide. Belgium literally demonstrated on the streets for this :-)
Shake them up sometimes to avoid them clitting to each other. The process is finished when the chips start to surface. You have to be able to cut the chip easily with a blunt object like a fork or blunt knife. They should look like this
Never put too many at the same time, the oil would cool too much and the result will be fatty and weak chips. Don’t bake them too long, the chips should barely change color. Oh last one, don’t close the lid, sorry towards the modern deep-fryers with built-in filters etc.
Step 5– Let them sweat
Leak out and turn them over on kitchen paper. Let the chips sweat out and cool down for at least half an hour.
Step 6 – Let them sing
Now for the final second baking, heat the oil to 190 degrees Celsius and bake them off for 4-5 minutes until they get that golden-brown color. In this second phase, it is even more important to not put too many at the same time.
There is a process we call “let them sing”, there is a slight sound that is noticeable when the chips surface (picture above). It is difficult to describe but you will hear it when you concentrate. This is the ultimate moment, your chips are ready.
Bon appetite, Eet smakelijk, Enyoy your naughty vegan meal
Take care,
bub
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