French Fry Diary 638: Kettle Brand Oven Fries

Kettle Brand makes some incredible potato chips. Among my favorites are the Sweet & Salty, the Maple Bacon, and especially their wonderful baked Real Sliced Potatoes variety. Imagine my surprise and delight when I found out they were going into the French fries business.

Kettle Brand has entered the market, just the Whole Foods Market, in my area at least, with frozen potato wedges called oven fries. What’s curious is I can’t seem to find any info on them on their website. I know they are also available in Roasted Garlic, Salt + Fresh Ground Pepper, Sea Salt, and Rosemary + Garlic, but I couldn’t find them any trace of them online. I even asked their usually very helpful Twitter account to no avail.

I tried the Sea Salt variety. As with most Kettle Brand products, these frozen natural cut potato wedges are gluten free, all natural, no preservatives, no transfats, no GMO, no nothing but potatoes, and some other stuff, but nothing that sounds harmful. Unlike most potato wedges however, they seem to be unbattered, we’ll see how that works out.

Out of the oven they were not quite what I expected. Soft and hot, but only but a little bit crispy. I guess I could have cooked them a bit longer but that wasn’t the real problem. These wedges were pretty much flavorless and needed seasoning bad. Once I gave them a bit of a kick with some Mrs. Dash, and dipped them in barbeque sauce they were much better.

Easy Bacon Potatoes

This recipe is from Call Me PMC, by way of the Just-Potatoes Yahoo! Group. You can see the full blog entry here.

Here’s the recipe for Easy Bacon Potatoes:

Yield : 4 Servings Serving Size : 1/2 cup

Ingredients : 2 c potatoes, peeled and sliced thin (about 4 potatoes), 1/4 c Greek yogurt, 1/2 c Hidden Valley Smoked Bacon Ranch spread, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 spring rosemary, 1/2 tsp rosemary, chopped, 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled, 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper, 1 c shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions : Fill a large pan with water. salt water and add rosemary sprig. Boil potatoes in water and drain, discarding rosemary sprig. Mix yogurt, spread and black pepper. Fold potatoes into yogurt mixture, careful not to break potatoes. Place in a shallow casserole dish and top with cheese and bacon. Bake at 350 degrees 20 minutes or until hot and cheese is melted.

And don’t forget to visit Call Me PMC for more great recipes, some even including potatoes!

French Fry Diary 461: Deep River Rosemary & Olive Oil Potato Chips

Here’s the first entry from the bag o’ rare chips from Anchor’s Food Finds that The Bride got me for Christmas. One, the Avocado Oil Chilean Lime Potato Chips I have already reviewed when I found them locally. You can check that out here. The rest were pretty new to me.

Next up from the “Bag o’ Chips” are Rosemary & Olive Oil Kettle Cooked Potato Chips from Deep River Snacks. They make a wide variety of interesting flavors of potato chips, as well as tortilla chips, popcorn, and baked fries. Among their other flavors are zesty jalapeño, New York spicy dill pickle, aged cheddar horseradish, and sweet Maui onion (I think there actually might be one of these in the Bag o’ Chips), as well as regular stuff like mesquite BBQ and original salted.

These are terrific kettle chips, thick and crunchy, twisted with nooks and crannies, and excellent for dipping. As soon as the bag is open, that rosemary and very garlic aroma hits you, the same flavor that makes rosemary baked potatoes so good. Very flavorful, a nice change of pace for the potato chip form. I like these fancy chips.

And bonus, Deep River Snacks is a snack partner with Autism Speaks. Great chips, and a great cause.

French Fry Diary 410: Village Whiskey, Revel Casino, Atlantic City

I have gotten so many French fries recommendations for the Village Whiskey in Philadelphia, but had never gotten over there. They have duck fat fries, duck fat being the gold standard in fries, going to Village Whiskey was like going to find the Holy Grail.

The mom-in-law had gone to the new Revel Casino in Atlantic City a few times and raved about the fries at the Village Whiskey they had opened there. That was unusual, the mother-in-law raving about fries. So we planned a road trip. Fries so good that mom raved? Indeed, these were fries that needed to be tried.

Upon arrival at the Village Whiskey in Atlantic City, it was quite a sight. Inside the huge modern confines of the casino, they had built a quaint little Philadelphia pub, nice contrast. Inside it was very dark, lit by a single candle. Old sixties psychedelic music played overhead much too loud, but it certainly did a lot to bring a dingy Philly nightclub/bar to life inside the Atlantic City casino.

We did have some trouble with seating for my father-in-law as all the seating was non-conducive to the handicapped, and the staff wasn’t very helpful, standing by and watching. The place is all high tables and booths, very hard to seat from a wheelchair. The attitude, not just at Revel but all AC casinos, seems to be that they only need to outfit one restaurant of their many to be handicapped friendly. Village Whiskey was just not one of them, so just cross it off your list if you’re handicapped. Seriously, Disney should get into the casino business and show these folks how things should be done.

Once we were all seated, which took maybe twenty minutes, again, with no help from the staff, other than to get the wheelchair out of other customers’ way, we looked at the menu. It was full of several burgers mostly, a few pub offerings and a lot of alcohol, all very classy. Despite all the effort to make the place seem like a Philly bar, and the anti-handicapped seating difficulties, its Garces Group pedigree shines through. I got my usual.

The fries were very thick (British chip sized, yay!) natural cuts. Crunchy on the outside, soft and hot inside, these were near perfect fries. Served in a metal cup with a cup of ketchup and ramekin of cheese, it was classy. I was not sure what to make of the duck fat. While one or two fries were greasy, they didn’t taste greasy. That may be the result of the duck fat, but I didn’t taste a distinct difference. They were seasoned with sea salt and cracked black pepper, and maybe a bit of rosemary or parsley. Very good fries.

The tiny tin cups of fries however were seven dollars an order, and were said by the waitress to serve two or three diners. Two or three what, I don’t know, maybe two or three baby birds, perhaps? I know I didn’t get enough. The fry crumbs in the bottom of the cup weren’t cool and kinda disturbing. The Duck Fat Fries also come with sly fox cheddar cheese for nine dollars, and with shortrib and cheddar for a whopping fourteen dollars. Whoa, these are expensive fries.

The burger was huge, like a filet mignon of chopped beef on a big old baked roll, and very tasty. It was hard to finish, but I did. It was that good as were the Duck Fat Fries. The fries get a solid thumbs up. I might not be back to this location because of the seating, but the fries were definitely worth it, even if a bit expensive. Recommended.

French Fry Diary 322: Smashburger 2012

Smash. Sizzle. Savor. That’s what it says on the windows at Smashburger, and it pretty much says what the burgers there are all about. They are fantastic. And after re-reading my first review of Smashburger last year, the burger, and the Haystack Onions, are why we came back.

Like last year, The Bride and I were in North Jersey for New Year’s Eve -good friends and good fun- and we decided to again hit Smashburger in the Riverside Square Mall in Paramus for lunch. It was just the two of us and we were hungry, as opposed to exploring the menu or writing reviews (although you knew it was coming, I couldn’t let you folks down), so we just got the usual fast food staples.

However, remembering the grease factor of our first visit, I ordered the Haystack Onions over the Smashfries, although The Bride did get them. The fries – shoestrings with rosemary, olive oil, and garlic – were as bad as last time. The burger on the other hand was better, an almost perfect roll too, and it was less greasy than I remember, as were the onions. I wished I had remembered to sandwich them though, that would have been great. The Bride still held on to her opinion about the greasy burger while I was thoroughly satisfied with mine. We also shared a terrific vanilla Butterfinger shake.

I walked away from this visit much happier than I did last New Year’s, and anxious to try it again. I think perhaps next year we’ll make Smashburger an official annual tradition, and invite some of our party mates along as well. Maybe I can convince someone to try the various flash-fried veggies next time.

Rachel Ray’s Roasted Thick Potato Chips

For today’s Food Network Friday, I have another recipe from Rachel Ray, this one from the episode “30 Minutes to Victory” from her infamous “30 Minute Meals” TV series. The episode focuses on quick meals for during the game, perfect for the holiday football season.

The recipe for her Roasted Thick Potato Chips can be found here, as the rest of the episode’s game recipes can be found here. Enjoy!

French Fry Diary 242: Carrabba’s Italian Grill

I know, Carrabba’s Italian Grill is not the usual kind of place for French Fry Diary, but I found potatoes anyway. I’m good like that. Wonderful atmosphere and great customer service made what is usually not my kind of place into somewhere I might return to.

For appetizers they had hot Italian bread along with a dipping plate of olive oil and various seasonings including Rosemary and red pepper, delicious. We had had something similar to this at a favorite restaurant of friends in Maryland. We have since tried to reproduce it at home with some success, but I’m glad we have found it again so close to home.

Adventurous sort I am, and pasta being far too exotic for this catastrophically picky eater, I ordered the ribeye steak and garlic mashed potatoes. Carrabba’s has an open air grill so the steak looked and tasted like it had been on the barbeque. Yum, barbeque steak is just what the doctor ordered for a Father’s Day when not actually barbecuing. This was indeed the best steak I have had in quite a while. Perfect.

The mashed potatoes were a bit too watery and creamy for me but had chunks of garlic, turnip and bacon (I think). I couldn’t finish, and I think I would gave preferred a thicker mash. Still it was a good pairing for the ribeye. All in all, mashed potatoes aside, this was a wonderful experience, and even though they don’t seem to actually have French fries (short of a kids plate), we will return.

French Fry Diary 231: Texas Roadhouse, Bensalem PA

I had seen this place, the questionably named Texas Roadhouse, next to the Sonic on Street Road for a while but only started to get recommendations for it since one opened closer in Turnersville.

My first impression was the same that I had the first time I walked into a Lone Star Steakhouse – loud country music and peanut shells on the floor. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but both had vanished by the time we were seated. And despite it being dinner rush, and being warned by several folks of a long wait, we were seated quite quickly.

Catastrophically picky eater that I am, I ordered the Road Kill (chopped steak, better known as a hamburger sans roll), and the steak fries. First though we got the Cactus Blossom, their version of Outback‘s Bloomin’ Onion. Much easier to pull apart, but also much less spicy hot than Outback’s, the Cactus Blossom is a winner. The Bride, her parents and I decimated it.

Took a bit to get my order right, but it finally came after everyone else had already begun their dinner. I didn’t want mushrooms so of course I got mushrooms. The chopped steak was terrific after I unburied it from the mountain of onions.

The fries were natural cut steak fries, not dissimilar from Wendy’s new ones actually, only thicker. They had some light spices, and parsley, maybe rosemary thrown on them. Not the best I’ve had but then again not the worst. The waitress kept pushing folks to get cheddar and bacon on them – perhaps knowing they needed something.

Around the table, the ribs were about the same as the fries, not the best but not the worst. Real whiskey in the barbecue sauce it tasted like. Chili’s ribs are better though, according to the Mom-in-Law. The beans were good as were the mashed potatoes. The service was a bit slow, but as always, it’s amazing how quick a manager comes to your table when you start taking pictures of the food.

I took some of the fries home. They behaved predictably. In the microwave they became a soggy mushy mess, but baked in the oven, these fries became a bit more formidable. They were golden brown with a crunch on the outside, soft and hot on the inside – more like what they should have been in the restaurant.

For the record, more than one of our party had heartburn or was sick to their stomach afterward. All in all, I don’t think we’ll be back – if we did go back, maybe it would be for the chopped steak, maybe for the Cactus Blossom, but probably not for the fries.

French Fry Diary 219: The Brooklyn Diner

Here’s another installment of Somebody Else’s Fries from The Bride. She recently attended a conference in fabulous New York City and as always, when dining where French fries were around, she pulled out her iPhone and snapped those fries.

The Brooklyn Diner is at Times Square and outside has all the shine and glitz of the city that never sleeps, but inside it’s just a diner – a good diner a step above most, but looking like a standard Jersey diner.

The fries she had were very good, natural cuts typical of diners, but with an extra kick. From the picture I can see there’s rosemary in there, but maybe a few other mystery herbs as well. The Bride said it was busy and the waitress didn’t come by much so she couldn’t ask. Can any regulars to the Brooklyn Diner let us know?

Gordon Ramsay’s French Fries

I’m a big fan of Chef Gordon Ramsay, and his various TV projects. Invariably I have seen him make the favorite fried food on many occasions but rarely does he take the time to show how or give any details. However, in his book Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food, he provides the following recipe. Check it out.

Gordon Ramsay’s Chunky French Fries

These home made French Fries are a welcome change to the soggy, oversalted French fries most of us are accustomed to. I’ve prepared these fries and my only caution is to make sure you don’t over-boil the potatoes or you end up with hash browns instead of french fries.

You can find this recipe and many more like it in Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food. Make sure to get a copy if you don’t already have one.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 lbs potatoes (scrubbed or peeled)
sea salt and black pepper (I just used kosher salt)
5 garlic cloves (unpeeled)
few thyme sprigs
few rosemary sprigs (leaves only)
Olive Oil

Cooking Instructions:

Pre-heat the oven to 425 with a roasting pan inside.

Cut the potatoes into 1/2 inch thick French fires. Parboil in a pan of salted water for about 5-7 minutes until just tender. Drain and pat dry.

Put a single layer of potatoes on the roasting pan and scatter the garlic and herbs over them. Drizzle generously with olive oil (this step is important if you want crispy fries) and sprinkly with salt and pepper. Use a pair of tongs to toss the potatoes and coat well with your seasoning mixture and the olive oil.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until the fries are golden brown and crisp, turning a few times during the baking. Drain on paper towels and serve! These go really well with Lela’s Famous Burgers.

Mmmm… fries…