Category: chips

chip face-off: tefal actifry vs delonghi deep fat fryer

Post author By Gary @ BigSpud
Post date November 14, 2013
18 Comments on chip face-off: tefal actifry vs delonghi deep fat fryer

deep fried chips versus tefal actifry chips

Delonghi Total Clean deep fat fryer (left) and Tefal ActiFry (right)

You might’ve figured out by now that I’m a potato guy. I do love a deep fried chip, but I hate the smell and faff associated with a deep fat fryer. When you’ve had chips in a deep fat fryer, you know about it for the next few days as the fried smell gets into everything. I’ve owned them in the past but dealing with the odour, recycling the oil and general faff means when my last one died about ten years ago I didn’t bother replacing it. I’ve been doing the (frankly dangerous) chip pan thing occasionally, but more often oven-baking chips instead.

When the opportunity to try out a deep fat fryer against a Tefal ActiFry I couldn’t resist. I took them to my Dad’s who has a large utility room to take the smell. We decided to have a chip-off to see whether you could tell the difference between regular deep-fried chips and those prepated in the ActiFry.

The ActiFry is a very different beast to a regular fryer; it has a rotating drum that spins raw potato around in hot air. To this you add barely a spoon of oil. It does make a little noise while it churns but there’s no smell at all. It also takes longer than deep frying – about 35 minutes for 500g of chips, versus about 11 minutes deep frying. The Delonghi model was quiet, gave off the usual frying smell but came up to temperature very quickly. I was also impressed with how you can quickly pull the whole thing apart and clean very near all of it in a dishwasher. You still of course have to get rid of the oil when it’s reached the end of it’s frying life. The Delonghi Total Clean also had completely cool walls – you couldn’t say the same of the ActiFry.

Hestonthusiast note: I decided to go down the regular chip recipe road to keep it simple. I will definitely try them again with the triple-cooked method next time.

But, but, but. What about the actual chip? Well I was confounded by being able to take raw potato and turn them into crisp chips. They coloured beautifully, made a satisfying rustle when you shook the pan, and broke open to reveal a fluffy interior. And to taste they were very, very nice. Side-by-side with the deep fried, the deep fried did edge it. They were more moist, although the ActiFry ones were more ‘potatoey’. I also got a few eager volunteers to blind taste them. The consensus was that the fried ones did taste better… but only just. And only because they were side-by-side. If you had the Tefal ActiFry ones on their own, you’d absolutely enjoy them. And the difference in health almost goes without saying: I poured two litres of oil in my deep fat fryer and they produced delicious chips, but to use approximately 5ml of oil and achieve very similar results is very impressive. I’d lined both bowls with kitchen paper; the deep fried one was greasy with fat, where as the ActiFry one was practically dry.

There’s also cost to consider. The model ActiFry I used retails around £129 and the Delonghi £69. There is a price difference but the oil running costs (£4 for the 3 litre bottle I bought) will be earned back soon once you factor in time spent cleaning and filtering the oil. I’m quite impressed by the gadget; it claims to make all sorts of other recipes so I’ll see what else it’s capable of.

Many thanks to Argos for providing the fryers to test. I was free to write whatever I wanted in the review.

chips cod curry curry powder fish food potatoes

empire fish and chips

Just the other week I was bowled over by Jamie’s empire chicken. I was also taken by his prediction that if you ask the British public what their favourite meals are, they’ll say “roast chicken” and “a curry”, hence his Imperial mash-up. But my mind wandered to that other pinnacle of British food, the fish and chips. What would this look like as a crossover?

As it turns out, hilarious fun. Spicy yet familiar.

Empire fish and chips

Course Main Dish

Cuisine English, Indian

Servings 2 people

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

For the chips:
2 - 3 medium maris piper potatoes
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon nigella seeds
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon madras curry powder
For the fish:
150 g plain flour
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon honey
Carbonated water enough to make a gloopy batter, approx 300ml
2 cod fillets

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Cut the potatoes into nice fat chip shapes and drop them into salted boiling water. When tender drain them and allow to steam dry a little. Toss in the spices with a big pinch of salt, toss in oil and pop in the oven for 45 minutes until crispy.
Meanwhile make the fish. Heat some rapeseed or vegetable oil in a pan or fryer to 180°C. Whisk up the batter ingredients and then lay the fish in the batter. Allow the excess to drip off and fry the fish for approx 8 - 10 minutes until golden brown on both sides. Serve immediately with lemon wedges.

chips food potatoes

heston blumenthal’s triple cooked chips

Post author By Gary @ BigSpud
Post date July 23, 2010
36 Comments on heston blumenthal’s triple cooked chips

Heston Blumenthal triple cooked chips are a great way to cook chips at home for a real treat. They are not difficult but take a little time.

I’m sure like many Brits chips have evocative memories; for me they split two ways. The first is good ol’ fish and chips, eaten from paper along Southend seafront, stained with vinegar and gritty with salt, chilly breeze from the sea in the air. The other memory is of my Nan’s chips. She would peel the potatoes, chop them into chunky pieces (we’d call them wedges these days) and deep-fry them from raw until nearly dark brown. It doesn’t sound great but they had a thick crust and packed a potato punch, and I miss them terribly.

Fast-forward a little and I’m gazing down at Heston’s triple cooked chips. They’ve taken a while to do (as do most of his recipes) but the proof is in the eating: a brittle brown crust, golden skin and that cheeky deep-fried smell. The flesh inside is giving and fluffy – exactly what you want. They are, as you expect from the man, perfect.

There’s a little faff involved, but the ingredient list is very short. It isn’t a difficult recipe by any stretch – the hardest thing is finding enough space in your fridge or freezer to stash them. First the sliced potatoes are par-boiled on a gentle heat, then deep-fried, then deep-fried again. Between each stage the potatoes are chilled and dried out thoroughly. Removing as much water as possible is crucial to drying out the chip; this ensures maximum crispiness. It may be a lot of stages but one big advantage to this method is that you can stop and refrigerate the chips at any step until needed, so all the legwork can be done well in advance if needed. When it comes to frying I’ve used a deep saucepan filled a third with oil; I’ve owned two deep fat fryers in the past. One just plain stank, the other melted. Yes, melted. A bit of a drawback for a deep fat fryer. My current one I’ve had for ten years, appropriately enough the Sage by Heston Deep Fat Fryer (now discontinued I believe). I keep it in the garage to limit the smells and noise.

You can read his recipe in either In Search of Total Perfection (as part of fish and chips) or Family Food: A New Approach to Cooking (Penguin Cookery Library). The only discrepancy between the recipes is the boiling stage; one says to salt the water, one not to. I decided to go with instinct and as if they were roast potatoes, salted them.

You can also find variations of this recipe at The Fat Duck’s site, the Michelin site, Kavey Eats, The Times, or Tom Kerridge’s take on them.

My video version of the recipe is here:

Have you tried Heston Blumenthal triple cooked chips? Either at one of his restaurants or at home? Let me know in the comments!

Heston Blumenthal's triple cooked chips

One of the chef's first recipes, demonstrating his passion for perfection.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine British

Keyword molecular gastronomy, potatoes

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 2 30

Servings 2 people

Calories 225kcal

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

1 kg Maris Piper potatoes

Instructions

Sliced the potatoes into 2cm thick chips. Don't be too fussy about this; uneven things are charming. Rinse the potatoes well under running water to remove excess starch from the surface (this will stop them clinging together in the fat).
Plunge the chips into salted boiling water and reduce the heat to a simmer. This will ensure the middle is cooked thoroughly before they turn into mush. This is important to take it as far as you dare. Remove from the water when a knife point slides in easily - this will take about 20 minutes.
Drain the chips well and put in a single layer on a tray or on a wire rack. Put into the freezer for 30 minutes to completely dry them out.
Bring a plain oil (e.g. rapeseed) to 130°C - use a probe or sugar thermometer to achieve this. Drop the chips in and fry until they turn a very pale yellow and as Heston says, "have a dry appearance". It's an odd description but you'll know it when you see it. Don't let them turn brown. This will take 10 minutes.
Drain again, bake on the tray and back in the freezer to dry out.
Bring the oil up to 180°C. Chips back in, now let's get them coloured. Keep them in there until you get a nice dark brown on the edges. This will take 6 - 10 minutes depending on the starch content of your potatoes. When done drain thoroughly and chuck on Maldon sea salt - they can take quite a bit.

Tags heston blumenthal