From the Kitchen: Pan-fried Duck Fat Fries for wusses like me who are afraid of deep frying

I don't think there is much on earth that is as simply tasteful as duck fat fries, except perhaps when you sprinkle a bit of truffle-infused salt on said fries. 

There is a crispness to them that doesn't come from pan frying in vegetable-based oils, or even from frying in other animal fats. It's divine. Imagine the way a pie crust made with shortening compares to one made with lard. That, my friends, is the amount of better-ness you'll find in duck fat fries. (Yes, better-ness is a made up word. Is there a word for made up words? There should be. Someone should make one up!)

So, when I was wandering around the Ann Arbor farmers market this past Wednesday it suddenly hit me. I needed to make my own duck fat fries! I snatched up some nameless potatoes that ended up being a bit buttery in texture and headed home, determined to make it work. 

Now, when I looked for recipes for these babies I found lots of different ones. Some said to deep fry them, but I have yet to cross that (scary, scary) bridge so I was looking for a pan-fried version. I found several that suggested various techniques but every one had time consuming steps and I wanted them omgASAP so eventually I decided to just experiment. (This would later work to my advantage because I could munch on my failed experiments while I attempted new, less-faily methods - again, a made up word.)

For my first batch, I just sliced fries and tossed them in the pan with some fat and crossed my fingers. They took forever to cook (ah, duh...) and ended up very dark and oily. 

The second batch, however, was perfect (if I do say so myself)! I precut the fries, tossed them in a bowl and microwaved them for 60-120 seconds on high. This kind of pre-cooked the potatoes. I assumed this was going to make them super fragile, but they weren't too hard to manage. 

I turned the stove to medium-high heat and then tossed these into the pan with the hot, melted duck fat (you can get duck fat at some specialty grocers and butcher shops, did I mention? Or render your own - I'll post about this in a couple weeks when I take a few of the mature farm ducks to freezer camp) and let the fries sit for a few minutes before disturbing. As they develop a light brown crust, move them around the pan.

 

When they're finished, simply pull them out and place them on something to absorb the excess oil. As they drain, sprinkle them with your favorite salt. The flavor imparted by the duck fat is deep and earthy (an almost terroir effect) but it remains neutral enough to showcase a special salt if you have one. I am a huge fan of truffle salt, and the deep musky mushroom flavor compliments the existing flavor seamlessly. 

You can then pour off the excess fat into a heat-resistant container to use again! Or, if you've used an iron pan, you can leave a bit of oil in there to sit if you plan to use your pan again soon. I have yet to have duck fat go rancid on me, and it should be relatively stable as long as there isn't a bunch of potato crud in your pan. I'll be making eggs in that mess for breakfast!

Anyway, these fries ended up just as delicious and crispy as the fries we've had at restaurants that have been deep fried in fat, but this method is quick and easy for a deep-fry-fearer like myself!

Do you have a favorite animal fat to use in cooking?

Potato Trenches: Check!

We finally finished digging potato trenches! We got 11 pounds planted on Sunday after a few days of sporadic digging. It sure feels good to check that off my list!

Do you plant potatoes? What method do you use?

We survived Earth Day 2011!

Yesterday we spent the entire day using as little electricity as possible. This is difficult when you live in an old historical stone house with few windows, and especially difficult if you an artist like my husband. Poor Jeremy spent the day following the best spots of light around the house with his latest page of comic book art, sketching here and there and being a general good sport of it. The morning brought about an amazing reintroduction for me... Gardening books! Sure, I borrow the occasional library book, but it had been so long since I'd sat down with a stack of gardening books to research something in particular. Yesterday's topic? Potatoes. I read about how the Shakers grow theirs, how the English Victorians grew theirs, how they're conventionally grown and how best to grow them organically. What an adventure!

After breakfast, I sat on the front porch sorting, cutting and prepping seed potatoes for planting. This is our first year planting potatoes, so hopefully this goes well. We'll be doing ours in straw and trenches.

I spent the rest of my day outside in the rain. I laid out where our pumpkin mounds are going this year (marked by white plastic buckets in the photo below). I planted twenty-five 3 year old asparagus crowns and I dug four of the eight trenches for our potatoes (and those we're donating to Project Grow). I also mapped (and then re-mapped) out where we're going to plant our fruit trees. Unfortunately the best area is currently dominated by several huge multiflora rosa monsters. You know the type - the intimidatingly large flopping mounds of 1/2" thick vines covered in big nasty thorns. They look like skulking beasts just waiting for you to turn your back... *shudder*

I may have a gathering some time soon where I invite our friends out with their loppers and trimmers and hedge cutters and chainsaws. We'll provide beer and potluck while they help us clean up all of the multiflora rosa thickets. You would not believe how overrun our poor antique orchard is by invasive plants. I was looking, the other day, at one of the geriatric apple trees and realized it has rose vines growing all the way up through its crown. That's at least 25 feet! I'm a fan of roses, and of rosehips of course (both for myself and the critters that eat them) but the trees are suffering greatly because of these beasts. I'll leave a few thickets around for the rabbits and voles to hide in, and I'll leave them along the fence because it deters the dogs' exploring, but other than that they have to go.

Anyway, by the evening we were totally bored. We realized too-late that our oil lamp wicks were both too short and we didn't have enough oil anyway, so we lit candles and ate sandwiches for dinner. After that we played scrabble, and I finished the game with six points less than Jeremy which is a serious improvement on my typical scrabble score...

I admit we did cheat a bit. Shortly after we'd been electricity free for 24 hours, Jeremy turned on his studio lamp and did some more work on his latest comic book page. Obviously I can't begrudge a man his job.

Local Spotlight: Project Grow Potato Pledge!

This year I have decided to take part in the Project Grow second annual Potato Pledge! The Potato Pledge is an event held by Project Grow in Ann Arbor where they give you two pounds of potatoes to grow, with the intention and pledge to give a certain percent of your harvested crop to them for donation to local food banks.

It was just by chance that I stumbled across this program. I was standing with my family, in line to talk to the volunteers at Slow Food Huron Valley (more on them, tomorrow!) and I heard a great ruckus down the aisle a bit. "The Potato People are coming! The Potato People are coming!" they were yelling. It was pretty spectacular.

 

I decided to pledge 80% of my harvest to them, which knowing my luck could very well be a miniscule donation. 80% of zero is still zero. :) I'll be growing Red Pontiac potatoes, and I'm still not sure of when I'll be planting them. Definitely some time this week, though, if the weather holds!

Do you have any gardening outreach programs in your area?

Spring has sprung!

I have to wonder how many blogs out there have posts titled like this one.

Jeremy and I have been out of town for the past few days for a comic book convention in Chicago, so I managed to miss almost all of the amazing 50-60º weather that Michigan decided to tease us with. I'm almost glad, since we're due another winter storm this week, with highs hovering in the high 30's. Ah well. Yesterday was the first day of spring, and I can feel the shift into growing season more than ever. The chorus frogs are peeping, as are the spring peepers, the songbirds are singing and presenting, the crocuses are peeking up out of the soil over by Cleo's grave and the final harbinger of spring appeared yesterday while Jeremy and I were at the garden center picking up spring garlic and onion sets to plant. What is this final harbinger? The Turkey Vulture! They may very well be the biggest wimps when it comes to winter weather, but they are carrion and between their dining habits and their naked pink heads nobody wants to use them as a spokesbird for anything. I spotted them swooping around outside while in line at the garden center and commented on how they really are a better indication of spring than the robin who has been around for weeks (and weathered many a snow storm) and a petite older woman ahead of me in line turned around to stare openly at me with a look of disgust and mild amusement. Hah. Ah well.

Yesterday was a day for potatoes. I've never planted potatoes, and I'm known for working out my own (see also: lazy) ways to try new things. I wanted to plant them in straw, and in a number of places I've read I can just lay them on top of the grass early in the spring before it starts to grow and they'll send their roots through to the soil. Supposedly the thick straw mulch will smother the grass and the potatoes will do their thing. I was skeptical, especially since we have such intense perennial grasses, so I decided to add another step.

First I cleared the area of what I could as far as dead grass, branches, etc (A thatching rake is my best friend!) and then I took some of the cardboard that I had laid out through the winter and laid it down where I wanted my potatoes. This cardboard is still intact, but it is very close to decomposition and has wormholes where they've begun to chew at it. My thinking is that once the worms do their thing this spring, they'll definitely chew right through this stuff, but not likely before it smothers the grass.

After the cardboard I covered it with a layer of compost so that the potatoes have something to begin rooting in and the worms have a bit of added incentive to get to the other side of the cardboard.

I laid the potatoes on the compost and covered them with 4-6" of straw mulch that I had pulled off of the strawberry beds (reuse, reuse, reuse!). These potatoes are not the ones that I ordered from Maine Potato Lady back at the beginning of the year. Those will be planted elsewhere. These are the potatoes that I bought ages ago and tried to store in our potato basket. Apparently the basket gets too much light where it is, because all of the potatoes in it have sprouted! Some of them even grew 12" shoots! Yikes. Ah well. They were all fun, organically grown varieties in various colors so I decided just to plant them and see what happens. I'll keep you all posted on the progress of this bed!

On the docket for today: Peas, Garlic and Onions sets have to get in the ground ASAP!

Do you grow potatoes? What method have you found works best where you live?