april's rosemary straw potatoes with lemon salt

servings
4

method

My friend April, who’s the chef at the Spotted Pig gastropub in New York, serves these with her famous blue-cheese hamburgers. She calls them shoestring fries, but in classic old-English game cooking they’re called straw potatoes. They’re a pretty common side dish to roasted grouse or partridge, or you might have game chips or pommes gaufrettes (which are comparable to crinkly chips). By cutting the potatoes in this recipe nice and fine – around 0.5cm thick – you can cook them until golden and crisp first-time round in a fryer or large pan of frying oil. For the last 30 seconds, I like to put a nice big handful of rosemary in with them – this will flavor the oil and the potatoes in the most incredible way.

A quick word about deep-frying: don’t disregard the importance of being incredibly careful and remember a) not to leave the pan alone as it might catch fire and b) not to leave kids in the same room on their own with the pan.

To make your lemon salt, bash and mix together the lemon zest with the salt in a pestle and mortar or flavor Shaker until the salt is flavoured, colored and fine. Place in a dish. Use whatever you need straight away or allow it to dry out for a couple of hours before storing it. It might go hard, so just crush it up a bit before putting it into a jam jar.

Heat 6–8cm of sunflower oil in a sturdy pan and bring to deep-frying temperature. You can do this by using a thermometer, or by placing a small chunk of potato into the cold oil before you begin to heat it. When the potato is floating and a dark golden brown, the temperature will have reached 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4 and you’re ready to begin frying (remember to remove the piece of potato before you begin).

Pat the julienne strips dry with some kitchen paper to remove any excess starch. Making sure you’ve got a slotted spoon or spider (which is like a flat colander with a handle) and a big pile of kitchen paper to one side, carefully place some of your potatoes into the pan of oil (don’t overcrowd it) for a couple of minutes until golden brown and crisp. Cook the potatoes like this, in batches, until they are all used up. Add the rosemary for the last 30 seconds. Remove the chips and rosemary to the kitchen paper to soak up any excess oil, and then dust with your lemon salt. Serve straight away.

• from Cook With Jamie

ingredients

for the lemon salt
• zest of 1 lemon
• 4 tablespoons sea salt

sunflower oil
• 800g potatoes, peeled and cut into fine matchsticks
a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked

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1. by Benny on Wed 23 Nov 2011 @ 17:29

@Georgia - he says to 'dust' with salt, you don't have to use it all.. I guess that's why he also says to store it in a jam jar. Really thought it was pretty obvious myself.. hope your salty chips weren't a total disaster, maybe use a bit of common sense next time.

2. by Georgia Barlow on Wed 09 Nov 2011 @ 15:52

Why is there so much salt. I do not appreciate that ridiculous amount.. I mean 4 tablespoons?! C'mon mate..what ARE you playing at. And at GCSE'S?! Pull yourself together.

3. by NinaKanin on Mon 23 May 2011 @ 02:48

You should be able to bake these in the oven, if you are looking for a less fatty alternative. Good luck.

4. by lorna rose on Tue 10 May 2011 @ 10:12

can you make these without using a deep fat fryer?

5. by ChrisKing on Wed 14 Apr 2010 @ 23:46

I made this last night to accompany parmesan-chicken-breasts-with-crispy-posh-ham using assorted heriloom baby potatoes. I sliced them like a crisp instead of a matchstick. The different colors of potatoes made it very beautiful along with the rosemary. I would have taken a picture but I ate them :) The lemon salt is something you must try if you haven't already! Highest rating for this dish.

6. by DanielHarragon on Wed 10 Feb 2010 @ 06:40

Look's beautiful but i dont i would like all of the rosmary! but look's great xo

7. by SgtSmith on Thu 21 May 2009 @ 05:35

Alternatively, for chunkier "chips", cut the potatoes thickly and parboil for 4-5 minutes. Toss them with some olive oil, rosemary leaves and crushed garlic and roast on a preheated tray as Graciela does. Simple "oven chips", great with steak :{)

8. by Graciela from BA on Mon 09 Feb 2009 @ 13:33

Here you have my alternative to deep-frying:
Pre-heat the oven at a high temperature
Grease an oven tray with a a couple of spoonfulls of oil and put it in the oven for 3 min (or enough time to have it hot but not burnt)
Pat the potatoes carefully (remove starch and water), put them in a large bowl and add little oil and mix carefully to avoid breaking them (just enough to "lubricate" the potatoes, they´ll get nice and crispy with it)
Spread the potatoes as quick as possible (don´t pile them up, just one layer, they´ll need space to get crunchy)
Put them in the oven and let them stand until they get golden brown. Depending on the oven you might need to turn the potatoes to cook evenly.
You can add rosemary a few minutes before they´re ready.
PS: I follow this steps to get oven "french fries" , they result is great without all the oil.

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