Good Eats Club

Here’s the thing with truffle oil – you’re not getting actual truffle oil. More likely, you’re getting an oil that’s infused with truffle “flavor.” Regardless of the synthetic nature of this product there’s no denying it – that shit is delicious. Which brings us to our next recipe: truffle fries.

There’s not much of a secret to truffle fries really. We became addicted to them over at Five Leaves which is the most deadly temptation to have right across the street from your apartment.

From my experiments at home, “truffle fries” is essentially french fries with truffle oil drizzled over it. Even though truffle/olive oil has a high smoke point, I prefer using Canola oil since it produces great fries and you can feel a little better about its low concentration of saturated fats. Seriously though, if you’re making truffle fries, I’m sure you could care less about health. You can also bake fries – but where’s the risk of grease fires and hot, scalding oil?

Here’s a decent video just outlining the basics. I love how this guy keeps warning you not to do this at home.

The important things to note in this video are (1) soaking the potatoes, (2) frying them twice and (3) the use of a fry thermometer. The heat of the oil is essential to making good fries and not killing yourself.

While I don’t own a proper Dutch oven, I just use a large heavy cast iron pan and fry them in batches. I use a mandolin slicer to make shoestring fries, which are thin enough that you don’t need to bother with the blanching step – just deep fry them and they crisp up quickly.

After you’re done cooling your fries, simple sprinkle with truffle oil, toss in a mixing bowl and sprinkle with some salt, pepper and parsley. Done.

In this picture, I’ve made the fries along with a roasted vegetable panini which is pretty much an easy sandwich to make in advance – just roast some veggies (here eggplant, red and green peppers and some garlic), and you’ll have more than enough ingredients for a few panini. Shave some Pecorino on top and throw on a sandwich press and you’re good to go.