One reason so many people like going out to eat is French fries. These lovely little sticks--or occasionally wedges--of potato (or, if you're like Dan Quayle, "potatoe") are quick, tasty, and seemingly very inexpensive. However, there's a lot of prep work that goes into those ready-in-three-minutes fries. By the time they get to you, these little crispy critters have been cleaned, cut, steamed, cooled, fried, cooled again, fried again and coated with salt dosages ranging from "a little dab'll do ya" to "that's the saltiest thing I ever ate, and I once ate a whole bowl of salt."
Making fries at home does take a lot more work than walking up to the counter and saying, "Large fries please." However, homemade fries can be top notch if you make them right, and they can be economical too if you have time and know where to shop. More below the lovely dinner plate decoration.
If you want to make fries at home, you need to do it at least somewhat like the fine folks at various large pre-made fried potato concerns do. You need to clean them, cut them, steam them, cool them, then fry them not once but twice.
Some of you might ask, "Why can't I just cut up some potatoes and dunk them in hot oil? Won't that work?" The quick answer is No.
The longer answer is this: if you want a fry that's not crispy enough on the outside and too chewy on the inside, go right ahead unless you're using the right method from Cook's Illustrated (a fine magazine). Each step gets the fry closer to Fryvana.
First, the steaming: when you steam your cut-up russet potatoes--I recommend using the microwave--you do a few things: you partially cook the inside, which cuts down frying time generally; you get a little moisture out of the potatoes, which is good for non-soggy fries; and you bring starch to the surface, forming something of a starch pellicle. That starch pellicle is what makes fast food fries so nice and crispy after frying.
Next, the first frying: you are getting rid of moisture inside the potatoes and starting a crisping process. Taking them out of the oil to cool for a few minutes is much like letting a steak rest, although your steak probably isn't going back to the grill. It allows a little more moisture out without it being in the oil at the time.
Some people stop here and declare them Fries. I've been to a number of restaurants that make their own fries and seem to go no farther than this. OK, you can tell they're potato sticks, and that they've been fried, but they're still not the essence of a French fry.
The second frying is what brings out the crunch we all crave. It only takes a few more minutes, tops, but it makes for excellent fries.
My method--I am not giving out precise quantities because the method is more important than the exact quantities--goes like this:
Get my russet potatoes. Clean them. Cut off enough of the outside skin for stability, or cut off most of it for pickytarians. Cut up the potatoes with a good sharp knife that's longer than the potatoes, to a width of roughly the nail of my pinkie. If you have a mandolin slicer suitable for fries, great! You can use that. It will be fine. Make sure the sticks are shorter than the width of your cooking pot.
Layer your sticks, single layer each, on a supper plate, putting a damp paper towel between each layer of potatoes and on top of the top layer. Put your plate into the microwave and cook for 3-4 minutes on high, assuming you only used 2-4 decent-sized potatoes.
After you put the potatoes in the microwave, put 1/3 to 1/2 a potful of good cooking oil into a medium pot and turn your burner to medium high. I use the 1/3 level. Good oils for this have high smoke points and do not change flavors: peanut, safflower, avocado and grapeseed all come to mind. Very light olive oil (NOT extra virgin) might work too. I suppose you could use corn oil, but I stopped using it years ago. Canola oil, aka rapeseed oil, gets a little fish-flavored at high temperatures, so don't bother with it. Soybean oil, aka "Vegetable oil" in most supermarkets, just tastes nasty to me.
After the potatoes are done in the microwave, remove the plate from the microwave and the top paper towel from the potatoes. Listen to a song on the radio for a few minutes.
Next, check your oil by putting in one potato stick. If it starts bubbling in the oil, add more potato sticks. Don't overflow your pot! If you have enough sticks for two or more batches, do two or more batches instead of trying to get it all done at once. You do not have the strategic peanut oil reserves that McDonalds has; don't try to match their fryolators.
After the potatoes have all gotten a little golden, remove them from the oil using a ladle strainer or tongs or other appropriate kitchen equipment. Let them rest for a few minutes. If you have a second batch of sticks to put in, put them in and fry them like the first batch.
If you cook multiple batches worth you can just let them all accumulate in your bowl or on your plate before going for the second frying. They have lost mass, so you can put what was 2-3 batches of uncooked potato sticks in at once for the final frying.
After all of your proto-fries have rested for a few minutes after the first fry, put them back in for the second fry. Don't walk away from them because they'll be ready in just a few minutes--if you've seen fries at restaurants, as soon as they look like that, get 'em out. When you're done, remove them to a plate or bowl, lined with paper towels if you like, and sprinkle on your salt (and, if you have them, other spices). Just to mention: we have a couple hundred different herbs, spices, spice mixes and salts in my house, and I still just use regular Kosher salt or fresh-ground plain salt for my fries. I may dip them in malt vinegar later.
Eat while hot if you can. If they have fried enough, you can store them in the freezer or even the fridge for reheating later, preferably in the oven or in another dunk of hot oil. That's if you have any fries left.
The process can take about 30-45 minutes from first cleaning to final fry. I like warehouse shopping for ingredients for this, because peanut oil in quantity is a good deal. You can reuse the oil for several fry sessions worth, though it helps to strain the oil through a fine-mesh sieve after every couple of sessions. If you store your oil between uses, let it cool first before pouring it into glass, like a Mason jar.
Look. It's OK to go out and order fries. It's a time-saver and a labor-saver, and that's important in our time-crunched, overworked modern world. However, if you want to slow down your fast food and enjoy it at home, it's possible to save yourself a little money and enjoy some really tasty food. Just get somebody else to do the dishes when you're done.