Stretch Cooking: Why they call them Home Fries

The one kitchen item I have always coveted, just as at the same time I was so grateful I didn't own one, is the deep-fat fryer.

Coveted, of course, because of french fries, fish and chips, onion rings, etc. You can fry any of these in a skillet, but they aren't the same. After half a dozen tries, and five fool-proof techniques, including "pre-frying" the fries, I quit altogether, trying to fry french fries at home.

Onion rings, I tried once, and before they were anywhere near going into the skillet, they had become more trouble than they are worth. As a general statement, I think you can say that about all fried foods. It's a testament to the desirability of fried foods that, by God, no matter how big the mess gets, in prep, in clean-up, and in your arteries, people keep trying to fry them at home.

That general statement is the reason I am grateful not to own a deep-fat fryer. If I did, I know where I would find it: at the back of the bottom cabinet, with webby spider civilizations thriving in the dark corners. More trouble than it's worth. Actually, a big addition to the trouble. So you've pulled out half your hair trying to batter onion rings, then you pop these rings into the deep-fat fryer, and three-quarters of the batter slips right off the rings and sticks to something else. When you are finished, what do you do with two quarts of oil and half a pound of bonded-to-the-basket batter? I pour all my used oil into coffee cans, but we can't drink coffee fast enough to deal with the oil that Emeril LaGasse goes through in half an hour. And I won't follow any recipe calling for a basket, or a grate, like pork chops baked on a grate over a drip pan. Cleaning that grate just isn't worth it.

So I save the rings, fries, fish, calamari, for the cafes, and do home fries in the skillet. That's why they call them "home fries." They bear not the slightest resemblance to french fries, but they are potatoes fried at home, and the name acknowledges the difference. Home fries also re-heat nicely, which is not something you can say about the french kind. As I write this, Word keeps capitalizing "french" (don't you hate it when Word corrects you, or even tries to help you?), and I keep going back and overriding the capitalization because they aren't French fries. In France, they're pommes frites. I mean no disrespect here, because the French really know their way around pommes frites, in the cafes, at least.

For a big batch of home fries (and I always make enough for two, sometimes three, meals), pre-heat a 13-inch black (cast-iron) skillet over medium heat. Wash and cut into one-inch dice, four medium baking potatoes. You can peel them, but I like to leave the skins on. Chop one large onion and a medium green bell pepper. Place these in a mixing bowl, add salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste (and paprika for tang and color, if you like), and add about three tablespoons of olive oil, so that stirring coats everything nicely.

Add the mix to the skillet and stir around. Cover the skillet, to help cook the potatoes. Stir every five minutes until the potatoes are softening. You should not rush the cooking process. You want the potatoes golden, not black, around the edges. When you can easily cut through a potato piece with the spatula, leave the cover off, turn the heat up a couple of numbers above medium, and cook until the potatoes are nicely browned, stirring frequently.

These go great with steaks, pork, chicken, hamburgers, sausage, eggs and bacon, and they don't lose a thing in re-heating. And clean-up is a snap.