The Potato Gaufrette - By Staff Member "Silas Merriweather"

A potato gaufrette is a wafer thin lattice-work slice of potato. That’s what it says on the Internet. Most of us know them popularly as waffle fries. Continue reading and you will be told they are simple to make. Peel a potato, slice it on a mandolin turning 90 degrees with each slice. Fry in oil.

That’s a bit like describing marriage this way: find someone you like, get a cake, continue to be nice for 20 years. It’s just a little more work than that.

Let’s begin with the mandolin, kitchen tool or ninja weapon?

The mandolin has certainly claimed more finger flesh over the years than many a sword. Then there is the inevitable shifting of the blade. One second you’re cutting perfectly thin slices and the next a potato thick as a side of ham falls out.

Suddenly, slicing potatoes becomes a cat and mouse game with your mandolin, moving the blade up, moving it down, pressing harder on the potato, flicking your wrist at the end of the slice to keep the end from becoming ragged.

As you get down to the end of the potato heed the sage advice our chef David gave me, “Don’t be a hero.” It’s ok to leave the nub of the potato for another use. Better to have all your finger tips.

If you’ve made it this far you now come to the oil. Potato gaufrettes are notorious for browning on one end while remaining soft on the other, or refusing to cook in the center. Just as you must adjust your mandolin a good gaufrette demands constant heat control.

Get you flame up high when the gaufrettes go in. The temperature will plunge. As it comes back up turn your flame down. You’re looking for that sweet spot, that magic place where the potatoes turn brown and crisp before burning.

Get your spider in there. It actually looks more like a web with a long handle. Who knows why they call it a spider? Get it in there none-the-less and move it around. Adjust your heat. I guarantee you that the minute you turn your attention to something else your gaufrettes will turn an invisible corner and be ready.

Now pull, pull, PULL. Get them out of the oil and onto some compostable, recycled, blessed by the earth paper towels. Salt ‘em.

If they didn’t work, throw them out before anyone sees them. But discuss the failure with your spouse. It’s all about communication.