Belgian night

We recently had a dinner that was Belgian-themed in honor of the Paris-Roubaix bike race. Since both LK and B contributed to this write-up (and some might even say these are really recipes), I'm posting it here instead of Q-eats. (I should perhaps clarify at this point that the "I" of this posting is LK. B did most of the description of the chips process.)


The most authentically Belgian thing we made was the Felmish stew: your basic beef-and-beer stew. It was great -- and loads better the second day (I always forget that as I so rarely make a beef stew). It had amazing depth of flavor.

But that isn't what we are here to talk about today. The real highlight of the meal for us was opener: the homemade chips and accompanying dips. And while honestly there isn't much Belgian about the chips, it was a riff on the theme. The Belgians are famous for their fries (pommes frites) -- we just did our version as thin chips -- and the sauces were also inspired by the diverse toppings that are put on pommes frites.

THE CHIPS
One should not clean the kitchen prior to taking this on. One should, however, wear clothes, for safety reasons. (Even Jamie Oliver will tell you that actual naked cooking is not safe.) Our other deviation from Belgian tradition here is that we used canola oil rather than animal fat. Peanut oil is also fab for frying, but we usually just use what we have, within reason.

B is the man here. He does all the dirty work.


mixed potato chips

equipment:
large wok, a mandolin or some other tool for even slicing (this is key -- you can't have too much variation in thickness or you'll go crazy trying to cook them), a mesh strainer thing (a quick Google shows me that these are actually called mesh skimmers), and an apron.

ingredients:
russet potatoes
sweet potatoes -- we use Okinawan sweet potatoes which are grown locally. they are a gorgeous purple!
oil for frying
salt

So slice up as many chips as you want--skin and all. Heat the oil and wait. B favors a slow heat up process and then works from there in terms of temperature. He tests if it's hot enough by putting a couple of potatoes and watching how it reacts. (Note: You'll want to have clothes on by this point for sure.) If it just sits there with no bubbles coming off it, it's too cool. If it begins to bubble rather fast and starts browning within a short period of time, it's too hot. It's safest to start a tad cool and then adjust it a bit in the first or second batch. Fry the chips in batches, remove them from the oil and salt them, then let them sit on paper towels. Remember that they will continue cooking a bit more once you take them out of the oil.

This is a very s-l-o-w process. Obviously, if you have a fryer, it'd be faster. We experimented a bit and learned that once these are totally cool, you can bag them up in large ziplocs and they hold up for at least a day (we've always eaten them by the second day, but they might well be good longer). This is essential if you are actually having people over -- you don't want to have just been having a big fry-fest.


THE DIPS
Now, the sauces. As usual, I've only loosely followed recipes. But basically, one is a tomato coulis and one is tarted-up yogurt (my own invention). In fact, finding your own coulis recipe might be better than me telling all the ways I deviated from the recipe I used. But I will give you a description of the yogurt dip.


tarted-up yogurt dip

drain yogurt for a few hours. To do this, you'll want to take about half-again-as-much yogurt as you want to end up with (you lose volume when it drains). I drain my yogurt in a seive lined with a coffee filter suspended over a bowl; make sure there is plenty of room for liquid to collect in the bowl.

zest a lemon
chop some chives

mix the yogurt, lemon, and chives. You may wish to add salt, but remember the chips will be salted as well.


And last but not least, don't forget that all of this is best with Belgian (Trappist style) beer. In goblets, of course.