I think that the secret to making great tasting french fries is to blanch your fries in water first. These are more UK style fries - or chips as we call them!

Okay then, you need the right kind of potatoes first, you want something that's not going to fall apart, or take forever to brown. My choice are Maris Pipers a good Scottish potato!

what you need:

potatoes - you can really use as much or as little as you want

oil - I think that an oil like mazola is good - just something that's not going to impart a taste - olive oil is a definite no-no

how to do it:

to start with you need to peal and cut your potatoes, if you want to leave the skins on - which is popular nowadays - then make sure you clean them thouroughly - you don't want to be frying any earth!

now you'll want to cut them - you could either go for a thin-cut fry, or a thick-cut chip. thick cut is a bit more healthy as larger fries will absorb less oil.

the next thing you need to do is blanch your chips in water. boil up some water and chuck in your potatoes - you need to boil them until there is no crunch left in the potato - this is where the chips are cooked.

Another option you have, instead of blanching in water, is to blanch in oil - if you want to blanch in oil then set the oil at about 140 degrees centigrade.

If you blanched in water, then you need to drain your fries thouroughly before you fry them in oil. Set the frier to about 190-200, really hot. Once you are up to heat put in your fries and fry unitl they are golden brown. Remember that you are only looking to colour them at this point - do I need to tell you the colour that fries should be? I don't think so!!

What most restaurants do is blanch their fries, then cook them off later, so if you are planning a dinner party you can blanch them in the afternoon and cook them off when you are getting the meal ready!

My favourite sauce for fries is mayonnaise, I first had this combo when I was on holiday in Holland and heartily recommend it!