Blanching is the trick with these bad boys. Blanching really just means pre-cooking in this context. Peel and cut the potatoes into French fry sized pieces – I’m sure you know what they look like. Spread them out on a tea towel for a bit so they dry out. Pat them with another, you want them quite dry as their starchy juice will only exhaust your oil faster.
Next heat your deep frying oil, whether you use a fryer, saucepan or even a wok doesn’t matter. Drop the chips into the oil into batches and remove them when they start to float, and change colour a bit. You could eat them at this stage but they’ll be really bland and hard.
Take the blanched potato slices and put them aside to cool. You can refrigerate or freeze them at this point – this is how they arrive in most commercial kitchens. If you freeze them use something like freezer go between to stop them clumping too much.
When it comes time to cook and serve, just repeat the process again, hot oil, batches and this time cook them until they’re golden brown. Be careful because they will taste burnt well before they look it. Serve them with all sorts of stuff – anything on the mayonnaise derivative post is a great start.