Double-Fried Belgian French Fries

I'm sure you all have great health goals for 2016, and I of course, want to continue my journey toward eating healthier and being more active. But on New Year's Eve, I wanted to make steak frites as I did a few years ago, and I wanted to make frites the Belgian way: double-fried.

Making fries at home can be as easy or as complicated as you make it, but when you're going for restaurant-style Belgian frites, two kitchen gadgets will make it easier: a mandolin slicer and a deep fryer (I borrowed Ashleigh's).

First, I sliced two russet potatoes on the mandolin slicer really skinny using the fries attachment. Then, I soaked them in water for an hour, drained them and patted them down to remove any extra starch.

Meanwhile, I heated an entire bottle of vegetable oil to 375 degrees in the deep fryer. This takes a few minutes, but you'll know when it's ready because your kitchen will smell like a McDonald's.

In small batches, I fried the fries once for about 3 minutes, then set them aside to work on the next batch. Then, I repeated the process to double-fry them. This gets them perfectly crispy without being overcooked and hard. Once finished, sprinkle with sea salt and maybe an eensy bit of garlic powder if you like.

We ate them with steaks marinated in this sauce and every bite was delicious.

Since it was New Year's, we enjoyed glasses of prosecco, mine spiked with limoncello.

It was a wonderful New Year's, and the fries were perfect. But now I have a deep fryer in my house, and I'm trying to resist the urge to fry everything!