@rarej and I have on multiple occasions written about saoto soup (Suriname's version of soto ayam), but left one part out in the process of preparing it. That is the frying of grated potatoes - used as a starch in the broth - because of the lengthy labor and the intensity of that task, which is why we usually have bought it already prepared.
We were unfortunately confronted by the exaggerated increased cost of buying it ready-made a few weeks ago, which made us decide to fry them ourselves. As I have never attempted to do this myself, I asked my mom for advice and even watched one tutorial online.
My mother usually fries 5 kg if she expects visitors and family, but I only used 1.5 kg because we already had some ready-made fried potatoes at home.
After peeling and washing, I grated the potatoes directly into a substance of water, so that the potatoes wouldn't get dark during the process. Because I knew beforehand that it would take some time, I sat on a wooden stool with a comedy tv-series in the background.
The tray was packed to the brim, when I was done grating the potatoes, so I got more trays out to wash the slices separately. The potatoes had to be washed and strained at least three times to get out the starch, to prevent the slices from clumping during frying.
After straining, I added another step to the process and that was drying the potatoes in a dish towel, in order to dry the slices even more.
And into the hot oil - has to be piping hot - the potatoes went. I inserted three skimmer scoops of the slices every time, to keep the frying manageable. The potatoes have to be golden brown before removing.
The slices then need to be placed in a sieve to let out the excess vegetable oil (see cover photo) and after a while - before the other batch is ready to go into the sieve - need to be placed on a paper towel to dry and cool down even more.
When all was done and cooled off, I put the fried potato slices into a sealed bag and then into a tray, to keep out moisture as much as possible. This will stay fresh and crispy for about a month stored like this and in the freezer it'll stay good for approximately three months.
