LongHorn Parmesan Crusted Fries

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The crust is the dish, and there is one ingredient decision that determines whether you get one.

Pre-grated parmesan in a bag is coated with cellulose or potato starch to stop the shreds sticking together. That coating does its job extremely well, including when you want the shreds to stick together and melt into a sheet.

Grate it from a block. It takes two minutes and it is the difference between a crust and a scattering of cheese that browns individually and falls off.

Parmesan does not melt like cheddar

Hard aged cheeses have low moisture and their proteins are tightly bound. Heated, parmesan does not flow — it dries, browns, and turns brittle. That brittleness is what you want here: a crisp, lacy layer rather than a stretchy one.

It also means it can go from golden to bitter quickly. Watch the last two minutes.

Mixing in a small amount of a melting cheese — mozzarella or provolone — gives the crust something to bind with so it lifts off the tray in sheets rather than shattering.

The chips must be crisp before the cheese goes on

Cheese traps steam. Put it on a half-cooked chip and the chip finishes cooking in its own moisture underneath a lid of parmesan, which means a soggy chip with a crisp hat.

Cook the chips fully first. They should be done and crisp before any cheese appears.

What you need

• 1.2 kg floury potatoes, cut into 1 cm chips, or 1 kg frozen chips
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 120 g parmesan, grated from a block
• 60 g mozzarella, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley

Method

1. 1. Oven to 220°C.
2. 2. Toss the chips with the oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
3. 3. Spread in a single layer with gaps. Crowding steams them.
4. 4. Roast 20–25 minutes, turning once, until properly crisp.
5. 5. Mix both cheeses with the fresh garlic.
6. 6. Push the chips into a tight single layer in the middle of the tray and scatter the cheese over them evenly.
7. 7. Back into the oven for 4–6 minutes, until the cheese is golden and set.
8. 8. Leave for 2 minutes, then lift sections out with a spatula.
9. 9. Parsley over the top.

Push them together for the cheese stage

Spread out, the cheese falls between the chips and browns on the tray. Pushed into a tight raft, the cheese bridges from chip to chip and sets into a single sheet, which is what lets you lift a section out with a spatula.

Those two stages want opposite arrangements, and it is worth moving the chips between them.

The two-minute wait

Molten parmesan is soft. It firms up as it cools, and two minutes is the difference between the crust tearing as you serve it and coming away in one piece.

Storing

They do not keep. The crust softens within twenty minutes and reheating gives you tough cheese on a soft chip.

Make what you will eat.