Every Greek yia yia knows how to make French fries better than any restaurant French fry I’ve ever eaten in America. These special yia yia fries are always hand cut and shallow fried in extra-virgin olive oil. They are crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, and they are magically delectable.
hello my friends today I’m going to show everyone how to make Greek danites pates or pataka every single Greek grandma in Greece every yaya knows how to make French fries better than any French fry I have ever eaten in America i don’t understand why they should be called Greek fries not French fries now these are made they’re always homemade they’re always fried they’re not deep fried they’re probably in about an inch of oil they’re in a row they’re not on top of each other they’re crispy on the outside but they’re still you know really kind of fluffy on the inside it is magic i don’t know how the Greek yayas do it but I’m going to attempt to do it myself and show you how to do it as well so you start with Yukon Gold or rusted potatoes you peel them and then you put them in cold water and let them sit for about an hour because that helps to make them crispier when you actually fry them you need about an inch of oil you just you barely you don’t want them to be submerged you want the bottoms to be covered but halfway up okay and then we’re going to flip them and by the way this is going to take about 12 to 15 minutes as you see I have just sliced all of the potatoes put them on a cookie sheet with a paper towel underneath to sort of absorb some more of the water because they’ve been in water for over an hour and I’m going to generously salt these guys then we’re going to make sure that our olive oil is like 350° or more and by the way no Greek grandmother is using a thermometer to find out how hot her olive oil is trust me they just toss them in there cuz they know how to do it but if you want to you know make sure that it’s the right temperature feel free to use one if you don’t have a thermometer to find out how hot the oil is or if it’s ready this little trick that the yayas do you put it in there see this see where it starts to bubble see that bubbling that means the oil’s ready all right so here we go you’re going to do this in batches oh puppy and if you have one of those um things that you can put over so it doesn’t a screen so it doesn’t bounce back at you you might want to do that too so this does get a little messy you got to be careful we’re going to cook these woo for about 6 minutes okay and then you’re going to flip them around a little bit and you’re going to cook them for another 4 minutes 5 minutes but no more than 12 minutes and they will be ready to go the timer has gone off so I’m going to flip these over and see how golden brown they’re becoming oh my gosh i think they’re going to taste like my Okay so now we’re going to flip them all over and cook them for another 5 minutes 5 to six i just turned the oil off i flipped them and cooked them for another 5 minutes see that see that perfect golden brown so I’m putting them on a cookie sheet with a screen so they can drip cuz you don’t want them to sit in their own oil if you don’t have this you can just use a paper towel and put the paper towel on a cookie sheet or a pan and then put another paper towel on top that really helps now in most Greek restaurants patataka is like a staple on the menu the It’s like bringing bread to the table everyone gets pataka and they share them it’s not like you just get them for yourself you share them for the table so there it is 12 to 15 minutes later you have the absolute best French fries you will ever eat every Yayya in Greece makes them just like this and they’re incredible i highly recommend you make sure you have your screen you make sure you have the fan on probably open the windows and both doors to get that ventilation circulating so your house does not smell like a fast food restaurant the best news about these are they’re way better for you because they’re fried in extravirgin olive oil it’s absolutely fine to bring the olive oil up to a high smoke point and to fry anything in them i mean the Mediterranean people live longer than most people in the world and they fry everything in olive oil that’s all they use anyway you guys put um put oregano put salt put feta put lemon put ketchup put whatever you want just enjoy