This is so simple. All you need is a quart of peanut oil and 2½ pounds of yukon gold potatoes. The actual recipe calls for an additional quarter-cup of bacon fat for flavoring, but I didn’t have any on hand. All you do is slice the potatoes into quarter-inch squares with a mandoline. If I didn’t have a mandoline, I probably wouldn’t attempt this recipe.

Drop the potatoes into an empty dutch oven and pour in the peanut oil.

Set the heat to high and don’t touch the pot. Once the oil comes to a rolling boil (about 7 minutes), reduce the heat a tad and let it go untouched for 15 minutes.

At the 15 minute mark, carefully stir the potatoes, making sure to scrape away any pieces stuck to the bottom. At this point, you’re eyeballing the fries. You want to occasionally stir them to make sure they don’t stick together and to see how brown they are. It’ll take another five to ten minutes before they’re done.

Remove the golden-brown french fries to drain on a mesh rack or on paper towels. Immediately season them with salt and let them cool for a minute or two. Finally, serve with whatever dipping sauces you like. We’re big fans of dipping french fries in our South Carolina-style barbecue sauce.

These really came out great. Even the dark brown ones weren’t burnt; they were just extra crispy. I’ll definitely be making these again, probably the next time we have some extra chili (and cheese) left over.

Here’s everything you need:

I’d prefer to use peanut oil to fry the chips, but it’s just too expensive. Instead, I use canola oil.

Bring the oil to about 340-345° on the stove top over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot (which takes about 15-20 minutes), chop one potato down the middle. Use a mandoline to slice half of it into 1/8 inch thick rounds. You really need a mandoline for this. You can’t get uniform slices like this with a knife. I know; I’ve tried.

Carefully drop the potato slices to the hot oil one at a time and cook until they’re crisp and golden brown, about four minutes. Make sure to keep dunking the chips in the oil with a slotted spoon so both sides brown evenly.

The temperature of the oil will drop to around 310°. That’s normal, so resist the urge to crank the heat up to compensate. Remove the finished chips, shake off any excess oil, and lay them on some brown paper bags. Immediately sprinkle kosher salt on top. The bags should absorb most of the grease, but I usually move the chips to a rack to dry once they’re cool enough to touch.

Once the oil has returned to 350°, slice the other half of the potato and repeat.

This might seem like a cumbersome process, but you have to do it in this order. Overcrowding the pot makes the temperature of the oil drop too much and you end up with soggy, greasy chips. Slicing all of the potatoes at once gives them too much time to release their starches, resulting in brown, slightly burnt-tasting chips. Trust me, this is the best way to fry chips on the stove top.

I made some fresh French onion dip to go with the homemade chips. It was really good.

NOTE: I’ve tried lots of tips and techniques for making homemade potato chips. Some resulted in soft and soggy chips, and others were crisp but burnt. I’ve even gone through the labor-intensive process of parboiling and drying the potato slices to rid them of excess starch so they maintain a light color. The end result just wasn’t worth the effort. So even though this recipe might seem like it takes a long time to make, I promise you that it could take a whole lot longer.

You start by slicing your eggplant into 1/3″ thick slices. There’s an ongoing debate about whether or not you should peel eggplant. I peel it for the grill, but leave it for the oven.

Once sliced, you need to draw out the moisture. To do that, llayer them in a colander, making sure to sprinkle salt on each piece. Once they’re arranged, put a plate on top and weigh the slices down for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours. I learned this essential method from Simply Recipes.

The salt will draw the water out of the eggplant, condensing the flavors and allowing the flesh to fry better in the oil. Look at how the flesh has changed color:

When you’re ready to start cooking, wipe off the pieces with a paper towel. Next, set up your breading station with three plates:

1. A plate of flour seasoned with salt, pepper and crushed red pepper.
2. A plate of eggwash. I make my eggwash by beating two eggs with a teaspoon of dijon mustard. You could use a buttermilk or cornstarch slurry if you don’t have any eggs.
3. A plate of breadcrumbs. It doesn’t matter if you use Italian, panko or cracker meal. I usually go with Italian breadcrumbs mixed with a little cornmeal.

You know the drill; coat both sides of the eggplant in flour and lightly shake off the excess. Then dredge the flour-covered pieces through the eggwash and drip off the excess. Finally, coat both sides with the breadcrumbs. Try to keep your fingers clean or else you’ll get doughfingers (If you’re unfamiliar with that term, you won’t be after this process).

Once the eggplant pieces are all breaded, preheat the oven 350°. The next step is to add enough oil to a pan to coat the bottom. If I have some cheap olive oil on hand, I’ll use that. Otherwise, I just use some canola oil. Warm the oil over medium heat, and start frying when the oil begins to wrinkle (if that makes sense):

Don’t walk away; it doesn’t take long to brown each side. You may have to add more oil to the pan after each batch. Drain all the eggplant pieces on paper towels.

You fry the eggplant on the stove top, but you really cook them in the oven. Start by ladling some sauce into the bottom of a casserole dish. This keeps the eggplant and cheese from sticking. Arrange as many eggplant pieces as you can in a single layer. Top each piece with a little parmesan cheese. Next, spread a spoonful of sauce over each piece and top with mozzarella cheese. Repeat this process with the remaining eggplant pieces, staggering them so you can see the layer beneath:

Finally, cover with foil and cook until the eggplant heats through. Cooking time depends on how hard or softy you like your eggplant. A rule of thumb is to cook it until the sauce begins to bubble:

Serve alone, or with bread and salad.

This is a recipe you can really play around with. Feel free to add sauteed vegetables to the sauce, use multiple cheeses, or anything else you can imagine. Just remember, the star of this show is supposed to be the Eggplant, not the sauce or the cheese.

This is the same recipe I use for Veal and Chicken Parmesan. It’s actually the base for lots of recipes. Pound out and bread some pork instead of eggplant and you’ve made Pork Schnitzel. Do it with tenderized round steak and you’ve made Chicken/Country Fried Steak. The only real differences are in the seasonings and the ingredients of the eggwash/slurry, so have some fun experimenting with it.

* That “someone” is usually me.