DUCK FAT OVEN FRIES

While in Chinatown on Tuesday, I picked up a whole roast duck to serve as reheated meal components for a few days. (I can get three days worth out of one duck.) Though most of the rendered fat from the duck is drained before it gets cut into sections and packed up to take home, a duck is still a very fatty critter, so when its meat and skin are reheated, the remaining fat renders out and can be collected from the bottom of the reheating pan. I pour it off into a small vessel, seal it, and fridge it for future cooking use. When at room temperature, duck fat liquefies quickly, and it is VERY greasy, so pour carefully and fridge the stuff immediately.

One handy hack that duck fat is good for is perking up frozen fries. My go-to freezer fries of choice are Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Crinkles, for when my body craves something starchy that I won't have a problem keeping down. (When eaten around 11:30 last night, a plate of them saved the day after yesterday's three rounds of vomiting due to post-dialysis low blood pressure and light-headedness.) What I do is lay out the desired amount of crinkle cuts on a foil-lined baking pan, then I driz a bit of liquid duck fat over the potatoes (seen here before hitting the oven). It gives the fries a bit of a coating that responds well to the oven's heat once the fries are inside. Upon completion the fries will not only be as crispy as their marketing proclaims, they will be just as firmly crisp as fries fresh out of a proper deep-fryer, only minus the submersion in gallons of cooking grease. Once out of the oven, hit them with the customary pass of salt, and bon appetit! :)