Instructions: This is the second of 10 columns by Cat Cora, executive chef of Postino in Lafayette. They are being written with Nicholas Boer. You can catch Cora on

"Melting Pot" on the Food Network.

I was 8 years old when Mom brought home Fry Daddy. It was a cute thing - a little over a foot tall with a thermometer sticking out. Before this baby came along, my brother and I were flat-out dangerous. Our love for French fries knew no safety bounds. We would get out a skillet, pour in the oil and turn up the heat. What happened next was always an event.

All I can say is, thank goodness Fry Daddy arrived before Mr. Smoke Detector did, or our tricks would have been discovered early on. Im just surprised we never burned ourselves up - or the house down.

Fry Daddy made our lives heaven. We could have our fries - cooked, eaten and oil cooled - by the time Mom walked in from work.

Chicken is the Southern standard, but out here on the coast I have better fish to fry: calamari; crab cakes; fried oysters; fish and chips. Hmmmm. Chips.

Lets cook some chips (thats fries for you Yankees).

Dont be afraid. This wont be any tougher than our first class. Frying is a craft, but one that can be mastered by anyone with a hunger to learn.

Deep-frying is just like boiling - keeping in mind that oil can catch fire if its near flame and gets too hot. Oil and vinegar dont mix, but hot oil and water really dont mix. Any liquid will make hot oil snap, splatter and pop - ferociously. Dont do it.

The best potato for French fries is the big, ugly Kennebec. I buy mine at Berkeley Bowl, but russets will work fine if a trek to the market is out of the question. Like it is for me, now. Its even OK to use a good brand of supermarket spuds. Frozen foods and frying were made for each other. But careful: Once you make a batch from scratch, you may never go back.

Were gonna make fries because its the most difficult thing to fry. Thats because - and this is critical unless youre using frozen - French fries need to be cooked twice. Potatoes need to be blanched first; its the same concept as blanching vegetables. Its just that the cooking is done in hot oil instead of boiling water. This is also called parcooking (cooking halfway), and it can be done way ahead. Thats what restaurants do with their fries. Then crisping them up to order is a cinch.

Im going to assume you have a Fry Daddy, Fry Baby or Fry Something, with a temperature control. I dont have one, so Im going to do mine in a big pot on the stove with a cooking thermometer clipped to the side. If you want to try this method, have someone who has deep-fried before stand by (Im sure they will come by for the fries). For one, its dangerous to drop food in an open pot

(fryer baskets can be gently lowered: much safer). And if youre deep-frying on the stove, youve got to stay alert! This is not the time to answer the phone or check e-mail. I have seen neglected oil burst into flames, even in professional kitchens. For all my teen friends out there, save those long chats on hot fashions until after your oil is off and has begun to cool down (besides, by then youll have a nice plate of salty fries, making the gossip that much juicier).

OK. Enough talk. I fill my pot with oil two-thirds full, leaving plenty of space for the oil to bubble up. At the restaurant, I use a combination of peanut and canola oil. Peanut oil makes food taste great, but itll kill ya eventually.

Your choice.

Most foods - whether were talking calamari, artichoke bottoms or coconut shrimp - fry best at 350 degrees. But since Im blanching, I turn my fryer to On to my potatoes (all I have in the house are russets). With these, Im going to make old-fashioned home fries - wedges with the skin left on. Theres no peeling, and they just plain taste better that way. Besides, eating the nutritious skin makes me feel less guilty for having downed 100 grams of fat.

I get a cutting board and make sure my knife is sharp. I fill a low pot with cold water and bring it by my side (cut or peeled potatoes need to stay in water to keep them from turning brown - oxidizing). For home fries, I like medium-size russets, and thats what I have. I cut one in half - then I cut each half in half, and then cut each quarter in half. That gives me eight nice big wedges.

If I had giant Kennebec potatoes, I would turn the spud into a rectangular block by squaring off all six sides (four lengths and the two ends) Then I would cut half inch lengthwise slabs, stack them and cut them lengthwise again into half inch-thick fries.

Either way, once cut to an even thickness, I transfer my fries to the water and move on to the next potato. This method would take much too long in a busy restaurant; they would use a french-fry cutter: a square grid of blades attached to a handle for pushing the potato through. This is built for speed and for obtaining a consistent size. Home versions can be found at most culinary stores.

Now that Ive cut all six potatoes, I should let them soak for a time, maybe half an hour. I find they crisp up better that way. I could even leave them in water for a couple of hours, but any longer and they would start to lose too much starch and get mealy.

Most foods for frying can be done well ahead. If I were to bread fish sticks or crab cakes, I would get them ready a couple of hours ahead and let them firm up in the refrigerator. Other foods, such as tempura, need to be dipped in batter at the last moment.

Because Im in a hurry, I drain my potatoes right away. I always dry them thoroughly on a towel before frying (remember the snap, splatter, pop). For blanching spuds, I can do a lot at once, but when hot-frying, I do small batches so that the oil doesnt cool and to keep everything from sticking together.

I check my thermometer and see its reached 250 degrees. The oil has a dull sheen and is unsettled. I know that when I crank up the heat, the oil will eventually get still and start to shimmer. Thats when I know, thermometer or not, that its hot enough for anything from onion rings to Buffalo wings.

I carefully drop my potatoes into the 250-degree oil, not so high to make them splash and not so low that my hands are dangerously close. With your fry basket, this wont be a concern; just fill it up and lower it into the fryer.

After I get them all in the oil, I dig up a couple of baking sheets, which I line with parchment paper (cut-up brown paper bags work fine).

When about five minutes have passed, I pull up some potatoes with a spider (a long-handled metal tool with a web at the end, perfect for scooping food from water or oil). I squeeze one big fry and see that its soft . Now I know all my fries are cooked through. I bring my paper-lined sheet pans close to the pot and scoop the fries out in batches with my spider, letting as much oil drain down as possible. Then I spread the blanched fries out in a single layer to let them cool to room temperature. Now I can store them in the refrigerator, or just crank up the heat and move to stage two.

Now Im ready for some fries, so I turn up the heat and bring my oil to 375 to 400 degrees. If I were frying something breaded, I wouldnt let the temperature go above 350, or the outside would turn dark before the inside was hot.

Breading can be done several ways, but it all involves getting your food moist so that the flour or crumbs stick to it. For a light coating, Ill soak foods, such as rock shrimp or vegetables, in buttermilk and then pat them in seasoned flour. Mixtures, such as crab, fish or rice cakes, need a heavier crust or theyll fall apart in the hot oil. So they would get a triple coating: first in flour, then beaten eggs, then bread crumbs. I love panko, Japanese bread crumbs, (available in the Asian section of most supermarkets) because they are super-light and crisp.

I see that my oil is starting to shimmer and that the temperature is about 380 degrees. I carefully pick up my fries by picking up the parchment paper and slide half of them into the oil. If all is well, and the oil isnt bubbling up too fiercely or rising close to the rim, I let the other half slide in.

I wait another second or two to make sure the oil is under control and then crank up the heat, because all that potato has lowered the oils temperature a bit. But since youre using a fryer, it should fire back up automatically.

Now I just watch my fries as they begin to turn golden - lowering the heat if the temperature starts to climb. After a minute or two, I give my fries a stir with my spider so they dont stick. After another minute, they are turning a beautiful color.

Now if I wanted to get fancy, as they do at Cesar in Berkeley, I would add a handful of fresh herbs, such as basil, sage or rosemary, right before I pull my fries out. Fried herbs make great garnishes, and are a good way to practice deep-frying without a lot of oil. Just heat up an inch or so of oil in a heavy pot or cast-iron skillet, and wait until it shimmers. Then toss in your basil or sage leaves, listen to them crackle, and take them out after a few seconds and sprinkle on the salt. They hold well for hours, and you can just sprinkle them over your favorite dish.

Aside from color, there are two ways to tell when fried food is done: One is that the oil will stop bubbling. The other is that finished fried food tends to float. When you see your fries or onion rings start to collect on the surface, pull them out.

My fries are almost ready, so I put down a whole bunch of paper towels on my baking sheet, get out my spider and carefully start transferring. When Ive got the last fry, I either drop in another batch or turn off the heat.

Right away, I sprinkle my fries with kosher salt (I always, always, season fried food while its still hot). This way the seasoning sticks and melts onto the food.

Now I just break out the ketchup. But in the 21st century, thats no longer a simple question. Will it be red, pink, green or purple?

Boiling, Part II: Overcome your fear of frying

CATHERINE CORA: COOKING FROM THE HIP

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