Anchovy Brown Butter on Waffle Fries

Anchovies are the secret ingredient many chefs use to spike umami power in a dish. They are surprisingly easy to work with in sauces. And since they don’t need to be refrigerated, they are the perfect pantry staple to just grab in a pinch and elevate your sauce, pasta, stew or dressing. Here we got creative and made a brown butter with decadent Ortiz anchovies melted in, and then tossed our frozen waffle fries in the anchovy brown butter once they came out of the oven. This recipe was tested on 2 trepidatious teenage girls - they noted that the fries had a “strong” flavor, that they quickly continued to retaste until the pan was devoured. 

1 bag of frozen waffle fries, prepared as directed. We used Alexia brand waffle cut fries.

2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

2 anchovy filets, such as Ortiz Gran Seleccion

1 tablespoon of freshly grated parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon of fresh thyme, leaves pulled from stems

…..

1 - Start by preparing the fries as directed by the instructions on the bag.

2 - About 5 minutes before the fries are ready to come out of the oven, heat up a medium sized skillet over medium heat. Add the butter.

3 - Stirring with a rubber spatula, allow the butter to melt fully and begin to bubble. Add the anchovies to the pan. Stir constantly and use the spatula to help melt the anchovies into the butter. The sauce will become very bubbly and a medium brown color. Some anchovy “bits” will remain, this is good. This process takes about 5 minutes total.

4 - Remove the anchovy butter from the heat. Take the baked fries out of the oven, and pour the anchovy butter on the fries, using the spatula to get all the remaining butter and anchovy from the pan.

5 - Using tongs, gently toss the fries to evenly coat them. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and fresh thyme.