It has been a while since I posted something.
Last night I made mussels and fries. IMPORTANT VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPKeAPL8WsU
I used 3 liters of vegetable oil. *Your mileage may vary.
You have to put way more salt than you think or this will not taste right.
Sriracha/Sambal Mayo with scallions and some fish sauce
Forgive the blurriness, steam from the mussels was messing with my camera.
As far as recipes go, I went mostly from past experience. I'll post a couple links to get you off the ground though.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/moules-mariniere-recipe/index.html
Added about a half cup of Pernod (an anise flavored liqueur) and 28oz diced tomato (used canned) to what basically was that recipe. I used dried thyme because it was what I had, and left out the tarragon in favor of using Pernod.
For the french fries, I did a cold fry technique similar to the one outlined here:
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/slow-fried-french-fries I didn't rinse the fries beforehand. This probably makes some difference, but I really couldn't tell in the final product. I was concerned about the potential for incompletely drying them and having water exploding in the oil. One time, a friend of mine threw a bunch of water into some oil that I was using to fry shrimp. That burned the shit out of me.
This style of frying takes forever, but did produce good fries. I decided to try this method because I did once, in my youth, have a pretty big frying fire while making chicken wings and I am still kind of traumatized. That and because I have no fry thermometer right now.