Home "Fries"
baby red potatoes
canola oil
salt
Wash the potatoes. Halve them, then slice each halve into thin half moons. Place cut pieces in a bowl of cold water.
Drain potatoes well. Arrange on an oiled baking sheet, being careful not to crowd them.
Drizzle with some more oil and sprinkle with salt.
Bake at 425◦F until potatoes are cooked and crisp.
They can also be baked until soft and cooked, then rebaked in the oven later until they are crisp.
This is really the easiest, fastest way to prepare potatoes that resemble fries without a deep-frier and a lot less work.
- Old Bay and Panko coated cod fillets
- fish pan fried then baked, served on a bed of greens with a lime wedge
- Home fries - thinly sliced baked baby red potatoes
- House made tartar sauce
- Lemon and herb slaw
Cut firm polenta into thin rectangles. Arrange on a baking sheet. Drizzle with oil. Sprinkle with spicy seasoning mix (I used garlic powder, paprika, black pepper, and chili powder. If you seasoned the polenta, you do not need extra salt). Bake at 425◦F for at least 30 minutes or until crisp.
These have a great, crispy texture without the need for deep-frying. Use whatever seasoning you wish and use it liberally. You can also stir the seasoning directly into the warm polenta mixture if you prefer. These would be great dunked into an aioli.
The other day I wanted to cook myself up a vegetable side dish, but I wanted it to be a little something different instead of simply a steamed vegetable, and I wanted to use something in season. So I spotted a nice looking locally grown turnip while shopping the other day, and decided to do something with that. I got my inspiration from the home fries my parents and I often like to make as an easy tasty side dish with meals - baked potatoes cut in fry shapes. I have heard of carrot, sweet potato ,and parsnip fries and decided to try turnip fries as well. The concept is the same - cut into thin strips and bake at a high temperature until tender and crisp. Season with salt, pepper, herbs, spices, and drizzle with oil as desired. The taste is definitely not the same as potatoes, but of all these vegetables, turnips and parsnips are not too far off, and the texture is surely similar and satisfying.
To make these turnips fries, I placed them on a baking sheet lined with foil with a little bit of oil, curry powder, paprika, and ground black pepper. Then I baked them at 425◦F for 30 minutes, flipping them every ten minutes or so, until tender and crisp. Dip 'em in ketchup and you won't even notice the difference!
Meat and potatoes. The dream meal for many. Here is a grilled barbecue steak, some homemade, handcut, lightly salted, baked fries, and some sautéed onion and mushrooms. What a classic, comforting meal. Probably not the best for you, but I wouldn't exactly call it a heart attack on a plate either. Looking at this plate (it wasn't my plate) I notice that is a hunk of steak, and probably more than one serving size there. My father made this meal for himself as a treat on Father's Day, since he is the grilling master here, and is also really good at making home fries. I do believe my mother prepared the vegetables though. I am not a steak fan or a french fry fan, but I do enjoy home fries (and vegetables).
Since my grandfather is used to having fries with his liver, whenever he eats it in a restaurant, I decided to try making some fries for him. I wasn't about to take out the deep-fryer, as that is my father's territory. I decided to just make some fries in the oven. Basically I followed the same recipe I use to make homemade hashbrowns here: Hashbrowns.
The only real difference is I cut the potatoes into fry shapes instead of small cubes. This worked really well.
I peeled, rinsed, and sliced the potatoes, then covered them in water and brought them to a boil. I drained them and placed them on a baking sheet with a little oil and a light sprinkle of salt. Then I baked them on the top rack of the oven at 425◦F for about 25 minutes, flipping every ten minutes. The result was a batch of crispy, tasty fires that are not greasy at all. A healthier choice, but comparable to restaurant fries (and I don't mean fast food style). A great side dish, and easy too!
My father made these for the first time while I was away, and again now, upon my request. We have made fries and sweet potato fries in the oven before, but never in the deep-fyrer. Partly because we have only had the deep-fryer for a few years now. We are not big on deep-fried food, but a light frying with just a little oil and these fries are delicious! My father has now perfected the process - the potatoes need to be peeled and cut and placed in ice, then fried twice, with a 30 minute rest in between frying times to cool. Not exactly sure on the science on that one but it sure works. Apparently three fry times are even better, but that is a bit labor intensive. I am not a huge fry fan, but homemade fries that still resemble potatoes and not just greasy sticks I do enjoy. I eat them plain - not even a little salt or ketchup. I bet sweet potatoes would be good like this too, or even squash or carrot fries. My father has now perfected these fries - and they are delicious and crispy, even using the same batch of oil as the first time. They go well with a variety of different meals, breakfast, lunch, supper, or even a snack!
We had a few different winter squashes on our hands, and decided yesterday was a good day to cook one of them. I have roasted and microwaved squash before, both of which work. However squash must be roasted for a long time in order to become tender, and then the texture usually turns out too hard or too mushy. Microwaving also takes a bit of time and patience, and isn't exactly the cleanest method. Boiling works, it just isn't very interesting. So yesterday night to go with our supper, my father decided to try making squash fries. He peeled and seeded the squash, and cut it into french-fry like strips. Then he baked them. I thought they turned out pretty tasty. I think it was an acorn squash, but I don't know for sure. It definitely was not butternut, buttercup, or spaghetti. A few were too hard, and a few were too soft, but the ones that were just right reminded me of regular french fries. They could have used a bit of salt and a little oil, as my father just left them plain, but other than that they were good. Next time we make them, we will know how to make them better. I think a slower oven temperature at first and a higher one or broiling at the end would have made the fries nice and crispy as well! This is probably my new favorite was to eat squash.
The other night to go along with our supper, my mother decided to try something a little different and make carrot fries. It sounds kind of gross, I know, but they were actually delicious. I am used to her making sweet potato fries, which I really love. They are kind of like regular fries, but sweeter of course, and mom doesn't make them as crispy, which I like, although you can make sweet potato fries very crispy too. Carrot fries look just like the sweet potato fries, and have the same texture, but they do taste a little different. To make sweet potato fries, my mother simply adds a little olive oil and sometimes ground black pepper. To make the carrot fries, she used a little olive oil and brown sugar. The brown sugar really made the fries good. Nice and sweet, with a nice flavor. Recipes for carrot fries often recommend using honey, and maple glazed carrots is also a popular recipe, so carrots with brown sugar made perfect sense. If my mom had not told me otherwise, I would have gone along thinking the carrot fries actually were sweet potato fries, since the brown sugar made them so sweet. My father thought is was squash or something. There are actually quite a few recipes out there for vegetable fries of all different kinds - beets, turnip, squash, kale, you name it. There are also vegetable chips on the market, which are actually pretty good, though these often contain a lot of salt. The idea behind vegetable fries is to be a healthier alternative to potato fries, or a more exciting way to eat more vegetables. Most times, vegetable fries are actually baked, and not deep-fried, which would kind of defeat the purpose. Baking vegetables as fries is so easy, just cut them into matchsticks and throw them in the oven with your main course!
Ahh, potatoes! The ultimate comfort food. I have already bored you in a previous post with all of the diferent ways you can prepare them. Now I am talking about the different varieties of potatoes. White and sweet potatoes are by far the most popular two, but there are many more kinds, including red, blue, baby, new, russet, fingerling, etc. Potatoes are considered both vegetables and healthy starches. White potatoes often receive a bad name, highly due to the recent craze of the low-carb diet. Sweet potatoes contain more vitamin A and vitamin C and have less of an effect on blood sugar than white potatoes, but otherwise the two are pretty similar. White potatoes are generally available year-round while sweet potatoes have a much shorter season, so I like to indulge in sweet potatoes while I can. My favourite way to enjoy them: sweet potato fries. They are so simple to make and go well with almost any meal. All you need to do is cut sweet potato into fry-like wedges, add some oil and salt, and bake. Much better than getting them frozen!
This was tonight's delicious supper. It is incredibly simple, yet tasty. Just dredge some haddock fillets in some flour, dip in beaten egg, coat with breadcrumbs and pan fry. Slice a few sweet potatoes into wedges, add some oil, salt, and pepper, as desired, and bake at 350◦F - 425◦F for 30-60 minutes, until desired crispness. Cook up some fresh asparagus spears to go with it, and you've got yourself a marvelous supper! Not difficult at all. I particularly enjoyed this meal because I am a huge fish fan, I really enjoy sweet potatoes, especially as a change from the standard white potatoes, and I love in-season vegetables such as asparagus. Bon appetit!
