At this point in our relationship, Hubster probably knows that when I saw we’re going to have “fries” I don’t actually mean it. What I mean is that I’m going to slice some potatoes, coat them in olive oil and do a quick roast on them. It seems from every healthy cookbook I’ve read that this is the healthy way to do “fries”. It works for me because these “fries” are still crunchy, salty and an indulgence. And they’re an easy side dish that cooks while attend to other things in the kitchen.
This has been my SOP for “fries” for some time. The recent popularity of sweet potato fries made me wonder if my routine “fries” might benefit from a little twist… say in the form of Cajun sweet potatoes? So I applied the same method, but with disappointing results. The differences were evident right away in the density of the sweet potatoes and even more so when they popped out of the oven. No crunchy bits here. Instead they just softened into sweet, mushy rectangles. And the seasoning wasn’t liberal enough to make much of an impact. So this riff of a riff of true fries was just to far away for my tastes. However if you decide to give it a whirl I included the alternate recipe below.
Oven Fries
Cooking spray
2 Russet potatoes
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne
Preheat oven to 500 degrees and coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray. Scrub potatoes and slice into 1/2″ thick pieces. Drop potato slices in a bowl and drizzle liberally with oil (between 1/4 and 1/3 cup). Toss to coat. Spread potato slices in a single layer on the baking sheet. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with cayenne to taste. Bake for 20 minutes.
Sweet potato variation: Use two sweet potatoes and sprinkle liberally with cajun seasoning.
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