Homemade baked french fries
Mar. 28th, 2004 12:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thistlechaserWhen I try to cook stuff, it almost never comes out well. My failure rate is so high it's a wonder I still try! So when something does work out, you can guess that it's easy enough for anyone to make.
While watching Cooking Thin on Food Network, the host made Baked Smoked Chili Fries. Boy it looked easy, and probably much better for you than fast food french fries, so I decided to try it out.
Off the bat, I had to make some changes to that recipe (which is dangerous, I know). I like neither chili powder nor black pepper, so I left those two out. I didn't have any plain olive oil, but I had garlic flavored EVOO so I used that instead. Also, I don't like steak fries, just the thinner ones, so that was another change. And I didn't want to make four potatoes' worth of fries! So another change!
I used:
Potatoes: One and a half (in other words: As much as would fit on a baking sheet single-layer without touching).
Oil: "some". (I didn't measure it out, but I don't think that mattered.)
Salt: A couple of shakes.
The recipe said to wash and cut up the potatoes, but I didn't know if I could get them clean enough, so I peeled them instead. Then I cut them into ... shapes. (I should have tried to make them generally the same shape, but they were pretty darned random.) Try to avoid making flat-ish ones, as they'll burn before the strip-shaped ones cook through.
I poured some of the oil and a shake of salt into a Ziploc bag, then added the cut potato and swooshed them all together until the potatoes were coated. I took them out of the bag by hand (instead of pouring them out -- leaves extra oil in the bag, not on your food) and arranged them single-layer on the sheet. Salted again, because I thought I hadn't put enough in the oil.
The recipe said to bake at 450 20 to 25 minutes, turning once... but since my fries were of a different size, I wasn't sure how accurate that'd be. After 10 minutes I tried to turn them, but they were all stuck to the foil (the darned recipe said they wouldn't stick!!). I turned the ones I could, then stuck them back in for another 10 minutes.
After those 20 minutes, they seemed to be done. I got as much of them off the foil as I could, and ate them as-is (no more salt, no ketchup). Yummy! Somewhat crispy on the outside (more would have been better), and fluffy on the inside. I didn't taste garlic, but they also didn't taste plain/boring, so I suspect the garlic flavoring helped.
While this was quite a bit of work for a few french fries, they tasted a lot better than fast food fries, and since they're probably much better for you, it was worth the work. I'll probably do it again sometime.
While watching Cooking Thin on Food Network, the host made Baked Smoked Chili Fries. Boy it looked easy, and probably much better for you than fast food french fries, so I decided to try it out.
Off the bat, I had to make some changes to that recipe (which is dangerous, I know). I like neither chili powder nor black pepper, so I left those two out. I didn't have any plain olive oil, but I had garlic flavored EVOO so I used that instead. Also, I don't like steak fries, just the thinner ones, so that was another change. And I didn't want to make four potatoes' worth of fries! So another change!
I used:
Potatoes: One and a half (in other words: As much as would fit on a baking sheet single-layer without touching).
Oil: "some". (I didn't measure it out, but I don't think that mattered.)
Salt: A couple of shakes.
The recipe said to wash and cut up the potatoes, but I didn't know if I could get them clean enough, so I peeled them instead. Then I cut them into ... shapes. (I should have tried to make them generally the same shape, but they were pretty darned random.) Try to avoid making flat-ish ones, as they'll burn before the strip-shaped ones cook through.
I poured some of the oil and a shake of salt into a Ziploc bag, then added the cut potato and swooshed them all together until the potatoes were coated. I took them out of the bag by hand (instead of pouring them out -- leaves extra oil in the bag, not on your food) and arranged them single-layer on the sheet. Salted again, because I thought I hadn't put enough in the oil.
The recipe said to bake at 450 20 to 25 minutes, turning once... but since my fries were of a different size, I wasn't sure how accurate that'd be. After 10 minutes I tried to turn them, but they were all stuck to the foil (the darned recipe said they wouldn't stick!!). I turned the ones I could, then stuck them back in for another 10 minutes.
After those 20 minutes, they seemed to be done. I got as much of them off the foil as I could, and ate them as-is (no more salt, no ketchup). Yummy! Somewhat crispy on the outside (more would have been better), and fluffy on the inside. I didn't taste garlic, but they also didn't taste plain/boring, so I suspect the garlic flavoring helped.
While this was quite a bit of work for a few french fries, they tasted a lot better than fast food fries, and since they're probably much better for you, it was worth the work. I'll probably do it again sometime.
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 02:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 05:10 pm (UTC)After cutting up, they will ooze starch for a bit. Soaking in water and then drying (on paper towels or in a salad spinner) might help. I'm not sure if this contributes to sticking but it's possible - I think the white stuff coming off the slices is basically sugar.
I might try this too... I have also been thinking about how to make my own potato chips... maybe this could work
no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 05:13 pm (UTC)If yours work out, let me know? I'd be interested to try that as well.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 12:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 09:53 am (UTC)Thanks!