Tuesday, July 17, 2012

July 13, 2012 – French Fries


Happy National French Fry Day!  In the tradition of this year, I spent the day contemplating how I was going to celebrate the holiday.  As today was Friday (the 13th, which is terrifying for most people but my lucky number is 13 which means I feel awesome today) and we have summer hours at work, I promptly left the office around 12:30 and headed to the grocery store, or as I call it Reading Terminal Market.  This year I banned/modify banned the making of most starches in my kitchen, it was meant to only be for a month but I never restarted my weekly bread making sessions or my once a week pasta dishes and now I’ve extended the ban for the year, since it’s July and I’ve been not doing such things as baking bread or making pasta since January. I think I’ll stick it out through December (with some exceptions of course but in general…) Anyway, I haven’t had a potato in my apartment in a while.  I bought some Idaho Potatoes at the Market since those seem to be the ones Five Guys most often uses in their fries.
I’ve actually made oven fries before and I decided to use a recipe from my brain and see what happens.

French Fries – from my brain/the interwebs consultation

Ingredients:
  • Two Idaho potatoes – check
  • Salt – check
  • Veg oil – check
  • Old Bay – check

Step 1: Preheat oven to 400F.  Scrub the potatoes as you intend to keep the skin on because your boss man suggested the idea.
Step 2: Fill your favorite big metal bowl with cold water and some salt.
Step 3: Slice the potatoes into ½ inch thick slices and place into the bowl to sit for about 5-10 min.  This will seep some of the starch out of the potatoes which will make your fries a little crispier.
Step 4: Fill a Ziploc with the vegetable oil (just enough to coat the slices) and salt (to taste), place a handful of potato slices into the bag and shake.  Distribute evenly on a cookie pan covered with foil  (you’ll have an easy cleanup).
Step 5: Add some Old Bay to the Ziploc, place another handful of potato slices into the bag and shake.  Distribute evenly onto the cookie pan.
Step 6: Put the pan into the oven for 15 minutes, turn the slices, and place in another 15 minutes.  The fries should be squishy, if they’re not you did it wrong.  Or your oven cooks slower than mine.

Ok yes. They are good.  They are good. KP liked them. I liked them. I will eat them more tomorrow. Viva La Potato!
This foodsperiment gets a +5 for potato goodness (they didn't call me the Potato Queen growing up for nothing), +5 for Old Bay, +5 for easy cleanup, and +5 for friendships with KP! Happy Sperimenting!
Oven Fries - Old Bay on the Left, Regular on the Right

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