This morning after breakfast Catalina and I got out ingredients for a small morning cook project: Thick-Cut Sweet Potato Fries. The recipe comes from the 2015 Best of Test Kitchen magazine.
Catalina helped with peeling and making the cornstarch mix.
You cut 3# of sweet potatoes into wedges and boil in salt water with a little baking soda for 3-5 minutes to soften the potatoes; after boiling the potatoes are lightly dredged in a cornstarch mix. Apparently the teaspoon of baking soda is added to the boiling water to help break down the exterior of the potato and make them more tacky so the cornstarch slurry clings better.
Meanwhile peanut oil is heated to 325 and then the potatoes are fried for 3 minutes a side.
The recipe also includes a spicy mayonnaise dipping sauce.
After frying the potatoes are transferred to a wire rack and the next 1/3 of the batch gets fried.
A touch of salt is added to taste. The crisp skins of the fries were amazing due to the external cornstarch ‘batter’. Definitely worth the effort, although it takes about 10 minutes of prep and boil and 20 minutes to get all the potatoes fried up.
-JB-
