TASTY TUESDAY

Sweet Potato Fries

Country of Origin: Central America

The sweet potato is a common staple root vegetable and considered a starch in many countries such as: Venezuela, Mexico, the Caribbean, Peru, Ecuador and many of the Polynesian islands including: Hawaii, Cook Islands, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. In North America sweet potatoes are often mislabeled as yams, which are actually quite different than sweet potatoes. They are delicious, soft, and sweet. 

What is better than sweet and salty at the same time? These fries are amazing. My husband gobbled them up with a smile on his face, and so did I! I hear it is difficult to get these fries to the right crisp-crunch desired, and I must say I wish mine had turned out a tad crunchier. It was recommended to soak the sweet potatoes for an hour before preparing and baking, and I think I coated the potatoes too soon with corn starch afterwards so it didn't set right. So my vote is to discard soaking them in water at all, just follow the recipe and they should be delicious! The corn starch is what adds the crisp-crunch!

And to top the fries, I didn't make a sauce I just used salt, ketchup and secret sauce (mayo/ketchup). but feel free to whip together either this one HERE or this one HERE. Yummy, especially the marshmallow one. I have had it before and about died.

 

Ingredients:

3 sweet potatoes (or just one per person)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1-2 tablespoons corn starch (I did 2)

salt

sauce of choice

Directions:

Preheat over to 425

Rinse sweet potatoes and peel the skin

Rinse sweet potatoes again and place on cutting board

Cut potato into halves and begin slicing till appropriate medium thickness

(make sure they are proportional)

Put cornstarch into a plastic bag

Add sliced sweet potatoes and twist the top, leaving some air in the bag

Gently toss around the bag till all the fries are lightly coated

Once well coated, place the fries on a cookie sheet 

Slowly cover with olive oil and use your hands to make sure each fry is coated

Space out each fry so that none are touching each other allowing them to cook not steam

Place in oven for 10 minutes, then take out and flip the fries with a spatula

Put fries back in oven for another 10 minutes for a total of 20 minutes cooking time

Once they are lightly browned they are ready to serve

Enjoy!