Tuesday, November 9, 2010

OBD 8- Potatoes! Again!

Roommate drama has cut itself back to a medium simmer. So it's back to food for me!

Yesterday I was really wanting potatoes. Ok, I've actually been really wanting potatoes since about a week after I finished the last batch. They've been crazy expensive, though (a dollar a pound for *potatoes*? are they made of gold?) so I put them off and put them off.

Then, about two weeks ago I was cruising the Save a Lot, looking for sweet potatoes, when I realized that I had to maneuver my way around two huge pallets of potatoes. Pallets of 4lb bags of potatoes (kinda sad) but still. And they were only 99 cents each!

There was one massive problem with this- these two pallets, or the contents thereof, had that rotting potato smell. The rotting potato smell of doom, as it were. I was not spending my veggie dollar on rotting white potato when I could get loose sweet potatoes just feet away. Or onions! So I passed by the bags of potatoes.

Then, earlier this week, the potatoes were smelling better, so I thought about it and decided they would go back on the list. And yesterday, when I was feeling hungry and craving sweet chili fries I went out and bought a bag.

Then I came home and made sweet chili fries almost right away.

Sweet Chili Oven Fries 



  • 3 medium sized potatoes
  • 1/2 C sweet chili sauce
  • 2-4T oil
  • 2T kosher salt
Preheat oven at 450. Slice potatoes into "steak fry" shapes and put them in a mixing bowl. pour sweet chili sauce over the potatoes and toss or mix with your hands. Pour oil and salt over potatoes and mix or toss again. Spread fries in single layer on non-stick cookie sheet and bake 15 minutes. Flip each of the fries so the bottoms don't burn and return them to the oven for another 15 to 20 minutes, or until they're done. Serve with roast garlic mayo, more chili sauce, ketchup, or eat plain.

Optional- 
  • pre-cook the potatoes in the microwave to cut down on cooking time.
  • add a squirt of sriracha sauce to the mix if sweet chili isn't hot enough
  • more oil makes them crispier and less likely to burn, but will also up the calories
  • Line your cookie sheet with nonstick foil for easier flipping and cleanup
  • If the fries are starting to burn, but still not done cooking, a couple minutes in the microwave never hurt anyone.
Wander back tomorrow when I will (hopefully) be able to tell you all about super cheap chili!

4 comments:

  1. Potatoes for a dollar a pound? Yikes. I get them for about $2.99/10-lb or $1/5-lb. On sale, of course, but they are usually pretty fresh and have never encountered much issue...

    Me and oven-fried potatoes don't seem to get along. Unless it's sweet potato fries, the regular potato ones are never crispy. Perhaps I should add more oil... and now that you have a break on dairy, you could even make the cheese fries you blogged about once upon a time.

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  2. yeah, those are more my kind of potato prices, but nope, much higher than that around here lately. Hopefully with new crop potatoes coming in the prices will drop more.

    I think it's temp for oven fries. or temp and time, I'm never sure. If I *do* decide to make myself sick with cheese fries, I'll probably use a bag of the seasoned fries you can get at the store. I'm a lazy head, after all.

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  3. TJ, j is right, the temp is the secret, the higher the better and you may actually be using too much oil; lighter coverage is better so shaking works best. Oven fries are so much better than those fast food things and easier than really frying and also healthier.

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  4. Yeah, lower liquid helps with crisping. Also, my measurements are probably off. I'm not a measurer, so my guesstimates are based on about how much I think the level in the bottle has gone down. Could be high...

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