Let’s Cook! Baked Sweet Potato Fries

With our recent flirtation with Sweet Potato Fries in Animal Kingdom (see “One potato, two potato…”), I decided to make some in the Eating (and Drinking) around the World Kitchens.

Opting for a much less-messy (and healthier) non-fried version, here’s what I came up with (based mainly on a Rocco Dispirito recipe).

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients

Sweet Potatoes (duh…) – one large to two small per person

Gnarly sweet spuds

Olive Oil (or Olive Oil Spray)

Salt

Pepper

Cayenne Pepper

Cinnamon

Procedure

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Take a large sheet pan and top with wire racks (see note at end of recipe). Lightly grease (or spray) the wire racks with oil and set aside.

Wash the sweet potatoes and cut into 1/4″ slices lengthwise. Stack a few of the slices and cut into roughly 1/4″ square sticks.

Prepping the potatoes

Place the potato pieces in a large bowl and lightly drizzle with the oil and stir (go ahead, use your hands…) until evenly coated (or use spray olive oil). Add the seasonings to your taste – don’t ask me proportions, you’ll have to wing it… add or delete seasonings as you desire (of course, you’ll need salt and pepper to start – cumin, chili powder, dried or finely minced fresh garlic, dried or fresh rosemary would all be nice options/additions). Again stir until evenly coated with the seasonings.

Spread the sweet potato pieces in a single layer on the prepared racks.

Stick into the pre-heated oven and ignore for 35 minutes. Check a piece and see if done to your taste – ideally the center will be done but with a creamy texture while the outside will be crispy.

It may take 45 – 50 minutes or so if you like them really crispy. You may want to add a bit more salt as you remove the spuds from the oven.

Serve with your choice of dipping options (here you see served with catsup that is mixed with sambal olek and honey, and a combo of mayo, plain greek yoghurt and grainy mustard), or just serve as is, or maybe a light drizzle of malt vinegar or truffle oil, or….

Note: you can omit the use of the racks and put the potato pieces directly on an oiled tray, but you’ll need to turn the pieces 2 to 4 times during cooking to be sure they don’t burn and get evenly browned. If you really want them extra crispy, try this way.

Easy, semi-healthy and dang tasty – can’t ask for much more…

Back to the kitchen…