Crispy French Fries

Can I just say, having food allergies totally sucks. There weren't any leftovers from dinner last night, so I had to grab something from a restaurant for lunch. There's this Greek place around the corner that is so yummy, but everything - and I mean everything - has something I'm allergic to. The Gyro has dairy, their special had both garlic and tomatoes, the French onion soup had garlic, and even the fries have garlic in the seasoning. I'll take a plain burger, no garlic seasoning, and fries with no seasoning. Soooo healthy.

Ironically, burgers and fries are what we had for dinner last night. Shockingly, mine are healthier and taste better. Not to toot my own horn (toot toot toot), but my fries actually taste better than anything I've ever had at a fast food restaurant. At any restaurant, for that matter.

I have yet to find the ideal way to cut French fries. My brother got me a fry cutter for Christmas a year or two ago, but I beat it up fairly quickly because I used the devil right out of it. Then I tried using my shiny new mandolin, but it didn't work well, either. Cutting them by hand isn't ideal because I can't get them uniform and they don't cook well. The lesser of all the evils is probably the mandolin, though I have a story to tell.

The other day I was slicing onions on my mandolin. I don't use the plastic food holder thingy because it doesn't actually hold the food. I find it easier to just grip the onion or whatever at the top and run it down the blade, praying I don't catch my nails or a finger in the blade. My son says, "Mom, you know that isn't safe, right?" Yes, son, I know.

I do know. That's why this story is so retarded. Last night I'm slicing away, using the julienne setting to slice up my fries. The first slice or two works fairly well, but then I have to use a wooden spoon to force the potato the rest of the way through the slicer. Are you grimmacing yet? Yep, it happened. My hand slipped off the spoon and my finger hit the sharp blade. Luckily, it was just a nice, deep little poke, no severed fingers or anything like that.

Then, as I'm attempting to separate the frozen burgers, the butter knife I normally use to pry them apart isn't working. My brilliant little brain decides a sharp knife is a better alternative. Yep, I slipped, and got a nice little cut on the other side of the same finger. I was very lucky. I could have cut off the same finger twice. Safety first, people!

That being said, these fries really are worth the effort. I use Russet potatoes because right now they're about a third of the price of other potatoes, but Yukon Gold makes the best fries. Red potatoes are a close second if you can find them big enough.

Ingredients:
6-8 medium potatoes
Drizzle olive oil
Chili powder
Salt & Pepper
Paprika

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a very large or two medium-sized baking sheets with foil and coat with cooking spray.

Cut fries as desired. I make mine shoestring size, but you can cut them bigger if you want. Just be sure to adjust the cooking time.

Put fries into a large mixing bowl. Drizzle with just enough olive oil to coat lightly, and toss with tongs. Dump onto baking sheet in as close to a single layer as you can (a little overlap is okay). Sprinkle generously with chili powder and paprika, then sprinkle a little salt and freshly ground black pepper. Garlic powder is also delicious on these (just not for me, sad face).

Bake for 30 minutes until cooked through. Remove from oven, coat fries lightly with cooking spray, and turn on broiler. Put fries under broiler for a few minutes until crispy. Watch them closely because they can burn easily. Serve hot and crispy.