By the way, I forgot one extremely important part of cooking anything, wash your hands! Before, during and after handling any food product. Don't underestimate the bacteria that lives on everything that is fresh, including potatoes.
So, first things first: remove excess jewelry, use hot water and antibacterial soap. Sing your favorite song, say the Lord's Prayer, do whatever it takes to be sure every part of your hands is clean. Dry with paper towels.
I love serving these fries with any type of sandwich or fried foods. Everyone seems to love them and they are a welcome change from the tasteless french fries from your local fast food restaurant. They do take about one hour from beginning to end (including prep and cooking), but this just gives you time to relax for a minute and prepare the rest of your meal!
First, I have purchased a 10 pound bag of russet potatoes (the most common in my area). The cost at my local grocery store was $1.50 for the bag.
Tonight I am feeding five people, so I have chosen five medium potatoes from the bag.
You may choose to peel them, but I never do for this dish. Therefore, they must be washed carefully. If you don't have a vegetable brush, use a new toothbrush or even a clean washcloth. Remove all excess dirt.
Since these are going in the oven to cook, you will need to use an oven proof pan. It can be a cookie sheet (as pictured) or a cake or glass pan, whatever you have that will provide room to put the potatoes in a single layer.
Drizzle the pan with some olive oil. You can use regular vegetable oil, but I prefer to use Olive Oil because it seems to crisp up the outside of the potatoes better than regular canola or vegetable oil. Drizzling the pan creates a cushion for the potatoes to sit on so that they don't stick while cooking.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
Begin slicing potatoes into wedges. Start by cutting a potato in half longwise, then sectioning each half into four wedges.
Lay the potatoes out on the pan, making sure they are in a single layer. Drizzle again with some olive oil, add salt and pepper to taste. I recommend waiting until potatoes are at least half cooked before adding garlic or other seasonings, as the seasonings tend to burn before the potatoes are cooked.
Put pan on center rack in 425 degree oven. Put timer on 15 minutes and ignore until timer goes off.
After timer goes off, use a flat spatula to toss the potato wedges around on the pan. Be sure they are in a single layer again before putting them back in the oven and setting the timer to 15 minutes again.
Continue cooking the potatoes in 15 minutes increments until fork tender and your desired crispiness. It can take as little as 30 minutes for the potatoes to cook, or as much as a 45 minutes to an hour for a larger pan of potato wedges.
I hope your family enjoys these potatoes as much as my family does!
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