Baked Sweet Potato Fries with Lime Mayo Dipping Sauce

We're on Spring Break this week with B and I should be cooking more since I have the time!  But, I wanted a fairly easy dinner tonight so I did my French Dip.  I have had this recipe from Epicurious for sweet potato fries for a few weeks and thought this would be a good meal to serve them with.  The dipping sauce was really good and would be great with not only these fries but also a Southwest theme meal or pulled pork...or anything!

Ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into "fries"
2 tsp olive oil
Salt & Pepper

For Lime Sauce:
1/3 c light mayo
1/4 tsp finely grated lime zest
2 tsp fresh lime juice
Chopped cilantro (optional - I omitted)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
In a large bowl, toss sweet potatoes, olive oil, salt & pepper to coat
Line baking sheet with aluminum foil and evenly place potatoes on it
Bake for 15 minutes, remove from oven and turn the potatoes.  Return to oven and cook another 10-15 minutes

Meanwhile combine lime sauce ingredients and keep chilly until you are ready to serve.  I also make a Cajun mayo dip by simply putting mayo and cajun spices in a small bowl and mixing.

Baked Garlic Fries

I'm always on the hunt for how to make baked fries.  I've found a couple good recipes (which are already on the blog) but I saw this one and wanted to try it.  They turned out pretty good - with the perfect texture.  You definitely have to watch them after 20 minutes as they will cook up / brown fast and burn if you're not careful.  Thankfully, mine turned out exactly how we like them.  These are easy and don't involve all the flour that the other recipes have used.

Ingredients:
2-3 medium Russet potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp vegetable oil (the original recipe calls for 2 tbsp vegetable oil but I just split it up)
6 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp minced parsley (I used dry parsley)
Salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F & get two sheet pans out.
In a small pan set over medium low heat, combine the vegetable oil and minced garlic. Let this mixture sit for 5 minutes, to infuse the garlic flavor into the oil.
Strain the garlic from the oil, and save both the garlic and the oil for later. 
Scrub the outsides of the potatoes. Cut the potatoes into matchsticks by first cutting into thick slices, then cutting each slice into small thin sticks. Toss the potato fries with the garlic oil and a big, generous pinch of salt. Spread the fries out evenly between the two sheet pans, making sure they are in one single layer, spaced a bit apart. If they're all on top of each other and crowded, they will steam each other and never get brown.
Bake the potato fries for 20 minutes*, then take them out and give them a good toss. Return to the oven for 5 minutes, then taste one and see if it has proper crispiness. If not, return to the oven for another 5 minutes, but watch them closely, they go from brown to burned very quickly at the end.
Toss the fries with the reserved minced garlic, fresh parsley, and salt, to taste. Enjoy!

*The cook time will vary depending on how thick your potato is sliced. Just keep your eye on them and taste from time to time.

Baked Potato Wedges (Fries)

I have tried to make baked potato wedges (aka - fries) a couple of times and haven't "loved" the outcome.  Last night, I tried yet again and think I've found my new favorite recipe!  I found it here and when I saw that it called for corn starch, I was pretty sure that was going to be the trick that makes them crispy.  They turned out delicious & they are easy to throw together.  I'd like to try grilling them next time but I didn't have room on the grill last night.  I omitted one ingredient from the original recipe (mainly because I'm really not even sure what it is!).  The recipe below is what I used to make the fries.  The measurements are from the original recipe but I probably doubled the batch so use your judgement when making these.

Here are the potatoes in the mixture before baking:

Here they are when they came out of the oven - so crispy!

Here's our meal - cheeseburgers; grilled zucchini and fries

Ingredients:
4-5 medium potatoes (I used Golden potatoes)
1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning
1-2 Tbsp Corn Starch
1-1/2 tsp garlic, chopped (I used the jarred kind)
1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
3 Tbsp olive oil or canola oil
Salt, to taste, I used Kosher Salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Cut potatoes into 1/2" wedges and place in cold water
In a bowl with everything except the potatoes, combine the other ingredients and blend well
Drain the potatoes and mix with the other ingredients, stir to coat
Spread the potatoes in a single layer on a cookie tray (sprayed with Pam)
Cook for 15-18 minutes then flip the potatoes
Cook for another 10-15 minutes until golden brown
Serve immediately

Baked Potato Fries

Who doesn't love french fries??  I wanted to find a way to make them that would be slightly healthier than actually "fried".  I found a recipe here that is for baking them.  I added some Old Bay (love fries with Old Bay!) and they turned out pretty good!  We've had them a couple of times.  An easy side for burgers or steak!

Ingredients:

6 Russet Potatoes cut into lengthwise quarters

6 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons onion powder

2 teaspoons of garlic powder

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper
Old Bay, to taste

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Add your oil to a baking sheet with sides.

Cut each potato into 8 wedges. Combine all dry ingredients into bag–either ziplock or paper,  and add a few potatoes at a time. Shake to coat well. Place the potatoes coated side down into the oil in the pan.

Continue doing this until all the potatoes have been coated and placed in the oil. Bake for about 20 minutes and then pull out and flip over on the other side. Bake for an extra 20 minutes. Pull wedges out of the oven and then sprinkle with alittle kosher salt. Serve hot.