Homemade Seasoned Fries

 

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This recipe comes to you courtesy of Man in Apron. Okay, he wasn't wearing an apron, but he is a man! My husband makes these amazing homemade seasoned french fries, and I had to share the recipe. They taste like something from a restaurant, but...they're not. Amazing, right? I got me a keeper!

My family of four boys can eat me out of house and home, so I try to use fillers to keep them full.

Translation: We eat a lot of potatoes.

Luckily they like potatoes and potatoes are cheap! We do some sort of burger meal a week (sloppy joes, cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, etc) and I've been doing my same old oven fries forever. My husband decided to change things up though, and we won't be going back to oven fries anytime soon!

These fries are a tiny bit a labor of love, but they aren't awful, especially when I made sloppy joes for dinner, which takes about 3 seconds to make. I can make fries for heaven's sake!!

*Note: I used a mandolin to slice the potatoes. If you don't have one, just slice your potatoes by hand into the size of French Fries. It won't take that long, I promise!

Wash and peel your potatoes. Cut your potatoes to the size you like. I try to make them about the size of fries you get in fast-food restaurants.

Place the fries in a bowl of cold water while you prepare the batter and oil.

Combine one cup of flour with 3 tsp seasoning and 1 tsp salt. I used 4 tsp of Johnny's seasoning salt (it already has salt in it) but you can do a combo of any seasoning you like: garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, chili powder, cumin, oregano, etc. It all depends on what flavor you are going for!

Whisk your flour mixture with about 1/2 cup of water. You want it to be a little runnier than pancake batter.

Dip fries in batter one at a time. When oil is hot, dip fries in one at a time so they don't clump together. They shouldn't be touching at first, but once they start to brown up it's okay. Let them fry up until golden and crispy. Remove and let them drain on a paper towel.

Yum!! Seasoned Fries!

Serve with your favorite sauce (we love fry sauce - 1/2 ketchup and 1/2 mayo mixed!)

Homemade Seasoned Fries
by Girls in Aprons

2 to 3 pounds russet potatoes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3 tsp seasonings (a combo of different seasoning, like 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, and 1 tsp oregano) or seasoning salt
1/2 cup water
Vegetable oil

Wash and peel potatoes.Cut into fry slices (or use a mandolin). Place cut potatoes into a bowl of cold water while you prepare the batter and oil.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour with the salt and seasonings. Mix in half cup water with whisk until it's at runny pancake batter consistency. If you can drizzle it with a spoon you're good!

Pour oil in a large pan about 1/4 inch thick. Heat over medium high heat. When hot, dip a fry in the batter and place potatoes one at a time in oil so they don't clump together. Make sure they potatoes aren't touching at first, but once they start browning up it's fine. Fry potatoes until brown and crispy, and remove to drain on a paper towel-lined plate. Serve warm. Makes about servings.

Crunchy Loaded Potato Cakes

First of all, don't forget to read all about our 200 Fan Giveaway!!!

When I was first married, I wasn't much into cooking. Baking was something I'd done since I was a teenager and I turned to cookie baking as a form of stress relief - I think the fact that I ate half the batter helped.

However, after my first son was born, I found myself glued to the late night shows on Food Network. I watched Emeril with fascination, and I still remember Ina Garten's episode "Kids in a Candy Store" and couldn't wait to replicate some of her dishes. It wasn't long before I was whipping up amazing meals that made my husband fall in love with me all over again.

Now that I'm more comfortable in the kitchen, I'm more of what Rachael Ray would probably call an "Eyeballer" because I don't always measure what I through into a recipe. Especially if it's something I've made before or something I can alter after a quick taste test (think soups and such).

This is one of those eyeballer recipes, although I made a point to measure what I did so that I could share with you. But honestly, you don't need to measure, either. Just throw in what you love. Add extra bacon, use a different cheese, omit green onions, it doesn't matter. It's all about you and what you love and I guarantee these will be a favorite potato dish!

This dish uses leftover mashed potatoes. I always make WAY too many potatoes, but I also enjoy leftovers so maybe I unconsciously make too many. If you don't have leftover potatoes, make your favorite mashed potato recipe (NOT instant potatoes, they won't hold together) and let sit in the fridge for 4-6 hours.

You want the potatoes to be at room temperature or slightly warm (microwave works great), otherwise the outsides will get nice and crispy but the insides will still be cold. I stick mine in the microwave for 30 second intervals, mixing in between, until about room temperature.

Add your ingredients together in a bowl and mix together. I use cooked and crumbled bacon, sharp cheddar cheese, and green onions.

Form your mixed potato mixture into patties, relatively thick, otherwise they'll be too delicate and fall apart on you. Mine were about the size of golf balls and then slightly flattened.

Using a basting brush, give the potatoes a light coating of beaten egg and then dip in the seasoned panko crumbs. You can use regular bread crumbs but they won't be nearly as crunchy. If you've never tried panko, you're really doing yourself an injustice. They are located next to the bread crumbs in your grocery store and will be your go-to bread crumbs forever.

The potatoes were so crispy and warm and flavorful. They turn your leftover potatoes into a bit of heaven. We had dinner guests who literally bartered with each other for the last potato cake!

Crispy Loaded Potato Cakes

By Kelli Lafranca

4 cups previously made mashed potatoes

1 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup green onions, dark green and light green parts chopped

1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp water

1 cup panko bread crumbs

2 tsp dried basil

2 tsp dried oregano

Vegetable oil, for frying

In a large bowl, mix the potatoes, bacon, cheese, and green onions.

Place the beaten egg and water in a shallow bowl. In another shallow bowl, combine the panko with the seasonings.

Using your hands, form the mixture into balls the size of a golf ball and flatten slightly. Working one at a time, using a pastry or basting brush, lightly coat the potato ball with the beaten egg and then into the panko crumbs.

Heat a large pan over medium-high heat and add enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom. Make sure the oil is very hot before adding your potato cakes, otherwise the oil will just make them soggy. Fry the potatoes in batches (I fit about 6 in a pan at a time), flipping them over when the bottoms are golden brown. Cook until both sides are golden brown. Serve immediately.



Loaded Baked Sweet Potatoes

One of my favorite things to do is go out to dinner. Don't get me wrong, if this blog doesn't prove it enough, I also looooove to cook and bake. But there is just something magical (yes, magical) about sitting down to a dinner I didn't slave over, eating it with pretty music playing (or football on the TV above my head), and then the dishes flying off the table to a special place where someone other than me washes them. Magical.

But sometimes I get something at a restaurant that I immediately think, "If I don't get to eat this every day of my life, I might go crazy." For instance, Panera Bread's broccoli cheese soup. Or any of the cheesecakes from Cheesecake Factory. I even dissected and wrote down the ingredients to a yummy corn and avocado salsa from CPK a couple months ago.

One of those things also includes the loaded baked sweet potato from Texas Roadhouse. In all honesty, though, theirs is a yam, not a sweet potato. Or they've somehow found a way to turn their sweet potatoes orange on the inside. Sweet potatoes are actually more of a golden yellow, but they are still divine. Yes, they are. And I love myself a whole bunch of them come November and December.

I knew they had a butter sauce and some marshmallows on top, and brown sugar played a role, but I wasn't sure exactly what else, so I googled it and found a blog where she actually also googled it and found that *honey* was the missing ingredient. And letmetellyou it is out of this world. The mixture turns into a buttery, carmely sauce that takes these potatoes over the top.

Even though the title says "sweet potato" feel free to use yams too! They are just as yummy, I swear! In fact, the website I got this recipe from used yams even though she called them sweet potatoes.

Your typical sweet potato. Baked for 45 minutes or until fork tender.

But them open like you would any other potato. Or make your significant other do that part :)

My hubby even sliced the insides a little to give it a "mashed" appearance.

Make your sauce. Butter, honey and brown sugar together are am-ah-zing. Your sauce is done when it's a nice light brown and bubbles are forming around the edge.

Add a small amount of marshmallows. Or more than a small amount. But you will add more, so not too much.

Pour on your sauce. Let it settle and see if you need to add more. Trust me, the more the merrier. Really.

Add on a little more marshmallows and broil for seriously 30 seconds. Don't burn them or they'll be hard and yuck. Just nice and toasty brown.

Seriously, the potato was bigger than the chicken. And it was so good!

Loaded Baked Sweet Potato

submitted by Carissa, from Sugar Mama Baking Co.

6-8 sweet potatoes, about the size of a baked potato
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
8 TBSP butter (1 stick)
a bag of small marshmallows

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.Bake sweet potatoes for 30-45minutes, until fork tender.

While baking, melt butter in a saucepan on stove. Whisk in honey and brown sugar for about 3-5 minutes until it becomes a nice caramel sauce.

When baked potatoes are done, pull them out of the oven, open them like a baked potato, put a couple marshmallows on them, pour some of the honey-caramel sauce on top of the marshmallows, then put more marshmallows on top.  Set the oven to broil and broil the potatoes for 30 seconds or until marshmallows are toasted–but not burned. Remove from oven and serve.
Yum.