Oven fries are a lot like regular fries except you don’t have to bother with deep frying. The secret to truly crisp oven fries is rinsing and soaking the potatoes in icy water to rinse the starch away. I resisted this step for a long time and had soggy potatoes as a result. Learn from my mistakes.
To accompany the perfect fries we had a classic hamburger dinner with great late spring ingredients. Piled atop the burger were grilled ramps, roasted mushrooms, Mill Creek Dairy sweet dill pickles, cheddar, and, of course, Dukes mayonnaise. We also had a spinach salad with a balsamic vinaigrette and spring onions. I am really enjoying all the bright, grassy greens of the season.
Oven Fries
4 – 5 yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed
2 – 3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 425 degrees, and put a large cookie sheet into the oven to heat up. Halve the potatoes and then slice into 1/4 – 1/2″ wedges. Rinse two or three times in cold water. Then soak the potatoes in ice water for 5 minutes or so. Spread the wedges out on a few layers of paper towels and dry quickly and well.
Remove the hot cookie sheet from the oven and drizzle on 2 tablespoons of olive oil to coat the cookie sheet, and then lay out the potatoes. Bake for 10 minutes, flip the potatoes with a spatula, and return to the oven. Cook for another 10 minutes, flip everything again, add more oil if needed, and cook for another ten minutes, for a total of 30 minutes or until the potatoes are evenly browned. Remove from cookie sheet onto a paper towel-lined bowl. Serve with a dollop of Dukes.