Spicy Oven Roasted Fries

Spicy Oven Roasted Fries began as Batata Harra, a recipe in Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty More. I’ve prepared Batata Harra a few times, and it is delicious. I strayed from the original for reasons both personal and environmental.

Springtime in a world gone mad.

Ottolenghi and Company live and cook in rainy London, where briefly parboiling vegetables in vats of saltwater is normal culinary practice.

Your hostess, on the other hand, resides in parched California, where the above behavior is akin to sashaying into a Redwood Grove with an axe. It just ain’t done.

You will be shocked to learn Mr. and Mrs. IK haven’t any axes about, so no photographs are available. There are, however, lots of farmer’s market berries, which make much nicer pictures.

Then there’s the question of cooking oil. In the Before Time, when we all went about barefaced and never gave a second thought to baby formula, our biggest worry about cooking oil was whether or not it was polyunsaturated.

Oil.

Those were the days, my friend. And indeed, we thought they’d never end. But they have, because Ukraine was Europe’s bread basket, and one of the staples grown there was sunflower oil. Which Ottolenghi uses lavishly in his recipes, or did.

I used a blend of peanut and olive oils. Peanut oil doesn’t burn at high heat, but olive oil does. Hence the blend.

More oil. The potatoes in the first picture are John’s. These are mine. Note the cayenne.

Returning to water, or lack of. No way am I parboiling anything around here. Nor will there be any rinsing, blanching, or cold-shocking chez IK until it rains. If it rains. Instead, I pre-cooked the potatoes using the microwave. Take care not to overdo it, though, or your potatoes will crumble when you try to slice them. Take it from me.

The seasoning may be whatever you wish. Mr. IK prefers a less fiery potato than I do. I therefore prepare his n’ hers trays: his have salt, pepper, sumac, and dried oregano. Hers has the same, with an additional hit of cayenne. Garlic was added to both trays. Sometimes I add fresh lemon juice. It depends on how lazy I’m feeling.

More water was saved by lining the baking trays with a double layer of tinfoil. It’s not evident in the photographs, but it’s there.

A final note: these potatoes are delicious with catsup, but I mixed up two quick dips. The first used mint, parsley, basil, and cilantro. These herbs were desperately in need of using up. I stuffed them into my mini-processor, added a few garlic cloves, a few pinches of salt, and poured in olive oil. Nothing was measured–I just pureed and tasted.

The second sauce was yogurt mixed with Kewpie mayonnaise, Meyer lemon, garlic, and a few hot red pepper flakes. Stop shrieking. It was delicous.

Not the sauce, because I didn’t have a picture of it. Instead, I give genuine garlic mayonnaise, made by yours truly.

These spicy spuds may be eaten as a side, or they may be the meal. I personally love them as the meal, served with a nice salad–particularly at this time of year (I write in the last week of May). So long as you are careful with your sauces and accompaniments, these spicy oven roasted fries are vegan, Kosher, and can be gluten-free. Serve hot or at room temperature. The cooking is easy, and easy is what everyone needs right now.

I began this post before the shooting in Buffalo. Afterward, I was unable to continue for several days. Writing about potatoes felt both trivial and crass.

John pointed out that food was more important than ever before. I remained unconvinced.

We as a society need a hell of a lot more than food blogs to address the reasons 18-year-olds are opening fire in supermarkets.

The next day, a man opened fire in a Laguna Woods, California church, killing Dr. David Cheng and injuring five others. Dr. Cheng is described as “charging across the room and tackling the gunman.” He was 52 years old.

 

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I wrote the above on May 24th, then logged off to start dinner. Before leaving my computer, I decided to check the news. You know what happened next.

To quote National Public Radio’s Kai Ryssdal, I honestly don’t know where we go from here.