I dream of these french fries every now and then. Oven baked to crispy perfection and loaded with spices and herbs. Skip the oil and all the mess that comes with frying french fries. These don’t need it. Plus, being oven baked, they’re a tad bit healthier. The final touch to these beautiful fries? A creamy truffle aioli. The aioli consists of a handful of ingredients. A few being white truffle oil, some mayonnaise and salt n pepper. There’s really not much to it, but the taste is out of this world. I feel like “aioli” is kind of an intimidating term to most, but I promise it’s nothing to get stressed over. Aioli is pretty much a fancy word for “seasoned mayonnaise”. Truffle oil is pretty pricey (about $15 for a tiny little bottle)..but it’ll be worth it. Truffle oil can be added to so much more than aioli. Add it to pasta for an extra earthy deep flavor. Add it to a salad vinaigrette. Or just simply drizzle it over pizza, potatoes, chicken, vegetables, etc. It’ll just add an extra layer of depth to whatever you’re making. Yum!
There’s a few steps that are necessary when making these fries. All of these steps might seem small and unnecessary, but it’s important you do not skip them. These steps (which I’ve repeated the directions) will make the fries crispier… which is exactly what we’re trying to achieve when cooking fries. No one likes gooey fries, am I right?!
- Soak the fries in water for 30 minutes to an hour. This will release the starches in the potatoes.
- Pat fries completely dry of any moister. Really pat hard to insure each fry is dry.
- Spread the fries out on the baking sheet. The last thing you want to do is have a large pile of fries on a baking sheet. If you do that, only a handful of fries will actually cook and get crispy. By spreading them out, each fry will be able to crisp up as it cooks. If they’re all piled together, they will essentially “steam” from the heat of the other potatoes.
OVEN BAKED PARMESAN HERB FRIES WITH TRUFFLE AIOLI
Prep time: 1 hour
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Serves: 2
INGREDIENTS for french fries:
- 2 russet potatoes, cut into thin strips
- 1 large bowl of water
- 3 tbsp Olive oil
- 1-2 tsp Salt, more or less to taste
- 1 tsp Pepper
- 1 tbsp Dried oregano
- 1 tbsp Dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp Garlic powder
- 2 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated (Plus more for topping)
DIRECTIONS:
- Place the potatoes in the large bowl of room temperature water. Making sure each potato is submerged. Let sit for 30 min to an hour. This will remove most of the starch from the potatoes, which will in turn make the fries crispier.
- Drain potatoes from the water and pat each potato completely dry with paper towels. make sure to pat out any and all moisture left on the potato. This will also make the fries crispier in the end.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Once completely dry, place the fries on a baking sheet. Cover with olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano,parsley, garlic powder and parmesan. Mix thoroughly so that each potato has an even layer of oil and spice.
- Place the potatoes on a baking sheet, making sure no potato is touching. Spread them out… this way the potatoes will get crispier. (you may need 2 baking sheets).
- Place the fries into the oven and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and move the fries around a bit. Place back into the oven for an additional 10 minutes (more or less depending on how crispy you’d like them).
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle with more parmesan cheese.
- Best served right out of the oven.
INGREDIENTS for truffle aioli:
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tsp truffle oil
- 1 pinch pepper
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, grated into a paste
DIRECTIONS:
- Combine all ingredients in bowl. Whisk to incorporate. Set aside.
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