French fries (Air fried)
Yaaruma andha Air fry oven ah en kaila kuduthanga (translates to who gave that air fry oven in my hands) might be the general reaction from you guys going forward is my humble opinion :D. 10 days of buying the oven and I have used it every single day (more than once on some days :)). When my cousin (Madhu) bought this and her main reason to buying this was the 3 minute pre-heat I didn’t realise the joy up until actually owning it and using it. I know I am literally publicizing the air fry oven here but guys, for those of you who love to eat (especially fried stuff – I mean who does not) and have space in the kitchen to keep an extra gadget and also likes to cook/ experiment should totally buy this.
I love salads and veggies but also love nice deep fried stuff. The fact that I can mix the 2 easily and have some deadly stuff but not feel guilty and in a matter of minutes is my biggest appeal with this and that notion is only getting bigger in my head now!
Anywho, I have mentioned the other ways (gadgets wise) of making these fries but hey, this will be the only one ticking the healthy, tasty & quick boxes all at once :).
On a personal note, Adya is having distance learning this week and he has been demanding for different kinds of food :). The french fries was his ask. I made a batch before this just for him without any spice added. However he nicely mosukkified (munched) onto these spiced ones as well :). He has asked for a repeat of the ginger cookies tomorrow begas sir finished batch one yest. He now coolly throws around words like pre-heat etc and I am quite zapped :).
- 3 medium potatoes
- 1/2 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp peri peri spice mix
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Wash and peel the potatoes.
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Cut the potatoes into matchsticks, either with a knife or with a french fry cutter. The potato pieces should all be similar in size.
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As you go chopping the potatoes, dunk them in a bowl of room temperature water (will prevent oxidizing as well as will help remove excess starch).
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Drain the water and go about rinsing the potatoes twice or thrice in fresh water (helps remove excess starch).
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Drain the water using a colander and just allow excess water to drip off the colander for 1 minute.
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Transfer the potato sticks onto a dry kitchen towel/ tissue. Pat them dry.
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Ensure the potato sticks are nice and dry – if required use additional kitchen towels/ tissues.
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Place the potato sticks in a broad vessel. Add 1/2t olive oil, 1/2t salt, 1/2t peri peri spice mix.
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Massage/ rub the oil & seasoning onto the potato sticks such that you coat all of them evenly.
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Line them on the air fry tray one next to the other (do not bunch them up one on top of the other).
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Set the timer in the Air fry oven for 25 minutes and pre heat to 200c (mine preheats in 3 mins and sends out a beep).
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Air fry for 15 minutes.
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Take the tray out after 15 mins, give it a nice shake and spread out the fries so that they are not clumped up together.
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Air fry again for 10 minutes (keep an eye out the last few minutes to ensure you do not burn them. I literally took mine out at 24 since they had browned and crisped up well).
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Transfer to a plate and serve hot! We had these with some chai on the side.
- We use Keya peri peri spice mix. You could totally just use red chilli flakes & garlic powder or skip the spice altogether. You can also make your own peri peri spice mix. Check out this recipe if you are interested in that.
- If you don’t have an air fry oven, you can totally just use a regular oven. My regular gas oven has way too much preheat time. So I never ended up doing these kind of dishes in that. I literally use that only for baking.
- If you have an air fryer and not an air fryer oven, this recipe would still work as is.
- Last but not the least, you could also pan fry these (will turn out soggy and not crispy). My advise would be to coat the sticks in the seasoning mentioned above + 1 tsp corn starch. My mil used to make these for Adyant’s lunch box.
- You could totally use sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes for this recipe.
- You can also deep fry the french fries but I am always lazy (only second reason is health :D) to keep a vessel of oil to deep fry anything.
- Finally, though the shape of this resembled a french fry, I kinda felt I should mention that these were a mix of fries & wedges because quite literally the potato sticks had also puffed up (very similar to what we see in wedges). Nevertheless, it tasted amazing.
