10/5/08

VeganMofo 2: Sweet Potato Fries

I have an obscene number of kitchen appliances. I have a food processor, a blender, a toaster, a toaster oven, a crock pot, and a microwave. I think those are all pretty standard. I also have a bread machine, a waffle iron, a deep fryer, and a rice cooker. I used to have a stand mixer but I lost custody in a messy break up and I don't like to talk about it.

At any rate, it takes a while for a new appliance to really work its way into the rotation. The deep fryer was a gift from my older brother in 2005, and it's really just now coming into its own with the debut of these sweet potato fries. I think the first time I had sweet potato fries was in Charlottesville, VA when I went to visit Jett during his MFA program. I was instantly in love, but I think they're more of a coastal south food because they're a little scarce here. Now I can make them myself.

Since sweet potatoes are kind of hard, I cut and boiled these before deep frying them. You could probably just parboil them but I got distracted so they got a full boil. The deep fryer is alarmingly simple, so after the boil I loaded them into the basket, set the thing to 375 and, after some preheating time, lowered the basket into the canola oil to the tune of a satisfying hiss. The ones in Charlottesville came with a brown sugar dipping sauce, but I went slightly less cloying and dipped these in bbq sauce. Served here with baked beans and tempeh bacon.

1 comment:

Hussy, Get Back in Yo Corner said...

I don't know about sweet potato fries being a coastal Southern thing. They might be, but they were easily available in Memphis in 2003.