Thursday, August 30, 2012

Freezer French Fries!

So cooking for two can be very annoying.  My cooking experience was mostly developed in University where we lived in Townhouse style dorms of 8 people.  Other than that my cooking was usually just like, a bowl of pasta for myself.  Definitely not used to proportions for only two people.  Now some days I am okay with this and I'll make a lot of food with the intention of having leftovers, but other days I'll make enough for 2.15 people or something.  Or just enough of one dish for another person but the rest of the dishes are just enough for me and my Hubby.
Potatoes are especially difficult for me.  It always seems like there isn't enough and then I peel and cut them up and it doesn't seem like that much.  And if I just make boiled potatoes we have leftovers, but if I make mashed there usually aren't.  I try to estimate based off of "one baked potato per person" kinda rule, but that only really works if the potatoes are large, which they usually aren't.  So then my rules of extrapolation seem to just go crazy and I end up with like 4 little potatoes for each person but then I have too many.  Lol.
So basically the end result of all of this is that I don't like cooking potatoes all that often.  But potatoes are cheapest if you buy them in 10lb bags.  So...in my year of living here so far I have had plenty of potatoes go bad on me.  I don't use them enough to use them up, and if I did use them up I would probably just have leftover in my fridge that go bad and either way it's a waste.

So I decided I would freeze them!

Except apparently you can't just stick potatoes in the freezer.  I looked it up on google and apparently you have to cook them to like almost done or done and then freeze them.  So you can either do just cubes or you can go all out and make twice baked potatoes or mashed potatoes.  I decided to do like steak-cut french fries.

Things I used:
8-10 Medium potatoes (or however many you want), washed and peeled or unpeeled as you so desire
Cold water
Olive Oil
Salt/Pepper
Various other seasonings (Paprika, Italian Seasoning Mix, Garlic Powder/Garlic Salt)
Cookie Sheets (I used Pizza Sheets because I don't actually have any cookie sheets that fit my smaller than normal oven)
Freezer
Freezer bag


All the Stuff laid out.

So you cut up the potatoes to your desired french fry size and stick in a pot big enough for them.  Fill with cold water until all the potatoes are covered and then put on the stove to boil.  While things are boiling get a bowl and put some Olive oil and seasonings in it (how much is up to you).

When the potatoes have boiled and are just barely fork-tender take them off the stove and drain them and then cool them (I just ran cold water into the pot for a while until they weren't too hot to handle anymore).  This actually shouldn't take long because they are all cut up and cool quickly.

Potatoes in the sink.
Then drain them fully and season in whatever way you find easiest.  I had the big white bowl to begin with but that didn't work too well (didn't want the cooked potatoes to mash up with stirring) so I just ended up picking them up and dunking them into the seasoning bowl and rubbing seasoning on them.  Messy work to be sure.

Messy Mess Mess.
Place them on a cookie sheet so that none are touching.  After the cookie sheet is full stick that in the freezer until they are all frozen solid.  The oil and stuff might stick to the pan but it doesn't matter too much.

Mmm Sorbet.
I had to rig up some fancy sorbet shelving to get both sheets in the freezer.  I actually totally forgot about them for like...4 hours, so they were good and frozen but I don't think it should take more than an hour if you had to do it quicker.  I then just picked them off the sheets (the oil was stuck a bit) and popped them into a freezer bag which I had labeled and instructionified already.

You kinda just cook them like as if you got french fries from the supermarket anyway.  So I said 425'F for 15 mins and then flip them and cook them again for 5-10 mins on the other side until they are crispy.  If you had smaller cut fries then that could be 15 mins total, flipping half way through.  Hopefully you have made french fries before in the oven and know how to tell if they're done.  You can make these without seasoning and then deep fry them as well if that's what you like, but I don't have instruction on that.

So I actually had leftovers from the process before freezing them (some didn't fit on the sheets) so I ended up making just salt and pepper seasoned fries for lunch.

Mmmm.
 And of course I used my only "cookie" sheets for the freezing so I used a glass dish to bake them in....I think they probably would get crispier on the cookie sheets but it's up to you again.

Mmmm again.
A nice somewhat healthy lunch (haha right) with a side of ketchup.

Now, all this talk of food is making me hungry.  I should go make dinner.

Toodles!


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