Yam and Sweet Potato Fries

This was our first attempt at making fries. For variety, we used two types of yams and some sweet potato too. We used three medium yams and one large sweet potato which yielded about 2 or 2.5 cups of fries (maybe even more, considering how many we ate while frying). The fries must first be cooked in hot water until they're about halfway done, and then deep fried until crisp. You'll want to have a frying basket and some brown paper grocery bags on hand, and about a 1/2 gallon of oil. Corn oil worked well for us.

To start, we washed our tubers and peeled off the eyes, remaining roots, and any thicker or yucky-looking skin. We cut them down to long strips, about 1/4 to a 1/5 inch thick, and about 3/4 inch wide. Next we parblanched the slices by placing them in a large pot and filling it with cold water to cover. We put the pot uncovered over a burner on high, and allowed to come to a gentle boil, which took approx. 20 minutes. We then flipped the bundle of fries so the fries on the bottom were moved to the top and vice versa to cook them evenly, allowing them to continue to boil until the slices became darker and more translucent, so they were about halfway cooked. Make sure they remain firm enough that they won't fall apart. This took about an additional 7 minutes. Meanwhile, we were heating the 1/2 gallon of corn oil for frying.

We drained the fries in a colander and left them there to cool, though we probably should have rinsed them in cold water and then set them out to dry on (paper) towels to soak up the extra moisture, as they started to get a little mushy and break apart in the colander. Best to remove excess moisture before you submerge them in oil to avoid spattering. We tested a fry or two in the oil to make sure it was hot enough, but generally, the oil should be ready once it starts to steam, but not smoke.

Before starting to fry, have the brown grocery bags ready to dump the fries on. These soak up the excess oil much better than paper towels. We placed the bags in the oven for about 15-20 seconds to sanitize them, since it was already heating for something else. These tricks come from my mother, who is from the South where they know how to deep fry.

We used a medium saucepan for the frying, so we had to do several batches. Don't fill the fry basket with fries or else they'll cook unevenly and the oil will bubble and spatter all over your kitchen. Submerge the fries completely and rotate with tongs while frying. The fries should be ready when they turn golden and seem crispy, which took us about 4-5 minutes.

Let the excess oil drip back into the pot before dumping the fries on the paper bags. There you can salt and pepper them (or use whatever other spices you might like), and dump them on a cookie sheet which you can stick in the oven at a low heat to keep them warm and crisp while the rest fry.

The end result was pretty delicious, and I think we could have used even more fries for the 5 people we were feeding. Mmm!